Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1906-11-02
NEAR LYNCHING
IN FRISCO WAR,
Boss Abe Ruef's Efforts to Depose the
District Attorney Leads to
Wild Scenes

SAN FRANCISCO. Cal. Oct 81
Scenes of riot marked the efforts of
Boss" Abe Ruef to eize the office of
district attorney, and thus choke off the
efforts of the citizens committee to have
him indicted for boodling
Acting Mayor Gallagher removed Dis
trict Attorney Langdon and appointed
Ruef in his place Thursday night Ruef
Immediately discharged Assistant Dis
trlct Attorney Heney. The whole scheme
was to get rid of Heney. Heney. backed
by the citizens reform, has been investi-
eating the charges of official boodling.
Accuses His Accusers.
Langdon at daybreak yesterday OBJ
tanned from Judge Seawell an order re-
straining Ruef from Selling the district
attorneys office. In his petition Lang
don swore that Abe Ruef, acting Mayor
Gallagher and the board of supervisors
have been guilty of felonies, and that
they removed him solely to defeat the
ends of justice and escape punishment.
Judge Seawell fixed November as
the date of hearing.
Early in the day it became noised
about the city that in spite of the SUI
perlor courts order Abe Ruef would APP
pear before Judge Graham. where the
nineteenth and final member of the
grand jury was to be drawn, and at
tempt to exercise the authority of district
attorney. Excited by the rumor crowd
of from 5000 to 5000 members assembled
where the court was to meet.
Acting under. Ruef's orders the police
packed the courtroom with Ruef bench
men and 200 well known business and
professional men were turned away.
Among them was Rudolf Spreckles
Many declared they would attend on
Monday and would defend their rights
with arms.
Fights Six Policemen
Another of the men who We're ignomi-
niously thrown out by the police was
DR. Shadworth S. Beaseley, professor of
anatomy at Cooper Medical college. 1t
took six policemen to eject the doctor.
On the sidewalk he harangued the crowd
and declared that Ruef should be hanged
to the nearest lamp-post.
Morris A. Livingstone was selected as
the nineteenth member of the grand
jury. Judge Graham refused to recog-
nize either Langdon or Ruef and ad-
journed court until 10 a. m. Monday.
1t is impossible to convey by telegraph
an adequate idea of the popular excite
ment over the political situation here. 1t
has been openly charged that saloons,
the criminal classes, the disorderly
houses, etc, have been heavily taxed.
The obard of public works has been
accused OIL IeVylnS TRIBUTE III ali ulreC-
tons. One newspaper has charged that
100000 was paid by street railway
company for important privileges.
Coupled with these charges is the
name of Abraham Ruef, the acknowl-
edged boss of the politics of San Fran
cisco. He is a lawyer and has become
wealthy within the last few years. Abe
Ruef made Schmitz mayor of San Fran
cisco and put the labor unions in control
of the municipal government.
Schmitz Asserts Himself
Mayor Schmitz, backed by Gen. Fun
ston and the United States army, assert
ed himself after the earthquake. He
closed every saloon in San Francisco,
smashed bottles, and emptied barrels.
He ran the disorderly element out of
town, shot down thieves and regulated
the public service corporations. Then
Schmitz went to Europe on two months
leave of absence, Supervisor Gallagher
ruled instead. and Ruef came back to
his own.
The Citizens Reform association en-
ployed detectives and unearthed the evil
dence against the boodlers. To prevent
this evidence going to the grand jury
Acting Mayor Gallagher, the tool of
Boss Ruef, attempted to put Ruef in
charge of the district attorneys office.