ABE RUEF IN PRISON

Grey River Argus, 25 April 1911, Page 1

ABE RUEF IN PRISON

CROFTER TURNS PHILOSOPHER

. .Abe, lluef, once political .boss of Francisco, the real ruler of 400,--000 people, is now convict No 24,911 at tlie .State prison of California. With cropped hair and limb's clad in. the Ameican convict's stipes- lie toils ,by . day in a jute . mill, and sleeps by night . in a cell with a murderer arid . a. thief./ ........ ■ • . ... Bef.ore , leaving:. • for. the prison he ,had his head .cropped- and, his jaunty moustache shorn, and, 'thus 'branded, .he .posed .f,or,,, newspaper, photographers,. He' told .the reporters that he .found no • ; sham,e,in ,his. striped suit. "The -higher thought is my shield," he • said, ";..... Alter his first night in the cell he was even more hopeful. He was .permitted to. give out an interview the next, morning, and he said: — "This has struck, me, as t'eing a condition that is . the nearest which society [give's for; a Utopian life.. Here is | a conditicfn where all men are placed on an equality and each has to do as all others. I, navel no consciousness of shame. Tliis suit is no worse, it , contemplated with placidity, tEan • would be the uniform, for instance, of a soldier. If this were the uniform of a crack' military company, it would h%, worn witli pride. There is no diff kronen: It nil d°npn.rU ivnnn on°'^ montM attitude and philosophy. Mv cnr>^cien/"< 1 i"? ?<? clear, now as it ever was, and if I choost to subject myself to this punishment to save others trom 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, and I am glad they .have not. got it." The public, as well as Ruef, is now able to contemplate the case '"with placidity." Even among those j who strove to Bring about his down- J fall 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 demands. He is no longer Ruef the "arch boodler," no longer the wily evader of justice ; ■h-7 is Ruef the scapegoat. His irreproachable and kindly courtesy, too, are now called to mind ; and he is given all credit for his conduct as a son' and a brother. Besides; it is not ■unlikely, as the Bulletin, bis strongest foe and real conqueror says, that under a less vicious political system than that of the American party gang he would have made good use of his remarkable talents.