The San Francisco call., 1898-12-26
BASE INGRATITUDE SHOWN
 COLUMBUS WATERHOUSE
He Was the Man Who Put Him on the Road to Make an Honest Fortune.
 Burns Imprisonment.

D. NJ. Burns, who by the grace of the Southern Pacific Company seeks to step from a Mexican dungeon onto the floor of the United States Senate is known by reputation to every man, woman and child in California. That reputation he flaunts in their faces with all the effrontery of a painted denizen of the slums.
 Burns first sprang into -unenviable notoriety when he retired from the of flee of County Clerk of Yolo County short in his accounts to the extent of $2500, which his bondsmen made good Burns afterward reimbursing them This portion of his career was referred to on the occasion of a mass meeting in Metropolitan Hall about four years ago by Captain E. Blennerhassett, who used this language:
 In the seventies Burns dropped into Yolo County. a plausible fellow who would pat you on the shoulder and tell you that it was "all right" They elected him County Clerk. I will tell you what occurred. Dur ing his administration of the office of County Clerk, Burns of Yolo became de- faulter to the amount of, I think. S2500, and he was arrested and put in the jug and kept there until his bondsmen took nln out. ] can prove InlS assertion, ana if MT. Burns desires to arrest me for libel he can do so. l am not afraid of him.
 Afterward Burns became Secretary of State and while occupying that po- | sition became a defaulter to the ex- tent of $31 900. He fled to Honolulu but afterward returned and was tried. but escaped conviction on the plea that the money was stolen by his deputy,
 
 having been acquitted of the same charge, his defense being that Burns was the defaulter. Burns confessed that he falsified the books of his office to cover up the shortage.
 After his acquittal on the criminal charge Burns was sued by the State for the recovery of the money, but he took advantage of the statute of limitations and on that plea evaded payment. He still owes that gum of money to the State.
 But Burns was not through with his dishonest methods. While penniless and still overwhelmed with the disgrace of his official misconduct he was picked up by one man when all others spurned him, sent to Mexico, placed in charge of a mine and was given a fair start on the road to honest fortune. But he chose the shorter cut, and by every art of duplicity succeeded in robbing his friend and benefactor of property worth millions, though not without having on several occasions adorned the interior of Mexican prison.
 Now he is at large again. and for purposes of it. own the Southern Pa cific is striving by every means at it's command to place Burns in the United States Senate.
 It is not a pleasant task to spread the infamy of a man before the world, but The Call owes it to the people of Cali forni to expose his dishonesty in all it's phases. that the country may know what manner of person this gigantic corporation is endeavoring to place in one of the highest of offices.
 Burns record in California is known to all; it is the full story of his theft of the famous Candelaria mine in Mex leo and the robbery of his stanchest