4 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



fires occur which are never reported; still, there can be 

 no question that during the five years that the fire warden 

 law has been in operation there has been a growing exer- 

 cise of care against forest and prairie fires. 



PUNISHMENT FOR CARELESSLY CAUSING FIRES. 



A few persons have been convicted the past year for 

 carelessly causing fires. Fire wardens, however, are re- 

 luctant to institute criminal proceedings; and it is natural 

 that they should be unwilling to make criminal complaint 

 against a man who, perhaps, will be their neighbor or 

 townsman through life. Still, men who accept official 

 trusts should have courage to discharge them faithfully. 

 Communities often feel that a man is being wronged if 

 he is prosecuted; they do not stop to think that the prin 

 cipal object of punishment is to deter others from com- 

 mitting similar offenses. Very good people are liable to 

 •be careless, and when we punish a man who, in a heedless 

 and careless spirit, sets a fire in very dry and windy 

 weather, which he ought to know he cannot control and 

 which destroys or endangers the property of others, he 

 should be made an example of; not for revenge or because 

 we wish to injure him, but as a warning to many others 

 to refrain from doing the same. Take the case of Will- 

 iam Daw who, in the town of Rusheba, Chisago County, 

 in the early part of January last, when the ground was 

 bare, the weather dry and very windy, set brush fire with 

 only himself to control it and which spread and destroyed 

 nearly two thousand dollars worth of hay and other prop- 

 erty belonging to his neighbors. Daw owned a farm of 

 eighty acres, which, with buildings, implements, live 

 stock (not exceeding thirty-six head) and forage for the 

 same, are all (and it is not too much) exempt from execu- 

 tion. Not a dollar of his property could be taken in pay- 

 ment of any of the damage which he had caused. He 

 could fold his arms with indifference. The chairman of 



