The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-06
JAKE owns THE OLD HALL,
Now He Wants to Rent 1t Back
to the City for Good
Money.
A LESSON IN FINANcIERING
Police Ordered to Vacate the Sta
ton, but They Have No
Place to Go.

Jake Rauer paid $6o1Io1 for the old City
Hall building yesterda ", or the material
that composes it, and Immediately began
to negotiate with the City authorities to
rent the old building to them-the City
still occupies it-for, say $1,000. He may
raise the rent to $1,000 if they annoy him
much. AT the very worst he expects to
mulct the City for enough in rents to leave
the building all "velvet'' to him.
He began tearing che historical structure
down yesterday, and preliminary thereto
stepped into the police station quite early
in the day and said to the sergeant in
| charge:
"Well, gentlemen, you will have to get
out of here.''
! "How so?" inquired the astonished SER
geant who for many years has himself
| exerc lsed the exclusive prerogatiye of
ordering people in and out of that building.
"This is my property" said Rauer com
placently, "and must have possession at
once. My men will be here shortly to-
begin tearing his place down."
Now everybody knows Jake Rauer, and
those who know him best will best appre-
ciate how perfectly at home he would be in
situation of this kind and how not all the
kings horses nor all of Crowley's men
would cause him to turn hair or wink a
lash, provided the signature and seals were
ali right upon the bond that made him
master. And those who knew him well
would gamble at long odds that any
bond he took was all right.
Now the City is not ready to move out.
1t needs this down town station. The
Committee on Health and Police recently
arranged to rent the basement and first
floor of the building at 539 California street
for two years for use as police station and
lookup. But it will take months perhaps
to put that or any other building in shape
for the uses to which it is to be put In the
meantime the City sold the old building to
Rauer and placed him under bonds to de-
molish it at once and to have the surface of
the lot clear of every vestige of it within
four months or suffer heavy penalty.
Under these conditions it was that he
peremptorily ordered the City to vacate
yesterday, and by the same conditions the
City could not do so-haying no place
to go.
1t is the old story of the town that was
to build to a new schoolhouse out of the
material of the old and leave the old stand
| ing until the new was completed.
| Rauer may jump up and down and chase
himself around the furniture of his office
when he is alone and the door locked, out
of very enjoyment of this situation, but
to the public view he is very serious and
exceedingly practical man. 1t would be a
very funny joke that would cause him to
laugh in public.
| 1t has been estimated that it would cost
$1,000 to put the California-street building
in shape for a police station and an in
definite length of time.
But MIR. Rauer insists that he is under
bond, and he does not wish to be ham
pered by the presence of the police station.
liFully approaching the embarrassment of
7 the City, Mr.. Rauer coolly offers to rent
the old building to the City for, say, the
$4,000 which it would cost to put the Cali
! fornia-street building in form.
| The figure at which Mr.. Rauer pur-
chased the building was $601 OF. Bids
were received for the building some weeks
ago, it will be remembered, and Mayor
Sutro is in the belief that there was some
collision on the part of the bidders, re-
ieeted them all and advertised again.
Rauer had bid 5000 in round figures on the
first occasion and was the highest of sew
eraI bidders. He was the only one
to bid on the second occasion, and that
time he offered an advance of 81 Oh. The
Mayor held the matter under considera-
ton for some days until Rauer became
impatient and demanded the return of the
| check with which his bid had been accom-
panied, saying that he did not care for the
| contract anyhow.
But then everybody knows Jake Rauer
He is very busy man and seldom makes
bids and things for mere amusement or for
! the amusement of others, either.
The contract was granted to him and
his check was retained in the Mayors safe.
| The papers were very carefully prepared,
scanned and submitted to Mr.. Rauer. He
looked them over and attached his sigma
| ture.
"Now," said he to the Mayor and his
men, "have you people got me all properly
tied up on this thing-tied tight2"
II guess everything is all right" said
| the Mayor and his men, smiling blithely.
"Of course, you understand that under
this contract all the books Spapers and
PUBLIC documents which are stored-two
or three rOOms-on the first floor of the
| building belong to me?"
"Oh, my Godl' said the Mayor, 81 don't
understand any such thing"
III you will read the resolution under
which this bid was made you will see that
it excerpts only the books, papers, etc, To-
Gated on the second floor of the buildingg"
"Send Tor Chief Crowley" said the
Mayor, and when he came the question
was put to him, "What is the character of
the books and papers stored in the first
floor of the old City Hall?'
'"They are the old records of the Police
Department and should be carefully pre-
served"
"Oh, well, said Rauer. "of course they
are worth big money to the City and are
of no value to me-except for what the
price the City might pay me-"
"But you are not going to claim them,
are your" said the Chief
'They belong to me to be sure. but I'll
let 'em go as friend of yours, Chief" said
Rauer.
So that was settled and the records were
saved, but Immediately Rauer began
negotiating with the Police Committee Of
the Supervisors 10 rent them the old build
ing, which they still occupy and which he
| owns.
''The committee has about determined"
he said yesterday, ''that the California
street building, is unsuitable for police
station; also that it is going to be expen-
sive. Now l can rent them my building
for probably half the sum, if it comes to
that, it will cost to fit the other up.
".For the matter of that" he went on,
"the whole matter of temporary quarters
could have been settled without going off
the City's own property, and with scarcely
any outlay. 1t viii be two years at least
before the new building is. ready for occu-
pancy. In the meantime the tanks could
have been shifted to a corner of the City,