A POLITICAL BOSS ABE RUEF SENTENCED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 90, 18 April 1911, Page 7

A POLITICAL BOSS ABE RUEF SENTENCED.

THE GREAT GRAFTER TURNS PHILOSOPHER. (From-Our Own Correspondent). SAN FRANCISCO, 11th March. Abe Ruef, once political boss of San Francisco, the real ruler of four hundred thousand people, is now convict No. 24,911 at the State prison of California. With cropped hair and limbs clad in the American convict's stripes, he toils by day in a jute mill, and sleeps by night in a cell. ■ "* Those who had cried in the name of justice for the punishment of this man had almost abandoned hope. One after another his comrades in crime had escaped the toils of the law. The grafting Mayor, Eugene Sehmifcz, had been released by the State's2highest court through a ridiculous legal technicality. The trial of Patrick Calhoun, millionaire and president of the tramway company which had dispensed bribes, through Ruef, to the city fathers, had resulted after months of useless haggling in a disagreement of the jnry.. And most of the other grafters had escaped through the loophole of immunity granted in consideration of their confessing. Rnef himself had evaded the penalty of his crime for years, even after his conviction. His appeal had been denied by the State Appellate Court, but the Supreme Court, the final resort, had adjudged him entitled to a rehearing. This was the court that had released Schmitz on the ground that the "indictment did not state that the accused was Mayor of San Francisco at the time of the offence."- Ruef and his friends still had hope. But the end came far more swiftlythan it had been expected. A news Ipaper published an accusation that the Supreme Court had acted in an irregular manner in granting the rehearing — that one of the judges had been absent from the State at the time the decision was rendered, and that his signature had been typewritten on the court's judgment. The State Prosecutor took up the charge, and the Supreme Court decided after a hearing that it had made an error. Also, it decided through its mistake Rnef had been deprived of his right to a rehearing of his appeal, the time within which this could be granted having elapsed. By a curious chance the briber had fallen a victim to one of those technicalities of law- that had been helpings him for years in his fight against-jntjtice. He" wag sent' "to prison. The case may possibly be reopened, but it is conceded that his position is now almost hopeless. FINDS UTOPIA IN PRISON. But Ruef was not downcast. Before leaving for the prison he had his head cropped and his jaunty moustache shorn, and, thus branded, he posed for newspaper photographers. He told the* reporters that he found no shame in his striped suit. "Tfne higher thought is my shield," he said. In fact he found the prison a real Utopia, the only place where there was true equality among* men. Here are some of the philosophic gems' that he dropped by the wayside on the way from the city 'to his cell : — • "Thß body may' be put in gaol, but there can be no imprisonment for the souL Though the heart be heavy laden, mind will yet 'reign supreme. For me there is neither terror nor disgrace in that which I see before me — pain and sorrow and grief, yes, for tlje anguish and suffering of those I leave behind me. They are the unfortunate victims. May God in his mercy protect them in their trial, and give them relief. "I am confident that my own spirit can rise above any situation. Whatever I am set to do I will do cheerfully and to the best of my ability. My face will be to the future and my back resolutely to the past. " If I survive with health not entirely broken, when I am through I will return to San Francisco. I will not run a.way from the past, and I am certain that there will still be before me a life of credit and of honour. "My conscience is clear. I have been unfairly dealt with, and in the end this will be conclusively proved." After his first night in the cell he was even more hopeful. He was permitted to give out another interview the next morning, and he said : _ " This has struck me as being a condition that is the nearest which society gives for a Utopian life. Here is a condition where all mfen are placed on <an equality and' each has to do as all others." ' " It is here, I suppose, as everywhere — you must take what the world' gives you, and, if you do what k demanded of you — do <it as quickly as possible and as efficiently ac possible — yop will find your course is made as smooth and as agreeable as conditions will permit. "I have no consciousness of shame. This suit is no worse, if contemplated with placidity, than would be the uniform, for instance, of a, soldier. If this were the uniform of a crack military company, it would be -worn, with pride. There is no difference. It all depends upon one's mental attitude and philosophy. t " My conscience is ac clear now as it ever was, and, if I choose to subject myself to this punishment to save others from it, that is my own affair, and I have no bitterness against anyone. It would do me no good if anyone else got this punishment, 1 and I am glad they have not got it." PUBLIC SYMPATHY. The public, as well as Ruef, is now able to , contemplate the case " with placidity." Even among those who strove to bring about his downfall there is an inclination to sympathise with him. Of the many that profited greatly from the corruption of the city, he alone is paying the penalty that justice He is no ' longer Ruef the "arch boodler," no longer the wily evader of justice ; he is Ruef the scapegoat. Hie irreproachable and kindly courtesy, too, are now called to mind ; and he is given all credit for his conduct as s son and a brother. Besides, it is not unlikely, as the Bulletin, his strongest fo© and real conqueror, says, that undeT a less vicious political system than that of the American party gang he would have made good use of his remarkable talents, __ _^£..