The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-06

election. When the prospects of the gen.
eral ticket began to grow less bright, Van
Guelpen believed that he would be success
fully carried through by the association OF
mis- name with that of Mayor Sutro, and he
used all the money that was available.
Since that time be has been trying to re-
deem himself, but the business universities
OF men who had promised support in the
event Of failure at the election prevented
him from more than tiding his affairs
along from time to time, and recently he
saw that there was not only no opportu-
nifty Of squaring up his accounts, but that
the deficit would be discovered at pend
ing expert examination Of the books.
Last S anday the secretary closed up his
safe ana went away. He stated at the
Office that he was going out into the coun-
try, and he engaged man to take his
place on Monday, the National Labor day.
When he locked the safe he told nobody
the combination. The safe has not yet
been opened, and the substitute secretary
is still in charge.
No suspicion was aroused Tuesday morn
ing when Van Guelpen failed to arrive at
the expected time. There were many in
quiries for him during the day. and
Wednesday morning the members of the
union began to suspect that something
was wrong. Yesterday there was talk of
ClEdT-Uldk6TS
knew that the secretary was not addicted
to drinking, and that he had never stayed
away for any such reason, and they
thought that if he had been detained in
the country on account of accident or i'll
ness he would have sent word to the man
he had left in charge.
No trace of the man could be found in
San Francisco and nobody knew to what
place III the country the secretary had
gone.
The whole secret of the disappearance
has been made known, however, by a letter
that the secretary left for one of his per-
sonal friends. In that letter he admits
that he has made use of the money re-
ceived by him as secretary of the union,
amounting to 5000 or more, and that he
became involved in the trouble by making
use of the funds in his campaign last
November.
He stated that he was to start for Vic
toria Sunday morning and that from there
he would go to Montreal. He would locate
wherever his opportunities seemed best
and as soon as he could get money enough
TO return to San Francisco and clear up
the deficit in his accounts he would come
here and make full statement of the
case to his former associates.
Further, he declared that he would never
have got into the difficulty but for his am
bition in the election. He said he was con-
uuSilI Oh SuCCeSS, even up 10 me Qay OF
election, and his friends in and out of the
Cigar-makers' Union urged him to make
the strongest fight possible. He was con-
fdent of polling the entire labor vote of
the City, as for many years he had been a
prominent officer in the labor organiza-
tons of the City. He used all the money
that was available, and on the morning
after election he found that he was hope
lessly in debt
His friends had promised to aid him, if
necessary; but after his defeat it was i'm
possible to obtain any AID from them.
Some small temporary loans were OBJ
tanned and the secretary managed to make
his accounts appear all right for nearly
year; but last week he knew the books
were to be exported and that the exact con-
dition of affairs would become known. He
had no means of settling or compromising
with the union, and concluded that the
best thing he could do would be to get out
of the way for the present. He had
thought at first OF going to South America,
but believed that there it would take him
longer to acquire money enough to meet