The San Francisco call., 1898-11-08

In the strange secret history or the ruin of the Pacific Bank the letters or pr. R. H. Mcdonald reveal one or the greatest domestic tragedies that was ever enacted in this State After the old banker had passed three score and ten he found himself ruined and his private fortune in jeopardy In discussing his affairs and those of his son he took no pains in choosing his words. and in his bitter condemnation of his own family he expressed facts that are now of primary public impor- tance.
 The old man in his despair attributed to the immortality of his sons the cause of the impending ruin that was about to come upon both of the great local banks.
 In the letters The Call publishes this morning pr. Mcdonald prophetically warned his son Richard against the men who had surrounded the young banker and were leading him into chi mericaI projects and disastrous specu- lations.s In these letters the old man advised his son particularly to beware of Moses H. Sherman. The arch con spirator had led the Pacific Bank, as the old man dramatically said, into the very jaws of the lion" pr. Me Donald begged his son not to trust this man and to divorce himself as quickly as possible from him and all his in terests. This counsel was reiterated time and again and was unheeded
 The old man also urged his son to be- ware of Dr. William Jenningson, an- other parasite that, like Sherman. had attached himself to the Pacific Bank In the letters that are published this morning there is much of incidental timely interest. In one of his letters the old man forgets his domestic un- happiness, and for the moment seems also to forget his financial troubles, and discusses politics. In the latter part of 1892 M H. de Young appeared to be a most formidable aspirant for the pO sition of United States Senator He had, so people thought, formed an alli- ance with Collis P. Huntington and the Southern Pacific, and expected to be at the following session of the Legislature elected to the United States Senate. Dr. R. H. Mcdonald and M H. de Young had been and were then bitter enemies, and aDr. Mcdonald declared that he would consider the election of M. H. de. Voting to the ~Unf6ed-- States Senate. nothing less than a public calamity. That opinion was given six years ago.. and may have more than timely inter est now.
 In the letters that are given to the public this morning the people of San Francisco will also learn for the first time that it cost pr. R. H. Mcdonald s1OO, 900 to get Clara Belle Mcdonald out of the family This may or may
 
 miIlionaires to secure divorce in the Superior Courts of this county. In the preparation of the divorce proceedings that resulted in the legal separation of R. H. Mcdonald Jr. and his wife a very considerable amount of peculiar de tective work had to be done and the letters that The Call will publish in their proper place will indicate how cleverly and consciencelessly a promi- z nent attorney of this city accomplished the work There is probably in all the secret correspondence of the Pacific Bank no more dramatic letter than that which pr. Mcdonald wrote in vivid description of his dream that his son Richard had been assassinated on the streets of New York.
 THE DOMESTIC TRAGEDY OF .DR
 McDONALD'S LIFE
 It required the father of Richard H. Mcdonald Jr. to denounce him more bitterly and to condemn him more scathingIy than any critic of the young man had ever done. On October g the elder Mcdonald impaled his son with his bitter invectiye and fatherly de- hunciation. It was in discussion of the sons mode, of living and the moral qualities that he had displayed in his relations with men and women The letter possesses a tragic interest, eman- Rting as it does from a source that most men honor and hold inviolably sacred. The old man had telegraphed his son that he had learned of that sons ap- preaching marriage to a woman upon whom the father did not look with fla For. In answer to that telegram which the father included in his answering letter, young Mcdonald hippantly tele- graphed as follows:
 Your telegram a mystery. I nor any one I know of or you know intends marrying at present. might for about five millions. l would not now surren- der my liberty for less than that"
 The elder Mcdonald was evidently stunned by the heartless answer of his