Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1876 — A Bad Fire. [ARTICLE]

A Bad Fire.

“Jones, have you beard of tbe fire that burned up that man’s honse and lot f” “ No, Smith, where was it?” “ Here in the city.” “ What a misfortune. Was it a house f” “Yes, a nice house and lot—a good home for any family.” “What a pity! How did the fire take?” * ‘ The maa played with fire, and thoughtlessly set it himself.” “ How silly! Did yott say the 10l was burned, too!” “ Yes, lot and all. All gene, slick and clean.” ‘ ‘ That’s singular. It meet have been a terribly hot fire—and then I don’t well see how it could burn the lot." “ No, it was not a large fire, nor a very hot fire. Indeed it was so small that it attracted but little attention.” “But how could such a little fire burn up a house and lot? You haven’t told me.” “It burned a long time—more than twenty years—and though D seemed to consume very slowly, yet it wore away about $l5O worth every year, until it was ail gone.” “I can’t quite understand you yet. Tell me all about it.” “ Well, it was kindled in the end efa cigar. Ihe cigar cost him, he himself told me, twelve and a half dollars a month, or (150 a year; and that, io twenty-one years, would amount to $3,150, besides all the interest. Now the whole sum wouldn't be far front SIO,OOO. That would buy a fine house and lot, even in Chicago. It would pay for a large farm in the country.”’ “Whew! I guess now you mean me, for I have smoked more than twenty years; but I didn’t know it cost as much as that And I haven’t any house of my own. Have always rented—thought I was too poor to own a house. And all because I have been burning it up! What a fool I have been!” The boys had better never set a fire which costs so much, and which, though it might be so easily put out, isyct so likely, if once kindlea, to keep burning all their lives.— Pratt»burgh(N. Y.)Neu>t. —A correspondent writes to the Boston Journal-. “Last week ex. Gov. Roland Fletcher, of Proctorsville, Vt., eng raged his dinner on a day fixed, at Tripp’s Hotel, with special seats for four others. He then sent his carriage to the Down Farm, inviting the four inmates of the Poor-house to the luxury of a ride and to dine with him. But the old people there declined the offer, saying they 1 did not want to be gazed at. Bo the venerable exGovernor was disappointed in his kind effort to relieve the monotony of a pauper’s life. We have not learned whether he literally fulfilled the Scriptural suggestion—to go into the street to compel guests to come into the feast prepared for them.” A young woman in: New York has recovered $1,500 damages from the owner of a dog which bit her. . t •