The San Francisco call., 1898-04-22

city and county of San Francisco, State of California to-wit: The duly elected qualified and acting Treasurer of said city and county of San Francisco, State of California, and there by virtue of his said trust as said officer of said city and county there came into his possession and under his control one hundred and fifteen thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine and eighty-one- -hundredths dollars, law ful money of the United States, of the value of $1l5,199 80 lawful money of the United States, and of the moneys and personal property of said city and county of San Francisco. public corporation, formed, organized and existing under and California, and the said A. c. Widber, Treasurer as aforesaid while said money and personal property was in his posses sion and under his control by virtue of ms sald trust as aforesaid. then and there, to-Wit, on or about the 20th day of Aprll, A. D. 1898, at said city and county or ef san Francisco. did willfully, unlaw- propriate the said money and personal property to his own use, contrary to the trust.
 Upon receiving the indictment Judge Belcher made an order for a bench warrant for the arrest of the accused and fixed his bail at s50,O0O.
 me warrant was placed in the hands or Detective seymour, who in turn took 1t to police headquarters and handed II to Chlef Lees.
 contrary to all precedent the Chief uecllhed 10 serve the warrant on Wild Der, who was at that moment confined in the detectives room across the hall. The Chlef said he would make an effort to find the Sheriff and have the war rant served last night, but intimated that the chances were against finding that official
 Widber has been very tenderly treat p6 hU ha iaf civ rest, and 1t was more than likely that the head of the Police Department was not at all ayerse to accepting an ex- cuse that would permit him to allow the defaulting Treasurer to pass an- other night outside of prison cell.
 1t was remarked around the City Hall yesterday that had the police arrested some one who had stolen ten dollars instead of an official who had a. pro- priated more than $1OO,000 the culprit would have been bundled into a prison cell at once and with scant ceremony. In the present instance Chief Lees has gone out of the way and stretched his authority to it's fullest limit in order to shield Widber from the ignominy that is the legitimate fruit of discover ed criminality.
 The head of the police department has even taken it upon himself to ad- wise those who know something of W1dber's official misconduct to say nothing and r on their knowledge to themselves. In one instance threats were made against a witness who had a very intimate knowledge of the de- tails of the wide swath cut by Wid- Der in the tenderloin. The witness was a woman and she was threatened with all sorts of prosecutions and prosecu- tions if she permitted herself to allow her knowledge to become public.
 Thomas A. McGowan, the attorney. who is credited with havin handled the major portion of the money lost by Widber at the race tracks, was sub penaed as a witness by the Grand Jury yesterday afternoon, but was not called upon to testify. As soon as he was excused from further atten lance he went to police headquarters and asked and obtained permission to see Widber. What passed in the interview between the two men is not known.
 McGowan now admits having been interested with \ .dber in matters per taining to the race course, but declines to state to what extent.
 Widber on hij part declines to men tion any names. and positively refuses to disclose the identity of the man who acted as his race track commissioner. It is, however, 8 matter of very con-