The San Francisco call., 1898-12-27
WHITTIER BOARD
 IS UNDER FIRE Los Angeles Grand Jury Investigating. SOME SENSATIONAL TALES HIGH LIFE AT THE STATES
 EXPENSE. Chapel Converted Into an Opera House and Sumptuous Living
 Apartments Main
 tained.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

The inquiry is not formal affair, such as have always permitted extensive
 preliminary preparations. The obJect
 Is to obtain practical results and to | find out just what really has been ac- complished by the present management | of the school With this end in view members of the jury have recently
 been in the habit of dropping into the | institution singly and in pairs. There
 fore when the report of the jury Is filed it will contain several chapters of more than ordinarily interesting read | ing.
 Several of the former inmates of the
 school have recently been before the
 jury and others have been summoned.
 The testimony that they have given
 under oath so far is stated to have l been of a sensational character. The managers of the school are charged with incompetency. To sup port these allegations the riots among male pupils eighteen months ago are recalled. The trouble at that time was
 due to a determination of the man.
 agement to do away with the annual outing of the inmates of the school at | Catalina. Major Harry w. Patton was at that time a member of the board of trustees and advised the board to order
 the larger boys, who were the ring leaders in the rebellion against the | school management, sent to one of the | State penitentiaries, either at Folsom or San Quentin. Major Pattons advice l was not followed, although the laws give the trustees the power to do what 1 had been recommended.
 Although 1t is openly charged that | thousands of dollars have been spent | for what are said to have been frivo-
 lous purposes proof has been forth coming that the food has been both in- 1 sufficient and of poor quality.
 Attention is called to the fact that
 large sums of money have been spent for the conversion of the former school chapel into regular opera-house with private boxes and drop curtain of the most approved pattern. This drop cur
 tain is said to be work of art, which cost the State nearly $500. Painted on
 the curtain, as its chief charm, is a
 picture of the handsome home of MT.
 and Mrs. John w. Mitchell, which is | located in Cahuenga Valley Mrs.
 Mitchell, who was appointed by Cover nor Budd, Is president of the Whittier board of trustees.
 The theater was not erected with the
 assistance of school labor. Outsiders did all the work under special con-
 tracts. A high-priced Italian artist is l alleged to have done the painting and decorating.
 Several entertainments have been given in the theater President Mitchell was usually the life of the festivities
 There'n Be a Hot Time in the Old
 Town Tonight" on more than one oc-
 caslon is said to have been the feature
 of the programme, with Mrs Mitchell
 as the vocalist Special artists. paid by the State, have been employed at these concerts. President Mitchell firm
 ly believes that soothing effects of
 music tend to reform the degenerate youth of both sexes. "Pinafore" Gil-
 bert and Sullivans opera, is at pres ent in rehearsal at the school and will
 be produced some time in January. The charge has been made before the Grand Jury that the best specialists in
 the school have left the institution in | disgust. Among those who have re-
 signed are Miss Florence Simpkins, H- brarian, who was a member of the school staff for years; Professor Hether- ington, the school statistician and his torian; Miss Basyl Ford; Miss Anna Graham, a teacher: w. J. Carlisle, a
 nephew of Trustee William Rowland.
 who is stated to have been one of the
 best captains the school ever had, and
 w. R. Mcintosh and Thomas Donahue, who were captains of the company. Their places are said to have been filled by pets" of the present man. agement. Among the newest appointees is Louis Tappiner, who was formerly the private secretary of John w Mitch ell, and one ArfaredSon, an English man who has never been naturalized
 The Grand Jury has been told that President Mitchell of the board of trus- tees has, for weeks at a time been
 living in the school at the expense of the State, frequently with friends and
 servants, and sometimes alone. The president of the board has her own pri- vate apartments in the school, which are sumptuously fitted for her use whenever she desires to occupy them. It is alleged that since the resigna-
 tion of Mrs. Edward R. Threlkeld as the head of the girls department of
 the school the female end of the insti-
 tuition has been in chaos. Escapes. it
 Is said, are more or less frequent. the
 girls at times leaving the school in the
 company of boys and being sometimes found a few days later hungry and footsore in the outbuildings of some of the farmers a few miles from the
 school. Mrs. Threlkeld was dismissed from the school without notice on the alleged ground of economy. At the trustees meeting which brought about the change the salaries of several other attaches of the school were raised. The charge against Superintendent Van Alstyne is that he is insincere. that he has a bad temper, and that as far
 as his present position is concerned he Is entirely irresponsible. The inmates
 and officers of the school refer to Su- perintendent Van Alstyne as "Gumpy ,, Members of the Grand Jury have
 been informed that the escapes from
 the school under it's present manage
 ment have exceeded in number the to-
 tai escapes in the history of the insti- tuition from the day of it's opening. and
 will probably equal the present total
 membership of the boys department
 Many of these escapes are returned inc
 expense to the State being from sl0 to $200 for each inmate brought back Some are caught in Arizona and New
 Mexico and the State is compelled to
 pay their railroad fares and the ex
 penses of the peace officers bringing them to Los Angeles.
 A particular phase of the school man
 agement that is being investigated is the alleged awful immortality which ex ists in the male department
 A11;oroa yuor4-