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Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 118, 17 May 1909, Page 7

William Re^dy, a youth of eighteen, employed in the canning department of the Standard Oil Company's works, New York, had an a biticn to bscome one of .the big officials of the "hundred million'dollar trust." He confessed recently (says the Daily Telegraph) that, in the hope of fulfilling that ambition, he started twentynine fires in the Oil Trust's great factories within two years, hoping chat his superiors would notice him when he always appeared at the head of fire extinguishers as soon as he had applied the match. He expected to be promoted as a hero, but was arrested. The young incendiarist's exploits are believed to have cost the Standard Oil Company more than £60,000 in burned buildings and oil, and a dozen firemen and employees have been injured. Reddy played his scheme with success until the canning department was burned, with £2000 loss. Until then no one suspected him, but all his immediate employers were loud in praise of his bravery. Even the superintendent of the factory complimented him, and promised him'that he would be rewarded as soon as there was a vacant place. In every one of the twenty-nine fires Reddy was the first to give the alarm, and the first to render assistance in the extinction of the fire.