A POLITICAL BOSS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10217, 19 April 1911, Page 5

A POLITICAL BOSS.

ABB RUEF SENTENCED,

THE GREAT GRAFTER TURNS PHILOSOPHER.

(Evening Post Correspondent)

SAN FRANCISCO, March 11

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 jus'iico for the punishment of this man had almost abandoned hope. One after another his comrades in crime had escaped the t0i1... of the law. The grafting Mayor, Eugene Sehmitz, had bee<i released by the State's highest Court trough a ridiculous legal technicality. TV' trial of Patrie Calhoun, millionaire and president of the tramway company which had despensed bribes, through Ruef, to'the city fathers, had resulted after months of needless haggling in a disagreement of the jury. And most of the other grafters had escaped through the loophole of immunity granted in consideration of their confessing. Ruef himself had evaded the penalty of his crime for years, even after his conviction. His appeal bnd 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 Sehmitz on the ground that the "indictment did not state that tho 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 swiftly than.it had been expected. A newspaper published an accusation that, the Supreme Court had acted in an

irregular manner in granting and rej hearing—that one of the judges had ] been absent from the State at the time the decision was reordered, and [ that his signature had Von typei written on .the court'.", pdrnent. The , State Prosecutor took charge, and the Supremo Court derided after a hearing that it had made an error. Also, through its mi take Ruef had been deprived of hir- right t.i n - ' ing of his appeal, tho time vithir. which this could bo granted elapsed. By a curious chanc* ' ,% 0 briber had fallen a victim to c"«e ~- those technicalities of law that }••• 1 been helping him for yea:s i"> I l '-* fight against justice. He was rci t U> prisbn. v The case may pac:ibly be ieopened, but it is conceited t'lr.'. his position is now almost hopeles\ FINDS UTOPIA IN PRISON. But Ruef was not' downer st. B--for leaving for the prison ho had hi-, head cropped and his jaunty movtache shorn, and, thus branded, ho poied for newspaper photographers. He told the reporters that he found no shame in his striped suit. "TLj higher thought is my shield," he said. In fact ho 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: — i "The body may be put in gaol, but there can be no imprisonment for the | soul. Though the heart may be heavy I 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 the anguish and suffering of those I leave behind nie. They sr© 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 away from the past, and I am certain that there will still bo before me a life of credit and of honour. "My conscience is clear. F have been unfairly dealt with,, and in thrc * 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 lias struck mo as being a condition that is the nearest which society gives for the Utopian life. Here is a condition where all men 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 is demanded of it as quickly as possible and as efficiently as possible—you will find your course is made as smooth and agreeable as conditions will permit ' , "I havo no consciousness of shame. This suit is no worse, if contemplated with placidity, than would be the uniform, for iiistance, of a-soldie'-. If this were the uniform of a- crack military company, it would be worn with pride. There is no depends upon one's mental attitude v and philosophy. "My conscience is as clear now as, ever it was, and, if I choose to subject myself to this punishment to save others from it, that is my own affair, and I havo no bitterness against anyone. 'lt. would-do me no good if anyone else got this punishment, and I am glad thev 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 done is paying the penalty that justice demands. He is no longer Ruef the !"arch boodler," no longer the wily evader of justice; he is Ruef the scapagoat His irreproachable and kindly courtesy, too, are now called to mind; and he is given all credit for hi c- - conduct as a son and a brother. Besides, it is not unlikely, as the Bulletin, his strongest foe and real conqueror, says,, that under'"' a less vicious political system than thr-t of tho American party gang ho would have mado good use r>. his remarkable talents.