The Neighborhood Feud that Sparked a Arson Investigation

Mr. Radebaugh, editor of the Tacoma News, has made complaint against his neighbor, F.S. Ailing, with a view to binding him over to keep the peace. The paper has printed the testimony to the extent of eight columns, and from it one is compelled to believe Ailing a troublesome neighbor and bad man. The offensive character of the man is plainly shown in the testimony, one witness, S.B. Alvey, who formerly owned the Radebaugh place, testifying as follows: He had known defendant since 1874; lived in the same section with him on an adjoining eighty; reputation that of a dangerous man; that defendant let my fences down, and his hogs got into a valuable garden of mine and destroyed it. I asked him to take his hogs off of my premises, and he became indignant; he went away apparently very angry; he did not speak to me for a long time, and the next season he let the fence down when I was away. When I found my garden destroyed I thought I would stop up the passage, and I cut the timber so it fell across the road that Ailing admitted that he let the fence down, and pretended that he had done so innocently to let a wagon through that Ailing had a lot of cedar bolts and shingle timber hauled away from witness' land; that he had cut a bee tree which he knew was the property of witness; that during the temporary absence of himself and family from the home adjoining Ailing's place, his (witness') house was set afire and destroyed; that having investigated all the facts and circumstances of the case he came to the conclusion that Ailing had set it, that Ailing was the only enemy he had in the neighborhood; that, in effect, Ailing had been the first to point others to the ruins, and attributed the fire to Indians, whereas, as it was subsequently learned, there had been no Indians in the neighborhood.