The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1911-10-19
Clever FalsehoodsA boutP ublic Servants

Inc Kansas City Times pr1nCeS the
following interesting story: Three
extraordinary men sat down to lunch
con together in a Denver restaurant
recently, relates George Creel in the
Columbian Magazine for September,
The three men were Judge Ben b.
Lindsey of the juvenile court of Dem
yer, Francis j. Heney, prosecutor of
the a Francisco boodlers, and ex-
Senator Frank J. Cannon of Utah, who
is fighting politics of the Mormon
church.
The three men exchanged expert
ences of tho ISLANDERS and hbels that
they had encountered-the lies that
had been told about them to discredit
them and their work with the people.
Mr.. Creel sat with them and took
notes. He calls his story, expressive
ly, "Polecat Fighting" And he writes:
Whats the worst they ever said
about you, Heney?' Lindsey asked.
"And over their dishes the three be-
gan to exchange "reminiscences of ap-
palling ISLANDERS that had been at
tempted upcn them, of miraculous es-
capes from those assassins of a public
mans reputation that are hired to fol-
low every reformer, of amazing lies
Il OO4oIO0 Wy SAI1J IO0pCSbdO1O
newspapers and the still more amaz-
telligent readers.
Heney'S Thrilling Time.
"Heney is a man of peculiarly win
ming geniality, with a smile that is a
broad, boyish grin. He told-as if it
were a boarding school row-of the
murderous attack that had been made
upon him by Morris Haas in San Fran
cisco, and the way in which public
sympathy had been turned against
him and to Haas by newspaper &C
counts of the shooting, not only in
California, but throughout the whole
country, by the dispatches of the San
Francisco correspondents.
"fYou see, they made it out that
Haas didn't want to- serve or that
second jury which was to try Abe
Ruef, the CRATER boss of San Francis
co; that he fought against serving be-
cause he was afraid his prison record
would be found out-and he had lived
that down, he said.
""They described him as the propri-
etor of a cigar store, who enjoyed the
respect and esteem of the community
after years of hard work and square
living. And so, when 1 came along
and brutally exposed him-not out of
necessity, but from the sheer joy of
dfsgracing him-the poor devil went
crazy, rushed out and got a gun, ran
back again and shot me.
"As a matter of fact, Haas had
been the keeper of a low grocery, and
openly living with a woman to the
shame CT his wife and family. His
prison record wasn't a secret, and he
boasted to his paramour that his vote
for Ruef's acquittal would put him
back on his feet. There wasn't a
single thing about the mans ease that
called for the slightest consideration,
and it was imperative that l sho.lId
get him ont of that jury box. AS for
going mad with the disgrace and
shooting me down in a burst of insane
rage, he hustled out of the courtroom
and wasn't seen again for seven
months.
TT wasn't until Reuf's third trial
that we saw Haas again. Ten jurors
had been selected, and 1 was proving
that the eleventh man had been a
bribe giyer and a participant in mu-
nicipal corruption. The defense had
exhausted it's peremptory challenges,
/ had two left, and it seemed a cinch
that we would get two honest men
and begin the trial. There was pretty
general belief that Ruef would break
down and confess rather than take his
chances with a square jury, and if
Ruef confessed, that meant bringing
in the men higher up, % know.
The judge called a night session
the first in the case. AS we entered
the courthouse that night, Haas was
hanging around at the top of a dark
stairway. Foley, my body guard, haD-
pened to be walking ahead. He push
ed Haas out of the way. The next
morning Haas came into the court
room, and for two weeks fairly haunt
ed the place He was always trying to
stink into the press chairs just behind
me, and I can't tell you how many