The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 23, 1898, Page 27

all VOLUME LXXXIII.— O. 54. SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 1898. PRICE FIVE CENTS. THE PLANT IS OF NO VALUE TO ANYBODY Los Angeles Water Combine Would Charge the City Millions for a Lot of Absolutely Worthless Junk. GARVANZA WORKS OF THE LOS ANGELES WATER PLANT. The wooden box in the foreground is the so-called “collecting chamber for the water supply gathered at Gar- vanza. This wooden box is the oniy indication of a water-works system here. A line of 15-inch sewer pipes, 4 feet below the surface, 1400 feet in length, enters the “chamber” at one end, while an 8 and 11 inch sheetiron pipe leaves the other end and conducts the Angeles. one of the valuable assets of the company. works, and is now disconnected from investigations were made. the pipe system. water toward Pasadena avenue, and the Hazard reservoir in East The 8-inch pipe, 10,300 feet long, is utterly ruined by rust, has been abandoned for years, but is listed as The 1l-inch pipe is out of use for want of sufficlent water at the ‘The box is nailed up and has not been in use since the city’s The lands surrounding these “works” are leased property, and the Los Angeles Water Los Company places & tremendous value on the “rights to develop water” here on 1526 acres which include the town of Garvanza. The average amount of water obtainable is ten miners’ inches. 1 LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22.—The syndi- | possessed by any city in the country of | of workmanship of the entire plant. cated company press of Los Angeles have frequently referred to the large and complete plant of the water com- | pany, for which the corporation is seeking to bleed the people in the sum of about $2,000,000, or to secure a fifty- year extension of the lease and fran- chise. The truth of the matter is that in no city in this country s there a water nt like the one which is used to dis- te water in this burg. The sy 7 is one conglomerate plan. It has 1st twenty years until aow 1 the most complete 1 out, rusty pipe, rotten duits and old buildings, with antiquated ma- chinery in pumping stations that can be concefved. In the meantime the people in a city of 110,000 people are forced to do the best they can with a totally inadequate service. Yet the servants and repre- sentatives of the people in the City Council continue to follow up their pol- iey of delay, to a head, or even taking steps to bring to a head, the negotiations which will do away with this unfortunate condition of affairs. Just as soon as the city can obtain possession of its plant it is designed and planned to make improvements and additions which will give Los An- geles the most complete water system ma timb iown 1 to and taken away from | broken- | delay, delay, in bringing | its size. | 1In order that the readers of The Call may understand just exactly the shape | the present plant is ‘in, photographs | have been taken of some of the promi- | nent features of it, especially for this paper, and they are here given with a full detailed explanation of each pic- ture, The fact that the people of this city are ume and again decelved as to the plant-of the water company by the false statements printed in the cor- poration-owned press of the | known to all who read and watch the | trend of events. The Los Angeles Times, in its mid- winter number, prints a whole page as to the water company’s plant, which is a mass of misstatement, printed to decetve the people. The duplicity and fraud is clearly set forth by Ernest Abs | Hagen, C. E, in the following com- munication to The Call: “To the Editor of The Call—Dear Sir: The readers of the Los Angeles press are, from time to time, treated with | descriptive information as regards thelr water works system, sooner or later to become their own by purchase. These publications ‘facts’ or ‘authorized statements,’ etc., and are interlarded with illustra- | tions depicting the newly built Belle | View reservoir, which, it is freely ad- | mitted, is a good—the only good—piece city is | invariably present | “In the annual midwinter number of | one of.the local papers, published on | January 1, 1888, appears such an | authorized . statement with illustra- tions, one being the ever-present Belle View reservoir; the other purports to | be & map of the Crystal Springs Water | Company’s system. The false and the | true in the latter are not even cunning- | ly interwov n; this map is an abridged | copy, on a reduced scale, of the larger | map made by the writer in March, 1897, for the city of Los Angeles, {llustrating the projected new water works system. Saild map and estimate were appended to the City Engineer’s report, filed with the Council on April 19. “The sketch purporting to {llustrate the water company’ssystem illustrates, in fact, the " projected water mains, conduits, reservoirs and power sta- tions; the dimensions of pipes and the quantity obtainable at the source of supply refer to the projected, enlarged and renovated system, and does not, as it is made to appear, represent the | present system. There are no 40-inch | cast iron mains on Upper Main street | at present, as is made to believe by | this illustration, nor a 24-inch main on | of 6-inch iron pipes or 6-inch cement- Continued on Page Twenty-eight. EAST SIDE SPRINGS The buflding contains one 40-horsepower boiler in fair shape, and one broken down, dismantled 250-gallon-per- minute steam pump; an ol tank and lean-to shed in the rear of the pumphouse complete the inventory of this power station. It is not being used. PUMP STATION. Note the alignment of delivery pipe in the foreground. In all cascs where the water company could save ex- penses the pipes were laid on the surface instead of beneath. Macy street, nor an 18-ilnch main on | | Bast First street- nor a 16-fnch main | | on Downey avenue, etc., but a system | CAREER OF A VERY BOLD SWINDLER Operated Coolly Un- der the Guise of a Mason. Fleeced Members of the Order in Many Lands. Even the Prince of Wales Was a Vietim and Loaned Him Money. WORKED UNDER ALIASES. But at Last the Daring Rascal Has Been Convicted and Confesses Many Crimes. Spectal Dispatch to The Call SEATTLE, Jan. 22.—One of the most daring acts ever perpetrated upon the Masonic order has come to light through the confession of the perpe- trator, George Fleming. His career has been summarily ended through a con- viction and sentence to the State peni- tentiary at Walla Walla for two and a half years for obtaining money under false pretenses from Attorney Richard- son of Port Angeles. skilifully has he applied himself that he has been complimented by past grand masters on his knowledge of Masonry. By his own admissions, he has lived for eight years on money borrowed under false pretenses from Masons, the amounts varylng from ten to several | hundred dollars, or, as he told the ex- | Sheriff of King County, A. T. Van de Venter, according to the circumstances and the times. The total amount of money thus obtained will probably reach $20.000, but he has berrowed so | much he does not pretend to recite ail the instances. | and never spent a cent for raflroad or Psteamer transportation. He has had so many aliases that he cannot name | them all. He was known in Mississippi as Professor Willey, in Kentucky as | Alexander Craig, i n Pennsylvania as | William Ball, In Cincinnati and Chi- | cago as Charles Wilson, in St. Louis as | Willlam Mays, in Washingtoh as Mar- | tin Mallorey, In Oregon as Charles i Brown and Charles Floyd. In foreign | Fleming is a pseudo Mason, yet so | He has traveled all over the world | George Willard Clark, the St. Helena Suspect. about masonry and applied his know- ledge to the best advantage. Certifi- cates indicating that the dues of the person he represented himself to be | were paid were obtained at first in va- | rious ways, but toward the last he had | an improved s: From a man | named Levy in San Francisco he ob- | tained forged certificates, as few or as ny as he desired. They were cheap. It was after the close of the war that | Fleming took up Masonry. He became | a member of a clandestine lodge, and, by using the information thus obtained, he gradually picked up point after point until he could give nine out of ten regular Masons information. By | applying to lodges where the officers were careless, he obtained admission into regular lodges, and by close atten- tion became conversant with the rou- tine secret work. The Grand Lodge of | the Masons met in Seattle in the early | part of June, and during the session | several complaints were made about a | Masonic fraud who had been borrow- | The mat- | ter was finally considered, and Grand | ing money indiscriminately. first time he appeared in evidence. Finally a telegram came from Daven- port, Wash., on Sept. 26, 1897, to the effect that a man answering the de- scription of Mallory had been arrested for a misdemeanor. It was then de- cided to swear out a warrant in Clal- lam County in connection with a case where Mallory had obtained$4 from At- torney Richardson and others in Port Angeles. Sheriff Walter J. Dyke depu- tized Van de Venter, who immediately went to Davenport. Bure enough he saw his old “friend,” Mallory. At first Mallory denied everything, but finally made a full confession. In his confession Fleming recites his experiences among various lodges in Minnesota, Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon, ‘Washington, Pennsylvania, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and other States in America, as well as in foreign lands. In the latter part of his confession he recites the fact that in March, 1896, he was in South Carolina, and adds: “Then I went all through Tennessee Continued on Page Forty. ervoir. feed pumps. duty as a sump for collecting waste i) BEAUDRY RESERVOIR PUMP STATION. The frame bullding contains the pumping machinery for elevating water from this place to the high-level res- This power station consists of one 60-horsepower boiler in fair condition; dangerous shape; one ancient Worthington steam pump, subject to daily breakdowns and repairs, and a few small oil from the surrounding oil wells. one 60-horsepower boiler in The ground to the left of the power station, surrounded by a lath fence, is one of the seven reservoirs so often alluded to by the company’s write-ups. This reservoir is empty, has been used as a horse corral, and is now doing countries he passed himself off as Mal- lorey, Fleming, Willey or Ball. Once in a while he went as John H. Kim- berley. In Paris he claims to have met and dined with the Prince of Wales and Sir Dudley Ward. rowed $150 from the Prince on the strength of Masonry. In Madrid he worked Minister Hannis Taylor for free transportation to the Rock of Gibral- tar by the way of Cadiz. Things came | his way in every city in everv country. He wanted for nothing because he had a snap on the Masonic fraternity. It is admitted that this man, notwith. standing that he Is not a Mason, knows more about Masonry than thousands of ordinary Masons. In this respect he stands without a peer in the civillzed world. At first it seems almost impossible that Fleming could have fleeced the fraternity so easily, but after reading his confession the matter appears in another light. The secret of his suc- cess lay In the fact that he knew all For dessert he bor- | Master A. W. Frater of Snohomish was instructed to have the matter thor- oughly investigated. Frater took ex- Sherift Van de Venter into his confil- dence. They took careful note of all the complaints made, and arrived at the conclusion that one man had been doing all the work, and that man, in spite of his aliases, was none other than Martin Mallorey. Not only did the description of the man confirm this belief, but also the significant fact that the man was always fleeing to avoid arrest for killing a man in self-defense. Letters containing a description and a brief account of the system employed by the man were sent to lodges in all | parts of the United States and foreign | countries. The result was astonish- |ing, even to Grand Master Frater |and Mr. Van de Venter. In a brief | period they received over 100 answers. | Having satisfled themselves as to the man they wanted they kept up cor- respondence in all directions with a view to securing Mallory’s arrest the | RRRRRRERBBBBRNN NEWSBOYS FOR 3 cents a copy, while to the public were sold for 2 cents. obligation not to sell the paper. following resolution: Whereas, the San Francisco fair newspaper, willing to give the ganization, extend to The Call our reading public of Los Angeles. advance. The union newsboys are 8230820300828 080000 0000000t n et B % a0 LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22.—For a week now the sixty newsboys of this city, united as a Newsboys' Union, have declined to sell the Ex- press upon the streets for the reason that they were compelled to pay Not one single newsboy has gone back on his The union at its meeting adopted the it is a fearless defender of the people’s rights; therefore be it Resolved, That we, the news boys of Los Angeles, through our or- that we will make every effort to get his paper in the hands of the The union meets in Council of Labor Hall every Friday evening and itsfinancesarein excellent shape for it has three months’ rent paid in schools andtheyannounce that they will carry the fight against the Ex- press to the bitter end or until they can get fair treatment. CLARK ACCUSED OF FRATRICIDE BY A CORONER’S JURY WIDOW OF HIS BROTHER TESTIFIES W as Unduly Intimate With the Accused Man. Revolting Story Involving a Motive for the Crime. Had Promised to Wed Her Lover If Her Husband Should Disappear. TRAGEDY SOON FOLLOWED Convincing Evidence Given Against the Suspect at the Coroner’s Inquest. . Special Dispatch to The Call. ST. HELENA, Jan. 22.—District At- torney Bell and Coroner Kyser, accom- panied by Attorney Thomas Derry, ar- rived from Napa this morning and pro- ceeded at once to the Town Hall to hold the inquest on the body of William Clark. The room was crowded to the doors by a curious throng. The District Attorney at once called for Mrs. Lavina Clark, widow of the murdered man, who was the first wit- ness examined. She sald she was 46 years old, the widow of Willlam Clark and the mother of saven children, one of whem is married to George Dax. George Clark, the accused man, had resided with the family for a number of years. but not during the past few weeks or since the murdered man had found poison in his coffee, George having been ordered away from the premises on suspicion of having attempted to poison her husband. Her husband was cheerful and happy on the evening be- fore the tragedy and did not have any reason in the world for committing suicide. She and her husband had a conversation about religion that night, but never entered into any argument on that subject. On the morning of the tragedy her husband arose as usual to prepare breakfast. She did not hear a vistol- shot, although it may have awakened her. The first noise she heard was a struggling and moaning. She thought her son-in-law in another room might have a nightmare, so went to the kitchen to tell her husband to arouse the son-in-law. Opening the door, she found William Clark lying on the floor. The body was in a perfectly straight position, the head inclined to the left. She then aroused her son-in-law, George Dax, saying: “I think Will is dying.” She thought he had a fit or spasm. Dax turned the body over and found the pool of blood on the floor and dis- covered the bullet wound. Then Mrs. Clark exclaimed: “Oh, he’s been shot.” Her husband did not speak, but only gasped. She then said: “Will, won’t you speak to me?” But Willlam Clark was past notice of earthly things and soon breathed his last. Mrs. Clark said that her husband us- ualy arose at 4:46. That she did not know what time the alarm was set for on the morning of the murder. She said that her husband did not have to go out after wood in the morning; the children got it the night before. She asked her husband why he arose so early when he did not have to go to work until 6:30 o’clock, and he replied: “I want plenty of time.” He would sometimes sit and read be- fore leaving the house. Mrs. Clark us- ually arose before her husband left in the morning. She repeated that the murdered man had no motive for sui- cide; that he had been very cheerful and happy of late years. Mrs. Clark said that George Clark, the accused man, was about 37 years of age. She first knew him at his uncle’s TR ELBREN OPULAR RIGHTS. calling at the Express office they Call has demonstrated that it is a news at all times, and inasmuch as thanks and assure its proprietor J. D. EMERINE, President. almost all pupils of the public L FEEEEEREEEREEEEE PR TR