40 



their locomotives, then it is a serious problem. If they can do so and 

 do not attend to it they should be prosecuted. The fires in this town 

 are now under control ; but the engines on the D. & H. R. R. set fires 

 on the mountain south of Port Kent nearly every day. If the train- 

 men on this road make any effort to prevent them, such efforts are 

 of no avail. Their fire screens are not worth a straw, and if the 

 officials of the road don't know it, it is time they did. I venture to 

 say that 100 fires have been set by engines on this road within sight 

 of my residence, a distance of four or five miles. 



Mr. C. A. Jordan, Elizabethtown, Essex county. In regard to my 

 estimate on the value of buildings destroyed I would say that it was 

 made up as follows: Euba Mills, $2,000; house, barn and black- 

 smith shop, $1,000; three tenant houses ($500 each), $1,500; one 

 farmhouse, barn and outbuildings, $1,500; total, $6,000. No fences 

 or bridges of any value were destroyed. 



Mr. James Wood, Schroon, Essex county. I have been putting up 

 posters, and I find that I have a good many fallows to burn, if they 

 don't burn them before they have a right to. The people claim that 

 they can burn on their own land when they have a mind to ; for the 

 law is no good. If that is the case I don't see any need of firewar- 

 dens. But I gave them to undertsand that I should do my duty, and 

 that I would report them. But they said that I could not prove that 

 they set the fire. I told them if the fire was there it was evidence 

 that they started it or knew who did. I told them further that if 

 they did not have a printed permit from me they were liable to a 

 fine. I told them you had written me cranky letters and said for me 

 to report them, and that you would put the law in force. They say 

 you cannot unless the fire goes off their land. I told them it made 

 no difference whether the fire got off their land or not; that they 

 were liable to a fine just the same. I mean to do my duty as long as 

 I am firewarden. 



Mr. Charles Hooper, Westport, Essex county. I spoke to the sta- 

 tion agent at Westport about these railroad fires and he got quite 

 mad about it. He said the railroad was blamed for everything. The 

 agent admitted that he did not think there was anything to prevent 

 the sparks from escaping. Most of the damage is done by freight 

 trains. 



Mr. George H. McKinney, Ellenburg, Franklin county. The fire 

 did not run much until a high wind drove it over a large area. On 

 April 3Oth the wind blew again very hard, and it was then that nearly 

 the whole tract of 500 acres was burned over. The spruce had been 

 mostly cut off, leaving only hardwoods. The fire ran in the spruce 

 tops left in the woods. I could not get men enough to stop it, as the 



