The Story of a Reformer's Wife an Account of the Kidnapping Of
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· ; McCLURE'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATED PUBLISHED MONTHLY VOLUME XXXIII MAY TO OCTOBER 19°9 S. S. MCCLURE COMPANY NI:w YORK & LONDON \ 1909 I would close my C'y,.~ When he put III arms around me ;11111 kissed me, I gave iii, I promised. I forgol everything thai mother had said. I forgot this old hOII\\1 STOR Y 0 FAREFORMER'S WI FE of ours. .I took hi, face in my hands. I ACCOUNT OF THE KIDNAPPING OF FREMONT OLDER, ran myfingersthrou"h his hair. Itwas swe2, THE SHOOTING OF FRANCIS J. HENEY, AND oh, so sweet, daddy! THE SAN FRANCISCO DYNAMITE PLOTS - and so wonderful!' "I told her yes. I BY MRS. FREMONT OLDER knew all aboutit. YOII know what I said III ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS you, Norrbin, about nightslikethat? Heh? So, soon after, Shl HAT was, the motive of sale; the town cynically smiled; Ruef, they went away - back 10 the San Francisco Graft said was a smart fellow. The public prints her own home. TonI Prosecution? has been re were silent. Mr. Older, however, was not si has been to see m' peatedly asked, Why was lent, and San Francisco smelt the first smoke too. 'They are reall; it started? Was it a busi- of the Graft Prosecution when the Bulletin at happy. After a whil s revenge of Rudolph Spreckels?, For the tacked Schmitz and Ruef. they will come when son that I have been in the closest possible With the Mayor's reelection, in '903, by an Sophie is here, and it ciation with the investigation from its be increased majority, he obtained control of all "HER MOTHER FORBADE HER TO GO" will be all rightagain." ning, and have lived through the fever and the commissions; hitherto these had been held "I hope so," I said b of its successes and failures, I have been by ex-Mayor Phelan's appointees. Now the work it o.ut, somehow. Lillie will probably do ". to Jansen. ed to write what I know of its history. large graft began; the saloons sold"municipal" as she thmks bes.t, I should imagine." " For a whIle, ~or a while," he said, patiently. When, in '901, Eugene Schmitz was elected whisky; Chinatown paid heavy tribute to the He nodded as If he agreed with,me. "When When they beg~n to have their own children, !Y0r on the Union-Labor ticket, little was police; the administration profited from the h you come .b~ck again we shall probably know." th0.ug , that WIll make a difference. Then wn of him save that he was the weIl-look earnings of the women of the dives. Mr. Well, LIlhe married. The old m' an t ld their own troubles will come, and they will leader of an orchestra. Fremont· Older, Older, believing these to be the facts, not only "Sh' a me' e came In to see me, her old father, lat~ have to .look after themselves. Then our managing editor of the Bulletin, however, daily criticized Schmitz and Ruef, but as early troub.les WIll come thicker. Who ,knows wher red in the common belief that the new as this he had the idea of bringing about a oneh" afternoon. here. I was sitting I'n th'IS very c air, Just hke this. Her mother was out at we wIll go? What our end will be?" yor's political manager, Abraham Ruef, for Grand Jury investigation. He was not long, the stores for a long time. Lillie ran across It was tru~. Not long after the old man had rs had walked the tight rope of anti-social however, in. discovering that this body, as the. floor and fell on her knees with her h~ad t? take to hiS bed with some sort of trouble ill me, and had approached close to the gates drawn in '904, consisted of Schmitzes and agamst my breast. She was so happy! She hiS back. The dreaded doctor bills! And tl . San Quentin. Even at that time Ruef's Ruefs. The boss was master of the many ,,:as so happy that I cried and she cried and we older.boy t~isted his foot and could not wor~~ low-conspirator in substituting a!l heir Was ways in which the slips of paper on which the ?ne,httle thing after another like that F' II ing a term in prison. Although during names were written could be juggled. Never l<ISsed each other and sat still. Then she laid I t L'll' ' ma y, three dollars and a half in my lap and 'd' n Ime, I Ie had her first baby. "Her own campaign the Bulletin did not support theless, Mr. Older determined that for once the '" I' sal . b a~ gOing to bring that to you, old trou les had come," The old" Jansen famil mitz, Mr. Older thought kindly of him and Grand Jury should consist of good citizens. laddy, Just for yourself, every week. Tom moved somewhere else where the rent W'I~ Ired to see him make himself a national Mr. Symmes, the president of the' Merchants' and I between us make seventeen dollars and cheaper. That is all . Except that L'll'I Ie sent• re as a Union-Labor Mayor. The editor, Association, was asked by the editor to accom a half. It is fine! The first money I me a Chnstmas card when I was in New York vlng a slight acquaintance with Schmitz, pany him to the court-room where the drawing I dl H" ever 1a" B ~ gIves me hiS wages every Saturday.' She Was very proud of her baby, it said. ' t word to him by a friend that he could not was to take place. The two men stood over s' ut It was not that that she had come to rd an aIliance with a corrupt force like the box containing the written names and took , .me a~out. She had come to set herself Norrbin finished in a somewhat excited man f, and warned the new Mayor that Ruef care that they were not gummed together. ~tralght ner and looked around. .'WIth me her father.Sh eh a d come uld bring about his ultimate political ruin. The result of the morning's work was the ,~ ,ml?ht say, to confess. ' ."A very interesting, perhaps pitiful case" hmitz's answer was to write a letter to the Andrews Grand Jury. It was a group of men ald sh the Doctor. "But not a case for phil :II;. papers, publicly proclaiming Ruef his ready to do their duty; but the District Attor I Just had to, daddy,' she said.. I It rna t ropy." . Thave been the moonlight. It may have been Y nt. To announce this was to h'oist the ney was spineless and complaisant. am. It may have been something inside of "Philanthropy? No," announced the J ud,,',' k flag of the buccaneer. Frequently the Bulletin charged that the. ~11 th~t was pulling. I would turn and look confidently. :'That Jansen case is being tak~11 t first it was little, squalid graft - black Chinese gamblers were bribing the police to ca~e ~n t hiS eyes, in the Shadow, daddy, and all of by a higher philanthropy -I mean till' lling gamblers and the nether world; one secure'immunity from arrest; the police com at once my blood would rush through me, and phIlanthropy. of Nature herself. There are I"" lllid f el graft, breathe it, do all but see and missioners back-fired the attack by summon many such families." rov it. The town knew everythin was for ing Mr. Older before them for the purpose of 277 THE STORY OF A REFORMER'S WIFE investigating his source of information. Al or distributed; it should not exist. To this though the editor induced Sergeant Ellis of end he organized a band of thugs who called the Chinatown squad to confess and to lay themselves newsboys. Carriers were assaulted; thirteen hundred dollars blackmail money upon they afterward voted for Schmitz. Merchants the desk in the Grand Jury room, no indict were struck with stones and bricks for buying ments could be obtained. the paper; they afterward voted for Schmitz. , The Bulletin was becoming too active for Windows were broken in the Bulletin office. the mental tranquillity of Ruef and Schmitz. Horses were unhitched from the delivery Mr. Crothers, the proprietor, and Mr. Older wagons. Men were maimed for life. The police received letters threatening their lives. One looked the other way. Mr. Older was followed evening, as Mr. Crothers was passing through to the very door of the Palace Hotel by a howl an alley on his way to the Bulletin office, he ing mob which threw sticks and stones at him. was waylaid, felled to the ground, and'left for The deputy ~heriffs who were called in looked dead; this was the first casualty in the battle the other way. Some old women at length for good government. ventured to hold the paper up in the streets. Intimidation and violence, however, could They alone were able to dispose of a few copies. not alter the policy of the Bulletin.. The fol but even purchasers- were assaulted. When lowing day both Mr. Crothers and Mr. Older the Bulletin organized a body of men of its engaged body-guards; in an editorial they an own, there was daily fighting in the streets; nounced that the fight would go on until an but only in this way, after a loss of many thous honest government was installed in the city.