The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-09
The Southern Pacific Company and mexican DAN
Sell A. |. Hart Gold Brick and
Prevent an Expose
Fearing Public Odium for Act Of Ingraude the Senatorial Aspa Bet
the EzAtOrney General and Cheats Him Ont Of
Debt of Honor

TIME lobbies of the hotels were busy
scenes yesterday. when the State leg
'islators gathered after their first
week of work at Sacramento to dis
cliss what had been done and what may
be done in the next few days As a
matter of course, the Senatorial question
was the central, absorbing topic Of con-
versation The legislators have brought
with them from the capital a story of
the Senatorial campaign that certainly is
ss Interesting and perhaps as important
as any that the candidacy of D. NJ.
Burns has provoked. The personality
and career Of Dan Burns do not present
a character study that decent people
care TO inspect, except from necessity.
For the sake of public decency the man
and his methods would be left in obscur-
ity were il not that this knavish pOliti-
clan of evil talents aspires TO a position
that would make him menace TO Cali
fornia and its welfare.
The arrogant pretentiOns of Dan Burns
have revealed him in many guises, but
the whole story of his dishonorable life
has not yet been told. His notorious un-
fitness for public Office has been demon
strated. He left the Office Of Secretary
of State only to cheat the penitentiary
after a desperately fought battle for
freedom. He entered the lobby at Sacra-
mento and made no attempt to disguise
his shameless endeavors to prostitute
the honor Of State officers. He preyed
upon society, and became leader of the
dangerous class Of men who thrive by
bribery of legislators and corrupting
courts. From Sacramento Dan Burns
came to this city to enter the Police Com
OF his evil influence to gamblers, black
legs and thieves. He surrounded himself
with political and social outcasts, and
upon their shoulders he seeks to lift him
self to a public Office where his danger
Gus influence may be more potent. This
is the public Nrecord upon which he bases
his aspirat pms. Discredited in the
State, dishonosed n the city, ne seeks to
add disgrace to his record and shame tc
California in the nation
In private life this man, who demands
right to represent over a million people
in the councils of the nation, cheated, de-
ceived and robbed his friends. Those that
were closest to him felt soonest the sting
OF his ingratitude and the blow of his
moral baseness. In him cunning has been
substitute for cleverness. and when his
debts Of gratitude have not been paid in
slander the obligations have been salts
fled by recourse TO the very courts he
cheated Of their dues.
1t was this remarkable phase Of the
character Of Dan Burns that State Iegis-
lators discussed yesterday with disgust.
In his eager grasping for position that
he would dishonor Dan Burns has befud-
died and cheated the man who saved him
from the penitentiary and the shame of
a convict. In this instance the cunning
Of Burns was not equal TO the task, and
the fox-brain Of W. F. Herrin was pressed
into service. The emergency was one that
demanded immediate action, and this per
haps is fortunate for it shows beyond
the shadow of a doubt that the Southern
Pacific Company, which chose Dan Burns
as the manager of Henry T. Gage is
using all its influence, including that rep
resented in Gage, to place Dan Burns in
the United States Senate.
Legislators know now that Burns is ut