Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1902 — A Fire Alarm. [ARTICLE]

A Fire Alarm.

The fire alarm sounded long and loud about one o’clock this, Wednesday, morning, for the first time in a long time; and there was no real need for its sounding this time. It was caused by the gasoline of the electric cigar lighter, in T. W. Haus’s restaurant getting bn fire in some way wholly unexplainable. The fire burned off the cords and wires supporting the lighter and it fell down on the cigar case, under it. It landed on the rubber change mat, and burning a section out of that about the size and shape of one of Haus’s generous cuts of pie. About this time Christie Vick broke in the front door, and seized and threw out the burning lighter. The damage was confined to the lighter, the rubber mat and the door lock, except a small break in the glass top of the cigar case. Mr. Vibk has a bruised hip, as the resut of using that portion of his mortal frame as an effective battering ram or catapult, or something of that nature, to force the door open. This ingenious expedient on Mr. Vick’s part very likely prevented the destruction of the fine cigar case, and possibly of much more valuable property.