A Season of Destructive Fires
By Editor
The list of fires which have occurred during the past ten days is remarkably large, involving great loss of property, almost from Maine to Florida. The destruction of the Spotswood Hotel in Richmond, we noted last week. This news was followed by accounts of a very extensive fire in Jacksonville, Florida, whereby a large part of the town was destroyed; of the destruction of the United States Hotel, and many other valuable buildings at Valatie, New York; of incendiary fires at Poughkeepsie; of heavy losses by fires in Rochester; and of less notable conflagrations in Newburgh, Hudson, and Glen’s Falls, New York; in Springfield and North Adams, Mass.; in Hartford, Conn.; in Providence, R. I.; Baltimore, Md.; Lynchburg, Va.; Memphis, Tenn.; in Chicago, and elsewhere. Some of these were doubtless the work of incendiaries; and it is to be feared that such a succession of fires will serve to incite further outrages of the same sort. That terrible monomania which sometimes seizes upon individuals and impels them to arson, is very apt to be developed by a series of fires such as has marked the holiday season, and owners of buildings, everywhere, will do well to take extra precautions, or they may find insurance rates rising to an uncomfortable figure.