ABE RUEF KNOWS 20,000 MEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3769, 25 July 1907, Page 4

ABE RUEF KNOWS 20,000 MEN.

(By Bayard Veiller.)

Abe Ruef, the indicted San Francisco boss, is the best mixer I ever met, barring none. When I first went to 'Frisco, six years ago, I was talking to the Sunday editor of the Chronicle one day about the number of persons it was possible for one man to know' personally. “That’s a good idea for a story, ’ ’ the editor said. ‘ ‘Why not work it up by finding the local man with the largest acquaintance.”

“All right,” I said, and started out to find my man. My first idea was.that Whitman, the chief of police, was the man I w'anted to see. I soon learned that Abe Ruef knew more people than any other man in ’Frisco. “ I am satisfied I know personally 20,000 people in this city, he said to me.

When I first met Ruef he was a second-class lawyer with a large practice among the poor. He made up for lack of learning by native shrewdness. He was a dealer in smooth legal tricks and technicalities, being much the same kind of a lawyer as Abe Hummel, of New York. Ruef was not a boss then. Phelan was mayor, and another ring was in pow'er. When Schmitz was elected, Ruef stepped into the arena as his adviser. In a year he w'as the absolute ruler of ’Frisco. Ruef is a little man, but. tough and w r iry. He is about sft sin in height, weighs perhaps 140 pounds, has dark eyes, hair, and a black moustache. He is about 50 years old, unmarried, and much devoted to his parents and his brothers and sicterc. His habits are good—never drinks, but smokes much. He is generous, and has helped scores of men in ’Frisco by getting them positions or giving them money out of his own pocket. And he is quiet about his many acts of kindness. Ruef has David B. Hill’s gift of talking much and saying little. Ruef’s shrewdness, his mixing qualities, and his memory for faces were the secrets of his success. A few months ago I was in ’Frisco after an absence of two years. I had stepped out of a restaurant when a man ran up and threw his arms around me before I had time to say a word. It was Abe Ruef. There was no reason for such a display of interest except Ruef’s innate desire to be friendly with everybody. He knew that I could do nothing lor him.

The day after he was indicted he remarked that he was in the same class with Rockleller. It was characteristic of the man. He cared nothing for office, but worked for power. And he won it—for a time.