Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1896 — An Attempted Case of Arson [ARTICLE]

An Attempted Case of Arson

*! ■ j, A villianousi attempt was made, Sunday evening, to start a disastrous fire id ihe business district of Rensselaer. The attempt fook place soon after dark, or about 5:30 P. M., and in the rear of Fendig’s drug and which is itself a wooden building, and is surrounded, on both sides, by similar structures. jtt would seem from the appearance of things that some person, evidently familiar with the surround-' ings, had filled a quart can with coal oil, froth a large (ton at the rear of Goff's restaurant, and with this had saturated the rear wall of Fendig’s building, and had then set fire to a pile of old packing hay. which laaty the end of the building, and directly nnder where the coal oil was thrown. Bert Goff was the first to discover the fire, at which time the hay was prettywell b urned out and the wall of the bujflding all in a blaze. He gave the alarm, and in a few minutes, the fire was extinguished by buckets . The room in the rear of whioh the fire was started was filled with old boxes and otner very inflammable material, and bad it not been discovered until a few minutes longer, it would been almost impossible to have stopped the fire until that whole row of wood&n buildings had been destroyed. What motive the person had who started the fire can not be conceived, unless it was the act of some ill-bal-anced individual, with an insane desire to do mischief.