The San Francisco call., 1898-05-06
Removed Despite the Protests of One of
 His Daughters. Tried to Wreck the Am bulance That Was to
 Carry Him Away.
Miss Clara Sutro Adopts Despe- rate Measures to Keep Her
 Father With Her.
A SCENE AT THE HEIGHTS
The Guardian Claims She Wants Her Charge Near Her to Give
 Him Better Care.

Adolph Sutro, ex-Mayor and capital tst, who was a few weeks ago declared incompetent to manage his own affairs by the courts, was taken from his home at Sutro Heights yesterday by his daughter and guardian, Mrs. Emma Sutro- Merritt. His removal was some what in the nature of an abduction and it grew out of a family quarrel. The leave taking of the aged millionaire from the home he loved so well had ar exceedingly exciting and dramatic tinge, and it deepened the hatred the members of his family have formed for each other during the past few months.
 Sutro for weeks has been an invalid and during the last month or two he has been unconscious to his surround ings. His daughter, Miss Clara Sutro, and his son Charles have been in al- most constant attendance on him. Yes terday forenoon the daughter was at his bedside attending to his wants when the wheels of 9 carriage grated over the gravelly driveway leading to the door of the quaint residence on the cliffs, and Mrs. Emma Sutro- Merritt announced that she had called to take her father away to her home on Sut. ter street and Van Ness avenue Op- posite the door was an ambulance and behind Mrs. Merritt were two burly men ready to carry out her orders
 Mrs Merritt announced her mission in naughty way and pushed past her sister and beckoned the ambulance men to follow. In vain Miss Clara Sutro protested. She begged and pleaded with her sister to allow her father to remain in the home he built and beautified and loved so much, but Mrs. Merritt was obdurate. The two burly ambulance drivers lifted the old, weak and child ish man in their arms and carried him to the waiting ambulance. The aged millionaire, unconscious of what was going on. prattled on to the men who were carrying him and seemed oblivious that he was being taken from his home for perhaps the last time
 The ambulance men set their burden down in the doorway while they pre- pared the wagon for him. After the horses had been turned heading toward the gateway the men returned for the aged capitalist. They carried him down the stairway in spite of the pleadings of Miss Sutro.
 They were about to lift him into the ambulance through the doorway that opened in the rear of the wagon, when Miss Sutro grasped the whip from the seat of the conveyance and gave the horses a stfnging cut that started them at a gallop across the yard. She hoped to wreck the ambulance and so thwart the designs of her sister and the guar dian of her father until she could sum- mon assistance from her brothers and so keep the declining philanthropist at his home until the end of the few days he has left on earth
 Away the horses went down the driveway, overturning the statuary that peeps from the shrubbery and which has made the Sutro Heights of worldwide fame. The horses, however, trained to drag an ambulance and to avoid obstacles with the vehicle be- hind them made a poor runaway. They circled around the grounds few times and came to a standstill in the main driveway without doing much damage to the rig. There their drivers caught them and soon had them at the door of the residence again. In the ann bulance the feeble old man was placed and he was soon on the way to the resi- dence of Mrs. Dr. Merritt at the corner of Van Ness avenue and Sutter street
 The reasons alleged by Mrs. pr. Mer ritt for wishing to place her father in her own house are that by so doing she will be better able to watch over him and give him such medical care and attention as his condition warrants She claims that as his legal guardian she has a perfect right to llake such disposition of his person as may seem to her best. provided that her desires in this matter do not run contrary to any established social or legal requirements She asserts that her rights in the prem ises are those of parent over a child.
 There are others who profess to be- lieve that Mrs pr. Merritt's motives for wishing to remove her father from his place of asylum at Sutro Heights contemplate something more than a wish to insure his physical comfort. These persons say that the ill-feeIing that is known to have existed for some time between the two sisters has had the effect of inspiring a fear in the mind of Mrs. Merritt that if left in the care of her sister her father might, in his present enfeebled state of mind, be induced to subscribe his name to some document whereby all or a part of his estate would be deeded or willed to those who are antagonistic to Mrs. &eTx.tt's interests