The San Francisco call., 1898-01-07
A JOURNALISTIC PASTOR.
He Comes in the Gospels Guise to Serve the Fleshly World.

He Comes in the Gospels CuiSe
 to Serve the Fleshly World.
 SAN QUENTIN, Jan. 6.-When MT and Mrs. Durrant arrived at the prison at about o'clock, having come in hack from San Rafael. they were accompanied by Parson Davis of Oak land, his pretended mission being to offer spiritual consolation to the con- demned and incidentally, as was gen orally supposed, to gather such infor- nation as might be useful to a morning paper of interruptions methods. He was inside for an hour or more, and when his fat face appeared again it was pale and pasty.
 He was at once besought to tell of his interview, no real newspaper men having then had access to the con- demned. Before the worthy parson could reply he was caught by a gang | of ruffians, among them at least two ! prizefighters, and hustled into the wait 1 ing hack. The father of the pris- | oner was with Davis, and a reporter | of the paper had been concealed in the hack.
 Mir. Durrant during the brief scene exclaimed, Have you no respect for a minister of the gospels"
 Nobody responded in the affirmative, but Davis, with his silk hat awry and his face paler and pastier than ever, rolled from the prison door. The prize fighters exchanged congratula- tions, but over what did not appear, as there was nothing gained by their display of ruffianism, the arrangement being that if the representative or one paper should be admitted all the other papers should be similarly favored, and this was fully carried out, no morning paper being denied.
 Immediately upon returning from San Francisco, after having been in- structed by the Attorney General to proceed with the hanging, warden Hale announced that Durrant might see one representative in turn rom each daily newspaper. Durrant had | expressed a desire to talk to the re-
 porters on the previous evening, but the Warden had declined to grant them admission because of the especial re- quest of General Dickinson that none be allowed to talk with him. With the
 decision of the Attorney General that
 the execution was not stayed by the
 bin of exceptions filed in the Superior
 Court. he further advised that Durrant
 should be permitted to meet tonight
 such reporters as he desired to inter
 view him.
 
 in this respect would be rendered i'm
 possible by the interruptions method:
 common to the San Francisco newspa- per that has been contributing so mucf maudlin and hysterical literature t( the revolting features of this case. At the first break the journalistic minister and his packers. made to reacl Durrant, objection was made on th' ground that the so-called minister O. the gospel was in reality serving as { newspaper reporter in disguise. Th' 7 charge was justified by the assertion of one of the men having him il } charge, made to a friend who tried t visit him at the headquarters of thi
 degrading conspiracy. You can't SCI him; we have him under contract" Upon having the design brought t ? their attention the prison officials in : sisted that the new spiritual advise . should have no special newspaper priv t ileges, and that if he was taken t Durrant any other reporters whom [ the condemned man desired to SC should be admitted to the screen. Fi : nally the Durrants, taking alarm a
 the tempest raised, for all the othe
 newspaper representatives had com t bined in protest. agreed that & repre- l 1 sentative of each newspaper should b l granted an audience.
 } Mrs. Durrant staid with her son un 3 ] til after the last interviewer had de 3 parted, coaching him throughout. Sh 9 left the jail at 11:22 and Durrant i'm mediately after she had gone threN 1: himself on the couch to sleep an ! dream of the morrow
 The latest word received privatel g from the death chamber tells that h
 was utterly downcast and wretched be e fore his mother arrived tonight. Sh