A DASTARDLY PLOT.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 289, 30 July 1908, Page 7

A DASTARDLY PLOT.

CROWDED CHURCH SET ON EIRE. After terrorising the people of Berlin by causing over five hundred fires during the past two months, Berlin’s mysterious band of incendiaries have conceived the crowning iniquity of burning down a church. The dastardly attempt took place at the Whit Monday Mass in a Catholic church crowded with worshippers, and a panic which must have cost many lives was only averted by the coolness of half-a-dozen priests.. The determination - of the incendiaries was revealed by the finding of twelve firebrands, soaked with petroleum, distributed at yarious points in the roof, which was the first portion of the church to take fire. The building which it was planned to destroy was the St. Paul’s local house of worship of the Dominican monks in the Moabit quarter. The mass was nearing its end when word was brought to Eather Bonaventura, the celebrated monk who was to preach, that the church was on fire. Calmly surveying the congregation, who at that moment were kneeling in silent prayer, Eather Bonaventura tip-toed over to a fellow priest, who was the main celebrant, and* asked him to declare the service abruptly at an end. The roof of the building was by that time already aflame, and the fire brigade was on its way to the church. Eather Bonaventura 4 and : the other - priests then calmly, descended* from the altar, wolked down the different aisles, and in quiet whispers suggested to each pewful of people that they had better leave. With splendid discipline, the worshippers, including hundreds of women and children, filed out of the building without the semblance of a panic. The first to jjeacK the street found the fire already preparing to at- | tack the flames, which were I quickly subdued.