FIRE.

Evening Star, Issue 3838, 12 June 1875, Page 3

FIRE.

The Welsh Harp Hotel and store, the property of Mr John li, Jones, Welshman’s Gully, was completely destroyed by fire on the morning of the sth inat. It appears that on the night of the 4th inst. Mr Jones requested a carter named Brown to look after the place while he went to see his father, who was ill. Brown was then in the room behind the bar (in which also were two servants in Jones’s employ—named Michael Healy and John White) and he heard a noise as of a cat among the glasses, followed by a cry of fire. The three men went outside, and with assistance succeeded in putting out the fire which was on the left hand side of the stable! They returned to the hotel and retired to bed some time after —all three sleeping on the premises. Healey was awoke at about one o’clock by a noise as of heavy rain filling on the roof, and on looking out he discovered the store to be on fire. He immediately gave the alarm, the other men hardly having time :o escape. From Jones’s statement it appears that at eleven o’clock he went out for a quarter of an hour, and on returning heard that the store had been on fire. He visited it several times between that and one o’clock, when he retired to bed but saw no signs of fire. About an hour afterwards he was awoke by cries of fire, and he found the store and house one mass of flame. He was insured in the New Zealand Company for LI,OOO, and estimates his loss at L 1,300. An inquest was held .yesterday and an open verdict returned.

A humorous apothecary in Boston exposes a cake of soap in his shop window, with the pertinent inscription, “ Cheaper than dirt.”