A Tall Yam

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 69, 11 December 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

A Tall Yam

The following astounding story -was published in the San Francisco Bulletin as a telegram from the town of Stockport, dated October 14ih last. We should think the circumstance did create intense excitement ; and although it reads " yaroily," there may be more truth in it than the 11 quid nuncs" are prepared to admit. We live an age of queer eventualities. The telegram said:— Willie Brough, twelve years old, who created excitement among superstitious people near Turlock by apparantly setting fire to all objects by his glance on Sunday last, and who is held responsible for the destruction of 9,000 dol. worth of. farm property, has been expelled from the Madison county school, near Turlock, on account of his wonderful freaks. After Sunday's fire Brough's family refused to have anything to do with him, believing him possessed of a devil. The boy was taken in by a farmer and scut to school. On the first day there weve five fires in the school — one in the centre of the ceiling, one in the teacher's desk, one in the teacher's wardrobe, and two on the wall. The boy discovered all, and cried from fright. The trustees met and expelled him that night. One Turlock insurance agent has given notice that he will cancel all policies on property occupied by the boy. The neighborhood cf Turlock is in a furore of excitement above the mystery*