petent to judge of the necessities of such an institution; never inspected the fire apparatus; gave Mr. Demeritt no particular instructions; if anything came up he talked it over with the commissioners; the matter of managing the institution was left wholly to Demeritt; found it absolutely impossible to classify the inmates at the county asylum. He corroborated the statements made by County Commissioner Edgerly.

Frank P. Reeve, county commissioner, said that he never looked at the fire apparatus, but had seen Driscoll using the hose in washing windows; suggested to the county commissioners, Edgerly and Meserve, that the asylum was unfit for the purpose; talked with Driscoll about his drinking; authority divided only in relation to the management of patients; Demeritt was told to visit the asylum and report anything amiss.

Charles E. Demeritt, superintendent of the Strafford County Almshouse, testified that he got his instructions about managing the farm from the commissioners; prepared the food and clothing for the inmates of the asylum, which was about all he had to do with it; formerly had a little trouble with Driscoll, and the matter was referred to the commissioners, and the latter gave Driscoll control over the asylum, but asked him (Demeritt) to look around occasionally and make report of anything wrong; did not know as the help were instructed regarding the use of the hose; did not consider the asylum a part of his business after the difficulty with Driscoll, and so assumed no responsibility about that building afterwards; reported to the commissioners that Driscoll had been away from duty two or three days; in Driscoll's absence, Mrs. Driscoll looked after the inmates; had heard that Driscoll drank, but never saw any signs of it; never saw him about the premises when he appeared to have been drinking; never had any practice in using hose, or any instructions what to do in case of fire, except he gave some instructions to the watchman; some

three or four times the dial did not show that the watchman visited the asylum; it indicated that the watchman did not turn the key on the nine o'clock round on the night of the fire; did not know as he had ever spoken to the watchman about the matter; the watchman called his attention to the fire; at that time the lower part of the building seemed to be all ablaze, and smoke was coming out of the windows; sent for ladders and axes and they were brought from a shed near the stable; never made any suggestions to the commissioners regarding the building; had been fortunate in getting pretty good help; had one man in his employ who got drunk; there was no reason why the watchman could not have taken the keys from their boxes to his own room and there have properly wound the clock; usually took the dials off and threw them into the waste-basket; never thought of showing them to the commissioners; found that the watchman did not always make his rounds as expected; boilers had not been tested since he was superintendent; three inmates of the asylum were supported by private parties; knew that this was in violation of the law; the locks to the cells in the house of eorrection, in the basement of the almshouse, have each a different key; think the protection against fire in the almshouse rather poor; have not drank a drop of liquor for six or seven years; got into an excited condition, could not sleep well, and took chloral to quiet nerves; thought he took too much; followed it daily for quite a number of days; commenced using it some weeks ago, but had not used it for the past four days; stopped using it as soon as he found out its effect; he supposed his appearance of having used liquor was due to the chloral.

William P. Driscoll, the keeper of the Asylum for the Insane, testified that he had been at the institution since seven years last September, and most of the time since had been in charge of the asylum; there were forty-four cells occupied at the time of the fire; each inmate had a sep

arate room; two thirds of the inmates were pretty reasonable at times; food was prepared at the almshouse and brought over to the asylum; the distance from the top of the boiler to the flooring overhead was about twenty inches; there was some sand on top of the boiler; the water-pails were full; inspected them twice a week on an average; had 200 feet of hose; had thrown water up to secondstory windows in washing them with it; told Chesley to get some water and to open the doors, and after that did not remember seeing him; thought if he had not been hindered by Mary LaFontaine he could have stopped the fire; there were four exits from the building; the State Board of Health had spoken of the bad condition of the building; the partitions were shrunken badly, so there were cracks between them; they used to putty them up before they were painted, and some of the inmates would dig it out, and in some places he could put his finger in; the inmates would run spoons and other things through; the watchman informed him that the asylum was on fire; he sprang out of bed and passed him on the way to Mary LaFontaine's cell and unlocked her door; said the blaze when he first saw it was not larger than a bushel basket and burned up in a small flame. Before unlocking her door he immediately unlocked Daly, thinking the latter would assist him, and by that time Mrs. LaFontaine was on his back; he released himself immediately, and threw two pails of water on the fire, then, thinking the fire beyond his control, he proceeded to unlock other rooms; the hose was not used; he thinks he unlocked every door on the first floor, with possibly one exception; the locks were spring padlocks, and it required three different kinds of keys to unlock them; that quite a number of the patients had judgment enough to get out if they could have done so, two thirds, according to his best judgment; he asked Chesley to unlock doors, and he replied, "I will get some help," and that was the last he saw of him until after the

building was burned; was not accountable to Mr. Demeritt for anything; if he did not get food enough for the inmates, it was his place to ask for more; had nothing to do with the quality of the food, only the quantity; Mr. Edgerly spoke to him once about being away from duty; Mr. Edgerly asked him about drinking; he told him that he had drank; he never used liquor about the institution, never drank a drop there while in charge of it; there used to be a fireman at the institution who got drunk; had seen one of the cooks intoxicated; had heard it mentioned that Demeritt drank; heard some of the inmates make that remark; had seen Demeritt when he thought he had been drinking; it was the morning after the fire; some of the inmates of the almshouse had been to Dover and returned under the influence of liquor; thought Mr. Chesley's nearsightedness was against him as a watchman; he was also afraid to make his rounds alone at times; some of the inmates complained of others disturbing them at night; it had been six or eight weeks since he had used any intoxicating liquor; signed the pledge some six weeks ago and had drank nothing since; had no authority over the watchman at the asylum; Mr. Demeritt showed the watchman around, so supposed he had given him full instructions; never showed the watchman anything about the hose; it was right in front of him when he came in; there were two hanging lamps in each corridor; there was nothing to hinder an inmate from breaking those lamps if they were so disposed; every inmate was locked up at night; some of the patients were more or less noisy every night; if he heard a strange noise he investigated it; the woman with the broken hip was strapped to her bed to keep her from getting out; the strap was fastened to a staple in the side. of the building; received attention at night until the leg was knitted, after which she was left alone; watchman was instructed to report anything wrong, but never reported; administered medicine to violent patients if he deemed it

necessary; several of the inmates smoked; Mary LaFontaine smoked once or twice a week on an average; supposed Mrs. La Fontaine set the buildings on fire; think she must have had a match; he gave the inmates matches when they wanted to smoke, and some one of them might have handed her a match; gave them one or two matches at a time.

Wilbur S. Chesley testified that he was hired by Mr. Demeritt to serve as watchman; was recommended by Commissioner Meserve; commenced work the 17th of December last; went through the corridors of the first and second floors at the asylum on each round; did not go into the attic; the night of the fire he went into the asylum about five or ten minutes past nine; this round was not registered on the dial, so must have omitted to use the key; on the next round, about ten o'clock, saw a reflection of fire from Mrs. LaFontaine's room through the glass door of the asylum. Went directly to Driscoll's sleeping-room and told him that the asylum was on fire; he came out immediately, took the keys and began to unlock; told him to unlock the outside door; he had the key to this door only; unlocked the door and went directly to the almshouse and aroused the superintendent and others, then went back to assist at the fire; the fire was so advanced that no one could enter the building; did not know anything about the hose in the building; never received instructions from anybody regarding fire; took his instructions from Mr. Demeritt; did not consider that Mr. Driscoll had anything to do with him; Mr. Demeritt told him about the hose and fire-buckets in the almshouse; never tried the hose; had always been near-sighted; discovered that Mr. Demeritt had used chloral; saw him when ill in his room several times when he appeared stupid; saw him two weeks later in same condition; saw the woman get on Driscoll's back, and saw him disengage himself from her; Mr. Driscoll did not ask him to assist him in getting free