Anarchist Fire Bugs.

April 5, 1889

Their Methods of Fleecing Jersey City Insurance Companies.

Jersey City, April 4.- Bernard Blume the leader of a gang of fire bugs who have been fleecing the insurance companies, was arrested in this city. The method of the gang was to rent a store, put in a small stock and obtain heavy insurance. When preparations were made for the incendiary blaze a lamp would be broken. Near it were placed bladders filled with benzine. Around the bladders was a circle of gun powder, which exploded the bladders, and, like a flash the place would be ablaze, leaving no trace of the incendiary work except a broken lamp to deceive the insurance people. The occupants of the store would be absent, attending a social gathering at the home of one of the other conspirators, to prove an alibi.

Where Blume was located, between the mattresses there were found twenty-two bladders. The gang are anarchists and belong to the Chicago band.

The men were arraigned in Brooklyn to-day. They pleaded not guilty and were remanded without bail until Monday. The men were very nervous while in court.

Information about these men was given Justice Naepr by a man named Frederick Schweltfeiger, of Brooklyn, who admitted having been a member of the gang. the justice at first did not believe the story, but when he learned that the gang had made preparations to burn a house in Harrison, a suburb of Newark, N.J., last evening, he telegraphed the Newark police. A dispatch from Newark stated that a train of powder, etc, had been found at the house referred to,

source: Morning Oregonian
location: Portland, Oregon