Seward weekly gateway., 1907-03-16
AGAIN
 BOBS INTO VIEW
Drops PretenSiOnS of Railroad Management and Seeks
 New Pastures.
spsel,l to The psny Gateway.

SeaJJle, mdECu A-ANS"N O''hN' A'N"' Spokane that O. c. Laberee is seeking a buyer or buyers for a copper proper tv on Prince William Sound, which he claims to have for sale on an option. What particular property it can be, deponent Sayeth not. It may be none at all It may be a hole in the ground or a stake on the hillside.
 But however that may be, the legiti- mate mining interests of Central and southern Alaska will best be protected by keeping the sale of mining proper ties in those parts out of the hands of IakirS and impoStorS.
 O. c. Laberee amasSed some money a few years ago by the promotion of wild cat mining ventures in Idaho and Oregon, which were unmitigated swindles. The stock in them iSworth- less. It never had legitimate 1alue. With the ill-gotlen proceeds Ge in- dulged himself in vulgar display until the last dollar had been squandered. He is now trying, apparently, to enter pastures new.
 Last summer Laberee blew into Seward with the w;de-heralded an uouucemeut that he was in charge of the affairs of the Alaska Central rail- way as it's bushes, manager. Not a scinuua of truth supported the an uouucemeut. He claimed to have financed the enterprise and 10 have s75lO0J personally invested in it. These claims were equally false. He Uauo, finance it, and never had dol- .ar invested in ir.
 On exposure, he cringed behind the protection of nu armed guard until the arrival of the first boat, then slunk away Co stateroom, locked himself m. and departed amid the ieerS and with the contempt of every man and woman in the community.
 Arriving home, he denied to the officials of the railway company that he lad represented himself as it's gen eral manager or otherwise practiSed jmpus,ure, and ut up the astounding plea of a deep and fendish plot among Seward business men to aSSaSSinate him. Notwithstanding his armed guard, he was as free from bodily harm every moment of his stay in Seward as a last years kitten. He misJook the ribaldry of street urchins over the exposures of his own bufToon- cry for the serious plottings of whole town. Instead of being in danger, he furnished free laughter behind doors for 8 solid week.
 Like all fakirs, Laberee plies his trade by pretending a friendship and social intimacy with men of means and influence, such as John w. Gates, +, Aug. Heinze, and Charles Schwab of New York, former Senator Turner of Spokane, and Duncan Stewart. mana ger of the Sovereign Bank of Canada. In Turner's case it has had some basis ot fact. Whether Turner has been deceived or is merely one of Laberee's kind remains for the future to deter mine. since the exposures of the last six months leave Turner no further excuse for deception. So far as it con- ,erns Gates, Schwab, Heinze and ! Stewart, the pretense is wholly and utterly fictitious. None of them will | so much as a passing 1 with him.
 The worst about Laberee is not that le is a fakir, a liar and a swindler. Ie could be all these and still retain a of those qualities that win .espect from some men who look only ,n the furface. But to him belongs n degree rarely equaled the trait hat chiefly characterizes the meanest legenerates,-that of innuendo, islander md blackguardism behind the back of my luckleSS individual by whose in- ury he might profit, though to the ace of his victim he profferS friendship with the smile of hypocrisy. It is the rait of the midnight assassin and the