The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-16
HAS AL0NG MEMORY
FRIED a. BRi6Gs wREAINs HIS RE-
VENICE ON SHERIFF Me-
GARDEN
LATTER WAS TOO DELICIOUS
Drove Briggs Out of business at an
Expense to Himself of About
$4,000 and Eleven
Indictments.

t CilOA ~
70 further his own and Congressman
I'leteher's political ambitions, left Fred
A. Briggs and his niekel-in-the-sie ma
chine alone, he would be nearly 100000
better off and would not have to stand
trial ON eleven indictments which charge
him with misuse of public funds.
The supreme court has decided that
Briggs must serve a term in the work
house for inducing saloon keepers to
maintain gambling devices in their places
of business and Briggs VIII serve time.
When Briggs was convicted he sWore
vengeance on the sheriff and he expects
to be revenged.
While he may not have been actuated
by the most public spirited of motives, it
is none the less true that it was Briggs
who placed in the possession of certain
persons the information which led to the
investigation of Sheriff Megaarden's
books and revealed a strange state of af
fairs. OF course others claim the credit,
but those who claim tN be posted assert
THAT the first information came from
Briggs, and it was not given because
Briggs was a suffering taxpayer, but
hunted man. at bay before his pursuers.
A large section of the Minneapolis pub
:. die wanted Briggs laid away and finally
Succeeded in having him sentenced to the
Tvefkheuse for a term. This term the SUI
-ljfeme court has cut in half but it
satisfies the men who do not like Briggs
and the methods he has adopted to secure
a livelihood.
=, Briggs is full of information that many
b persons would like to have suppressed
and when he returns from the works he
is expected to give some of his enemies
a, taste of the medicine he has admins
tered to Sheriff MegaaFden.
Prierors &c a 11pici1a oh, For MANY
years he has toiled not nor has he spun.
He is an old resident of Minneapolis and
has followed a variety of occupations.
Possessed OF considerable ability he has
been able to make living by his wits
and q fairly good one at that. His sources
of revenue are not known to all, but every
one admits they are prolific ones and the
filthy lucre is not lacking.
At one time he was q newspaper man.
Then he graduated into the health de-
partment, and when DR. Kilvington was
health officer he was one of the sanitary
inspectors. Politics next claimed his at
tention, and in the campaign of 1890 he
was one of the strong Democratic work
nrS. Between campaigns he followed DIFF
gerent vocations, and about election time
Ii frequently was his custom to establish
campaign papers, which fiourished a
short time and made large profits when
they were in operation. John Goodnow,
the present consul general to Shanghai,
terminated the existence of one of these
sheets by putting a hammer through q
form and making ''pi out of an objee-
tionable item
In the campaign OF 1898 Briggs was a
strong Gray worker and a member OF
the famous kitchen cabinet, of which
Messrs. Rinehart and Quist were the
leading spirits. He expected to be re-
Warded for the work he did in that cam
paign. but found that the position of
license inspector which he coveted had
been promised another. During last years
campaign he was an enthusiastic Ames
worker
When 'the doctor was inaugurated he
did not apply for a place, although
many of his friends including a federal
official, asked the mayor-elect to give
him position.
Shortly after Ames came into Office
Briggs, Blodgett and others proceeded TO
establish Observation-Disclosures machines in
minneapolis saloons. These were profit
able institutions, and Briggs lived in
clover. From time to time the newspa-
pers attacked the administration for all
lowing these machines to run, and there
were brief periods when they were in Sc
clusion, but not for long
Some gamblers, it is claimed by some,
and the sheriff, it is claimed by others,
determined to rid the city of the ma.
chimes. Some claim the gamblers did not
like to see Briggs clean up the money
they thought belonged to them, and 9th
ers say the sheriff started out on his
own motion to make trouble for the
-Ames administration. At all events, the
sheriff caused the arrest and indictment
OF over a hundred saloonkeepers, and
they were fined something over $50 each
Briggs was indicted on some thirty
charges FOR inducing men to maintain
gambling devices. He was tried on one
and the jury disagreed.
On the next trial Judge MCGEE locked
7ip the jury and a verdict of guilty was
returned. The same tactics on the third
trial brought the same result and Briggs
was sentenced to six months and S2C0
1ine on each case, the two workhouse
sentences to be cumulative