The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1911-03-09
RUFF TAKES TRIP
ACROSS THE BAY"

Tuesday evening Abe Ruef, the con.
victed ex-boss Of San Francisco, cross
ed the bay and entered upon his four
teen year term of imprisonment. His
reception at the prison was the same
as that accorded less noted convicts,
and the next morning he was placed at
work in the jute mill.
Synopsis Of Ruef's Career,
Abraham Ruef enters ON prison life
IN his forty-seventh year. With all
possible allowances for good behavior
at San Quentin he will be Sc years old
when ne again regains his liberty,
should ne serve out his sentence, less
credits for good behavior.
Rnef was born in San Francisco ON
September 2, 1854. He is q graduate
OF the University Of California. At
college his native ability manifested
itself in the classroom and many Of
his other personal charaeteristics in
his intercourse with his fellow stud
ents. He did not cut a very important
figure in college life, nor afterwarl
when he began the practice Of his prc
IeSS1On OF the law.
His first practice was among th,
residents of the Latin quarter. Hi
fees were not large, but his habit,
were thrifty and his law was mixet
with politics from the beginning. Al
lieutenant of the then leading party
bosses, as they came along in success
sion, Ruef organized district clubs. be
came district leader, headed deleea.
tions to party conventions and ct one
time aspired to be lieutenant COVER
nor.
Commenting on the care which Ruei
bestowed upon his personal appear.
ance, Phil Crimmins was wont tc
speak of Ruef as "the looking glass
politician.
Ruef Becomes Boss.
But it was not until Ruef discover
ed Schmitz, and in SO doing managed
to combine the party strength whicl
he himself controlled with the Unior
Labor vote, that Ruef made good hi,
title of 'sBoss.' -
The acme of his political career wal
reached on the night in the fall Of
1905, when Schmitz was reelected anG
the whole Rnef ticket swept into Of
fee with him. That night Ruef's ed,
mirers carried him through the streets
on their shoulders, going down Mont
gomery street past the Occidental
hotel, where they paused for mo-
ment to. jeer at Gavin McNab, whom
Ruef regarded as his chief enemy and
imagined that he was then in q posi-
tion to jeer at all his enemies.
Ruef's destruction was more rapid
than his rise in power. The oppor-
tunity that the full control of the mu-
nicipal government brought to him was
too much for his cupidity. The fire
came at the time when Ruef was CON-
pletely organized for the plunder of
his native city. It did not stay his
hand from the loot.
When prosecution was first threat
ened Ruef called his followers to-
gether at a mass meeting in the Ma
tional theater and defied the authori-
ties to break into his organization.
The height of his folly came in his
attempt to oust from Office the district
attorney, who had pledged his office
to the prosecution, and make himself
his own district attorney.
The first indictments against Ruef
were filed on November 15,1906, charg-
ing him with extortion in the French
restaurant cases.
The flight to Trocadero furnished
the prosecution with an excuse for
confning him in a private prison, first
at the "little st. Francis and after
ward at the Fillmore street house
which had formerly been occupied by
Schmitz.
1t was there that he made his bar
gain with his prosecutors Tor partial
immunity, as a result Of which he sur
prised most Of the crowd in Judge
Dunne's courtroom by entering plea
of "guilty' in the midst of his trial
in the extortion case. Ruef wept on
this occasion as he read his carefully
prepared remarks promising to make
good to the city the wrong he had
done.
Ruef's immunity contract did not
save him from subsequent prosecution,
however, when the supreme court held
the French restaurant indictments to
be invalid.
Indictments had been heaped upon
him in the meantime until total Of
l29 "true bills' were on the hls
against him.