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Show mmm sbvs he has : i-i!5I8rir-f G0D,T0 .- . ; . : r i- " What kind of a mission t" he was ked. , . "The Lord. has given me a certain mission to perform," Finney is said to have replied. - . - . "Yon would not set fire to a tenement tene-ment house, would you t" asked the policeman. ' "I certainly would," Finney Is said to ,havii' answered. "I would chastise and cleanse them- by fire." "Were you at the fire at Twenty-third Twenty-third street yesterday morning?" "No." was Finney's reply, "but I was told about it by the Lord. I was to the fires in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Eight-eenth streets." - The police declare that the boy confessed con-fessed to setting fire to the tenement house at 330 West Seventeenth street yesterday morning. He is quoted by the police as saying he was passing 330 West Seventeenth street when the Lord told him to cleanse and chastise them by fire. He went into the hallway, he is said to have told the police, and piled a lot of paper against the gas jet, and set fire to the place. Finney Jives with his widowed mother not far from where he was arrested. NEW YORK, ' Nov.r. 23. -Walter fJ Finney, 23 years old, who, the police declared, has informed them that he has a mission from the Lord to ''cleanse and chastise by fire," was arrested today to-day charged with setting the series of fires which created consternation and did considerable damage in the vicinity of Twenty-third street and Eighth avenue early yesterday. The poice say that Finney has confessed con-fessed that he set one of the fires and that he was present when several of the other houses were burning and also at numerous fires in the upper West Side withm the past few weeks. Finney was arrested in the hallway of a tenement tene-ment house in Seventeenth street, near Eighth avenue today. His strange antics an-tics had attracted the attention of a policeman po-liceman who followed him when he en-teied en-teied the hallwa. of the house. "What are you up tot" asked the policeman. ' . "Leave me alone," replied Finney. "I walk around a great deal and some time go as far as Seventy-fifth et'c?-' Two detectives who had trailed Finney Fin-ney and the policeman say they entered the hallwav just in time to hear Finney tell the policeman that he had a mission to perform. ' 1 ' ' |