“TRIED TO GET EVEN
WITH FOSTER PARENTS” 

One would at first think that George Johnson, aged 12, had been reading dime novels of days gone by and with brain afire was acting the part of a desperado. 

In the last issue of the Enterprise was reported the burning of a large barn April 15th on the farm of A. S. Henion, in the town of Duanesburg, west of Quaker Street on the Gallupville road. The cause, at the time, was unknown, but future developments led to the discovery and, according to the county officials, the confession of George Johnson that he set fire to the barn and put carbolic acid in the medicine of Mrs. Henion, with whom he lived. The boy claims as an excuse for his acts that he was scolded by Mrs. Henion on frequent occasions for not doing his chores about the farm. 

He was taken to Schenectady last Saturday and placed in charge of the Humane society. When questioned by Sheriff Manning and Humane Officer McGinn he admitted the acts. He said that the day he set fire to the barn his foster mother had scolded him for not attending to his chores which he said he had done. 

About three years ago George and his sister came to live with Mr. and Mrs. Henion, who took the two children from an institution in Yonkers. It appears that their father was a drinker and the mother had to place the children there for proper care. 

Mr. and Mrs. Henion have no children and they doubtless had in mind acting as foster parents to George and Hazel, who it would seem would naturally assist their benefactors in any small way they could about the farm home. 

George seems to have had a feeling of resentment at Mrs. Henion’s urging him to his daily duties, and one day last week found a bottle of carbolic acid and put some in the medicine he knew Mrs. Henion was taking. It is reported that after doing this he told a neighbor that Mrs. Henion would be sick. Mrs. Henion detected a wrong taste to her medicine and did not swallow but very little, thus saving herself from serious results.
The loss to Mr. Henion in the burning of the barn, hay and over 500 bushels of grain, will be several thousand dollars. It was partially covered by insurance. Had it not been for the timely assistance of neighbors doubtless the house would also have been destroyed. 

SOUTH THOMPSON’S LAKE. 

A large turnout attended the Ladies’ Aid last Thursday at Mrs. Taylor’s. The piecing of a log-cabin quilt was the order of the day. 

VILLAGE NOTES. 

— A ten-ton rock was successfully removed from the premises of the Altamont bakery Wednesday by William Williamson. The rock was at the bottom of the cellar excavation for the new addition to be built on the bakery, and was of such shape that it could not be broken up readily by common methods. Mr. Williamson did the work very quickly by using blasting powder. 

— A horse belonging to Solomon J. Van Auken, while standing loose in front of Secor’s newsroom Wednesday morning, became frightened by a passing automobile and started on a run. The horse went at a mad pace over some of the side streets, and was finally brought to a stop on Main street by Calvin Bushnell. The wagon was quite badly broken up and its contents were scattered along the way. Jacob Van Auken had remarked only a few minutes before that the horse would not run away for anything.