The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-04-03
BRUCE JOHNSON
TIRES OF 1T ALL
CONTINUED from Page ~

The mayor has been consistently op-
posing him and his pull has gone
The Red Onion" saloon lost its license
and his word at the police station hurt
instead of helped. With the loss of
his police influence his prestige has
waned. And now he is TO leave his old
haunts.
For years Bruce johnson has made
his headquarters at 43 Commercial
street, where he runs a club for col
ored men Seated in a room there
last evening. he talked freely of his
life in the past and his hopes for the
future. In one room was a crowd Of
cOlOred men playing pool. In other
rooms were poker games and allied
forms of amusement. The click of the
pool balls and the chips and the noisy
conversation of the players came from
ali sides in the rooms made hazy with
tobacco smoke. He sat alone with his
interviewer in a room containing as
its furniture a card table and a few
chairs. As he talked. he toyed with
a stack Of white poker chips. dividing
them into separate piles. then putting
them together again, only 10 repeat the
operation. At times his voice grew
earnest and his manner emphatic.
Is Tired Of It All.
Il am tired Of all this" he said. II
am a sick man to begin with. My
rheumatism is bad and / have other
troubles. But that isn't the reson.
am tired Of living in these surround
ings. I intend TO say goodbye 10
Commercial street and goodbye to
Salt Lake politics and get away from
all these things. / have sold out all
my interests here, I have severed my
connection with this club, and I am
going to take a rest. I have enough
money to keep my wife and me the
rest of our days. and there is no need
of staying here. 1 am going first to
Hot Springs, Ark, to be treated for
my rheumatism. I shall stay there
some time. Then I hope TO go TO New
Orleans to see my friends there Per
haps I shall visit in Little Rock, too.
don't know what 1 scau do then.
Il am through with JI4Is life here.
My wife is anxious to get away from
il, and 50 am I. 1 don't like to be held
up as a 'dive-keeper' People-don't re-
gard me that way in other cities. Here,
because of the way the newspapers
have treated me, most Of the people
associate me with some kind of Grim
inal resort or house of i'll fame. 1
don't blame The Herald for anything
it said against me during the campaign.
although I think it went too far after
the campaign was over. But I don't
like to have anybody think of me liz
connection with such things.
Consideration For His Wife.
I've got some pri6 shout me.
wouldn't care so much about myself.
though, if it wasn't for my wife. 1t
hurts her. We have been married
twenty-nine years and get along hap
PLY, and 1 don't want her to have to
stand it. 1 went home one day last
fall, and found her sitting on a trunk,
crying. She was holding in her hand
a copy of a weekly paper that had
lot Of vile lies about me in it. Some
body had sent her the copy and marked
il, Your husband 1 thipk that's car
rying the thing too far.
Nobody can say I ever went back
on a friend, or took money for politi-
cal services or stole from anybody or
went back on my promise. Anybody
who ever had any dealings with me
will tell you that pay my debts and
that my word is good. That's why 1
don't like these things.
81. come from coed people. My father
was a Scotehman,s born in Scotland.
He was a slave-dealer in Arkansas be-
fore the war. Ny mothers mother,
Eliza Robbins, is now living at the age
of almost 100 years. She is ferrous
through a suit pending now in the
United States supreme court for the
recovery of a large amount Of land.
She was three-forths ChOtaw Indian
and one-fourth colored. That is where
l get my colored blood, and that is ali
I have. Ny mothers father was white.
Driven From Arkansas.
My father died when I was just a
child. 1 can barely remember him. 1
was born in 1S49, in Little Rock. Ark.
In 1858, after my father had died, Tney
passed g, law in Arkansas ordering all
free negroes to move out of the state
OF course they knew my mother haG
colored blood in her. and so we moved
to farm near Madison, Ind.
Il went to a mixed school for awhile.
but one day boy called me a niger
in the school room and ! smashed a
slate over his head. I was expelled for
that and all the education I've got Z
picked up. 1 have learned to read ana
get along pretty well in business. I
was fourteen years old then. and went
TO work on a farm until grew up.
When / was young man. my moth
er died. I left Indiana and went to
New Orleans. While she was alive I
associated mostly with white people,
because she did. After she died. / scrr
Of drifted into associating with the
colored people. Perhaps it was a sort
OF racial attraction. Perhaps 1t was
a pride in the race. Anyhow I did.
I went to New Orleans and got a job
as janitOr.
Broke Into Politics.
Then I got into politics and was ap-
pointed on the police force I opened
a saloon and made money. I was scme-
body in politics there. 1 was a member
of the state central committee, api I
was chairman of the congressional COM
mittee the last time a Republican was
ever elected to congress from Louis
lana. This was when II. Dudley CcI-
man was elected in 1856.
I came to salt Lake in 1890. and have
been here ever since. But 1 don't like il
here. 1 don't like the politics. I real
ize that I have been made a tool Tor a
number Of politicians. In Louisiana L
was somebody myself. was PERSONAL
~ acquainted with and respected by
such men as Senator Caffery, Mayor
Fitzpatrick and others, and my judg-
ment was sought I want now 10 20
back to where people will respect me
as 2 man."
nanH nHTFRAf 0raRNaa