The mirror., 1913-12-18
FREEING men HE
SENT TO PRISON
Fremont Older, Former UnreIenting Per-
seeutor Of Criminals, Acknowledges
His Mistake and is Manfully Making
Reparation.
WHY HEART CHANGED


Under the title of "A Friend of
Crooks" Peter Clark MacFarlane,
In a recent number of Golfers tells
the remarkable story of man who
for years has been the Nemesis of
evil doers, devoting his time prlnci
pally in ferreting out evidence that
would send men to prison, and
then using the powerful influence
he held at his command to have
them convicted; and who, after
coming to true realization of the
error he has made, has now COM
p]etely switched about, and instead
of sending unfortunates to prison
he lends every effort to save and
give deserving ones now behind
the bars their liberty.
The subject of Mr.. Macfarlane's
article is Fremont Older, the man
aging editor of the San Francisco
Bulletin, and the Mirror regrets
that space forbids the giving of the
story in it's entirety, for it is full of
meat with a lesson in every line:
however, we take the liberty Of
publishing as much of it as possible
which will no doubt be of interest
to not only the inmates, but to
some of our readers who IN the
past may also have contributed to
mans imprisonment.
1t is but little way back when
Fremont Older, tall and terrible in
his passion, was the long, lean tiger
of prosecution. His journalistic
career has been one long man hunt.
He singled out causes and assailed
them. individuals and damned them
publicly while he hated them
privately with animosity that was
yenomous. That the cause or the
man so aesailed was usually bad,
that Older's paper has been found
consistently espousing most OF the
causes which have made for social and
political betterment during the last
decade is, for the moment, aside
from the point. 1t is the spirit of
the man which we are considering,
and that spirit was tigerish.
The Tigers Last Chase
Upon emerging from the tenn
porarily disappointing issues of the
graft prosecution, Older was, if pos
sible, moro infamed, more fero-
cious, more blood hungry than he
had eyer been; and, true to type,
entered Immediately upon another
man hunt. But that last chase was
the pulling of the tigers fangs.
Some fly bit him in those latter
jungles, and Older is so changed
that his friends wonder and his
enemies cavil.
But-to the trail!
In the autumn of 1909 P. H. Nc
Carthy, a labor leader, was candi-
date for Mayor of San Francisco.
Older was suspicious of Mccarthy.
Besides he had grapevine information
that Flannery, saloon keeper, had
promised protection to Joe Abbott,
a bunko man whose speciality was
fake pool rooms, provided Mccarthy
were elected. Mccarthy was elect
ed, and Older's grapevine. reported
that telegram passed Immediately
from Flannery to Abbott, who was
in Seattle. Shortly thereafter Alb
bott appeared upon the scene, but
instead of going to work in San
Francisco, began operations in
Sausalito, a port in Marin County
on San Francisco Bay. Here, at
the turning of his first big trick, he
was arrested, and some of his con-
federates with him, and charged
with felony.
1t subsequently, developed that
he had spread some money around
and supposed himself to be operat-
ing under protection; but that was
a mistake. The bunko man had
himself been bunkoed
From behind the bars Abbott
waited impatieDtly for his friend