TERRORISED ’FRISCO.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 304, 5 September 1908, Page 2

TERRORISED ’FRISCO.

:o‘. John Sweeney, proprietor of a saloon, his wife and daughtei, and a neighbour’s two-year-old child, have lost their lives in a dastardly dynamite outrage in San Francisco. A dispute occurred in the flat over the saloon, and early on the following morning some of the disputants returned to the scene of the disturbance, and boring a hole in the foundations of the building, placed some dynamite there. A few seconds later the whole building was hurled into the air, and a terrible spectacle was presented. For more than half a mile every pane of glass ..was smashed. People were thrown from theii beds, and panic prevailed. Neighbours who came rushing out saw the flames start up from the ruins, and a volunteer bucket brigade was formed. The body of the child was found in the branches of a tree in the rear of the building. Besides four lives being lost, and four people seriously injured, the murderers’ work caused £BOOO damage. This outrage is typical (says the “ Evening Standard ”) of the occurrences which are making San Francisco the centre of a reign of terror. During the month of June there were over twenty people murdered. Quite as many of the thousands of workless committed suicide either by inhaling gas or blowing out their brains. Masked robbers prowl about the city, and in the darkness of the back streets waylay people, whom they leave unconscious after rifling their pockets. On two consecutive nights electric cars on the streets were “ held up ” and the car conductors robbed of the fares they had collected. The few miscreants • that are caught, almost without exception, escape from justice on some trivial plea. The prosecution of the grafters of the Schmitz and Ruef administration proceeds. The rival solicitors appear before the presiding judge, and in their excitement threaten to shoot each other. Tho Bishop of California the other day was not far wrong when he asked, with regard to the graft prosecution and defence, “ Who is lying ?” The whole city is “ sick unto death ” of the prosecution, and it seems hopeless to expect to secure a jury of Californians who will ever convict Ruef on any of the 115 indictments against him. The daily press is full of the

dilly-dallying Court proceedings, and the cases when called are invariably “ continued.”