Daily inter mountain., 1900-05-16
WHY SMITH
LEFT HOME
FINE ITALIAN HAND OF TOM
KINDS SEEN IN THE COVER
ERNoR's ABSENCE.
AND KINDS WIRED: KEEP
YOUR SEAT Mr.. CLARK" !"
Took the Governor to California to Pass
Upon Title to Mining Prop
erty-Was It PlotP

That is the substance of the telegram
alleged to have been sent to Washington,
d. c., last night by Tom Kinds.
Tom Kinds is entertaining Governor
Bob Smith in California. At least he was
endeavoring to entertain the governor
until the latter received the dispatch from
the leader of the Anaconda democracy to
! hurry home as it was feared Acting Gov
ernor Spriggs would appoint w "A. Clark
to seat in the United States senate.
Governor Smith is said to be en- route
| home as fast as steam can carry him.
The news of the appointment of Senator
W. A. Clark was received in Butte about
8 O'Clock last evening. To the friends Of
the senator the action of Acting Govern
or Spriggs was no surprise, but it was a
severe shock to the adherents of the Ana
conda wing of the democracy. During the
day they had been moving heaven and
earth to stave off the execution Of
Sprggs' project until today and the lat
ter had apparently acquiesced.
1t was the cleverest coup d'etat in the
history of politics in Montana. 1t is diff
ficult to ascertain who planned it but
; through it all the fine Italian hand Of
Tom Kinds is visible and his friends here
| believe that it was due to his skill that
Governor Bob Smith walked into the trap
If trap it was. While hundreds of peo-
pie express the belief that the governor
was not an innocent party to the deal,
there are many Others who believe that
the governor was buncoed or jobbed "to d
-you-well.''
To all appearances Kinds fixed up the
whole deal. During his association with
Miles Finlen, Mr.. Kinds acquired an in
terest in mining property in Grass
Valley, California. According to the
statement of Kinds Mr.. Finlen before the
departure of the latter for Europe, in
structed Mr.. Kinds to negotiate deal for
the sale of the property to. a California
company. Mr.. Kinds called on Governor
Smith and stated that it was Mr.. Finlen's
desire that he attend to the legal end of
the mining deal. further adding that
there was good fat fee in it for him. In
fact, Mr.. Kinds proposed to pay all of the
governors expenses to California and he
would accompany him personally and
guarantee him good time. The governor
was delighted.
Early last week Lieut.. Gov Sprggs an
nOunced that he was going to attend the
populist convention at Sioux City, Iowa,
and would be absent from the city for at
least ten days. Mr.. Kinds urged Govern
or Smith to attend to the mining deal in
California at once as the probab BILE pur-
chasers were becoming impatient. The
governor, called Edwin Norris president
of the last state senate to the governors
chair during the absence of Mr.. Spriggs
Mr. Norris is good Anaconda man and
Governor Smith had no fears that he
would do anything to upset the plans Of
the Anaconda democracy.
Governor Smith left Butte early last
week accompanied by Mr. Kinds, destina-
ton, Grass Valley, California. Mr..
Spriggs had in the meantime left for
| Sioux City, but telegram apprised him
of Governor Smiths absence, and after
attending the first days session of the
populist convention, he hurriedly return
ed to Montana and ousted Mr.. Norris
from the gubernatorial chair. AS the
novelists say here the plot thickens, and
G. w. Clark, the senator's son and other
friends of w. A. Clark appeared on the
scene at Helena and the DAILY democrats
knew that some deep-dyed plot was being
Matched. The outcome of it was revealed
in the dispatches received from Helena
last night.
1t is said the man at Carlsbad, had sew
eral different kinds of fits when he re-
ceived a cabegram from John r. Toole
! this morning announcing the fact of
Clark's appointment. Miles Finlen who
was an innocent party to the transaction
had several spasms when he heard the
news, while Governor Smith has not yet
recovered consciousness on the sleeping
car. The general opinion is that Bobs
political chances are cooked for all time.
A funny feature of his visit to San Fran
cisco was that Kinds delayed him whole
day looking up mythical deeds to the min
ing property. Had the governor given
the matter any thought he might have
known that any reputable lawyer in Cali
fornia would have attended to the legal
deails of the mining deal for fee of $780,