The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 26, 1898, Page 1

) VOLUME LXXXIIL—NO. ¢ = =1 SAN FRANCISCO, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1898. PRICE FIVE CENTS. MRS. CL ARK VISITS THE MURDERER | The - Arrival Accompanied by a Daugh= ter, She Goes to Napa’s | Jail to See Him. Sheriff McKenzie Taking Precau- tions to Guard Against Any Attempt to Lynch the Prisoner. *fi***********%** e :.@OQQOOQODC‘OOOOOOO oy * The opinion liam Clar] had the pes officers of * K Ex WERE THE OFFICERS NEGLIGENT? 2 hould have been prevented. Helena run X R KKK E R R R ¥R & COOOOODD QOVOAGVEOROVOD is general that the murder of It is contended that down the attempted * & poiscner of Willlam Clark at the time the repeated attempts were # & made, Clark would now be alive and his brother precisely where * heis. It does seem that there has been inexcusable negligence. v 3 The attempted poisoning was known at the time, and it would * * little trouble for the officers to discover the perpetra- ® * » second effort should have opened the eyes to A * They should have known that such persist- 5% * ence meant success in the end. George Clark, the murderer, is 5 % * very ignorant. ‘The bungling manner in which he carried out £ * his crime showed his utter lack of intelligence and the task of o® % “ proving him a poisoner would have been easy, especially as he 29 + ¥ was suspected and openly accused by his brother. Og; 5 OOC'C‘00ODDOCUDOUOUOflGfiU(‘UU$GUG§O* 06 e “ seeew e P 1 v Jail to-day when Mrs. mpanied by hi daughter, 11 Johnson, who had down fri St. Helena on the morning train, confronted George in the Sheriff’s office. sterday morning Mrs. Clark stoutly ared that “the children” certainly, and most probably their mother, would keep away from the Napa jail, where Clark is. This merning she came down, accompdnied by one daughter, and the reason that the other four and the two small sons did not accompany her is doubtle pecuniary one. The chances are that before the close of this re- markable case this characterless fam- fly will be thoroughly united in spirit. Clark himself hasn’t wit enough to know when he is injured nor stamina enough to resent an injury should he be so unusually clever as to perceive it. Mrs. Clark is taller and stouter and han George Clar! As they stood in the Sheriff’s office to-day she looked like a lumbering schooner tow- over an ergatic cockleshell of a k stands so badly, his nar- ers are bent and he walks hanging his head, though 1 dull, big, dark eves of his can meet one squarely. nd Mrs. Clark shook hands and ci ed after the child But Mrs. Clark had not come down from £t. Helena to exchange polite common- places with her brother-in-law. She nted him to deny positively that she n implicated in the murder of | Great Eastern Building at Spokane in Which Eight Persons Were * XXX * % murder was contemplated. be no questioning the influence of this guilty woman over this guilty man. Yet, surprising to relate, Clark devel- | oped strength to refuse to answer her question. “Won't you, won't you do this for me?” Mrs. Clark pleaded. “Won't you answer the question? Won't you say that I hadn’t anything to do with #?" | “I won't talk any more” answered Clark, doggedly. “I won't say any- thing without my attorneys here.” It wasn't yet 8 o'clock, but Attor- ney Hogan was rung up and called to the Sheriff's office. Clark’s bovine eyes rested gratefully upon the lawyer. He is so easily swayed, so complete a prey to every intellectual tide that eddies about him that he clings to his lawyer with a pitiful dependence. Mrs. Clark repeated her question, and then Clark and his lawyer withdrew for a consul- tation. “He’s not going to answer that ques- tion nor any other,” declared Attorney Hogan when the two emerged from the inner office. Mrs. Clark arose from her chair be- fore the fire. She put a hand on Clark’s shoulder, saying: “Why don’t you just answer that one question? You sent for me and I came, What did you send for me for, then?” “Because I wanted to see you,” Clark answered. “Well, now, won't you tell me—won’t you relieve me?” the woman coaxed. Continued on Second Page. Incinerated. APA, Jan. 25.—There was a scene |her husband or had known that the | There can | B S S S g Guns VERY LITTLE EXCITEMENT. | Tranquillity Reigns Copyright, 1898, by James Gordon Bennett. * |2ttt b b it + + R R e R R R Y HAVANA, States battleship Malne steamed into Havana harbor this morning and came to anchor with no more disturbance than attends the arrival of the Key EXCHANGE OF SALUTES | | harbor to take on a pilot at 2 o'clock. | | | Maine in Havana Harbor. Forth the Respond- ing Volleys. Ashore to Visit Gen- eral Lee. at Capital, but a Storm May Be Brewing. NEW YORK, Jan. 25.—A spec- ial cable to the Sun from Ha- vana says: The news has spread in the town like wild- fire to-day that General Blanco has gone to have a conference with General Maximo Gomez in order to reach an understand- ing with the Cuban commander and establish peace in the island. It is said here by the Spanish authorities that this is an unfounded report, but upon careful investigation there is no doubt there is something se- rious in the wind. There is no doubt Gomez feels inclined to offer Spain an in- demnity of $100,000,000 for the in- dependence of Cuba and that the same idea prevalls in the Cuban Government, but it is also cer- tain that he will energetically reject all proposals for auton- omy. It is believed here to-day that Blanco will send a message to Gomez from El Jucaro before starting to meet him. If the Cuban leader accepts the inter- view it will then take place at some point near the trocha in Santa Clara province. General Gomez is reported to-day very near El Jucaro. Jan. 25. — The West mail steamers. Signals were flown fro Morro Cas- tle at 10 o'clock steamer had been sighted, but no pub- lic attention was attracted until the battle-ship was passing Morro Castle, when crowds began besieging the plers. When the Maine was almost alongside Morro Castle she saluted the Spanish flag with twenty-one guns. responded to by the guns of Cabanas. The firing attracted great crowds to the water front to view the spectacle. A few minutes later the Maine ran up the Spanish royal ensign and saluted the flagship with thirteen guns. that of the of Cabanas Roar| the Cuban United an American This was In re- sponse the Alfonso XIII hoisted the stars and stripes and returned the sa- lute gun for gun. Captain Sigsbee then made official calls on the admiral of the port and the captain of the Ger- man cruiser Gneisenau. ‘When I boarded the Malne Captain | Sigsbee told me that he was at Dry Tortugas at 11 o’clock when the tor- ‘West with orders to sail. He got under way immediately and came over under easy steam. He stopped outside the Captain Sigsbee came ashore at Ma- china wharf unattended, and drove to the American Consulate. The crowds | respectfully made way for him. After the call on General Lee Captain Sigs- bee returned to the shipe Absolute tranquillity reigns in the city. NEW YORK, Jan. 25.—A Washing- ton special to the Herald says: No ! word has yet been received here con- cerning the evolutions of the fleet off | Key West. Secretary Long has finally | determined to assign the torpedo boat flotilla to the North Atlantic squad- in combined maneuvers. Orders have been sent to Lieutenant Commander W. W. Kimball, commanding the flo- tilla, directing him to report with the vessels under his command to Rear ice as he may direct. These orders re- voke the instructions issued to com- manding officers of the ships and to Rear Admiral Sicard, informing them that if they should fall in with the flo- tilla they would have no command over it. Lieutenant Commander Kim- ball had been told, too, that the flotilla | was only under orders which he might | give. The programme prepared contem- plated the maneuvering of the flotilla down the Atlantic coast into the gulf, where it would touch at gulf ports and during the coming spring ascend the Mississippi. This programme has of course been abandoned as a result of the new orders sent to the flotilla, al- though it is still possible that the tor- pedo boats may ascend the Mississippi during spring. torpedo boats to the North Atlantic squadron, it is suggested in some quar- ters, is due to the Cuban question. This tion of one of the boats at Key West, which will convey any dispatches from Key West to the squadron, but with there is an adequate force at Havana to adequately protect American inter- ests. This fact tends to substantiate the statements of officers of the depart- ment, who say torpedo boats have been placed under Rear Admiral Sicard’s command is that they may engage in the maneu- vers of the squadron. SPAIN INTENDS : 7@ SOON RETURN THE COBPLINEAT. Will Send a Man-of-War to 'a Harbor of the | United States as an Act of Courtesy. MADRID, Jan. 25.—Whether it con- siders the arrival of the Maine at Havana timely or not the Government has decided toregard it asanexpression of good will, more so as all conditions are so favorable and there is a firm conviction that President McKinley will abide stanchly by his message, and that he is determined to give au- tonomy a full chance of establishing it- self. In this spirit a Spanish warship will visit an American harbor to return the compliment of the Maine’s visit. The Debats, In the course of a long article, praises the United States as a country without intolerance or ex- clusiveness, whose virtues are undeni- able. It says with reference to the con- tribution sent to alleviate the suffer- ings of refugees in Cuba that the Continued on Fourth Page. B R O R R R R R e g NEWS OF THE DAY. Weather forecast for San Fran- cisco: Falr on Wednesday; con- tinued cold weather; northerly wind. Maximum temperature for the past twenty-four hours: San Francisco Portland .. Los Angeles San Diego FIRST PAGE. Mrs. Clark Sees the Fratricide. The Maine at Havana. Lives Lost in Spokane Fire. Los Angeles Water Fight. SECOND PAGE. Milton Carison’s Report. THIRD PAGE. Four Lives Lost at Sea. Uber's Lynchers Not Indicted. 014 Woman Burned to Death. Bunkoed by a Little Girl. Field Trials for Dogs. McComas Elected Senator. Confession of a Murderer. FOURTH PAGE. Stock Growers Meet. pedo-boat Dupont arrived from Key | | ron, with a view to practicing the ships | Captain Sigsbee at Once Goes | Admiral Sicard, and perform such serv- | The assignment of the is true so far as it relates to the reten- | the Maine at Havana there is no ques- | tion in the minds of the officlals that | the main reason the | 9668600000000 00000000@ | LIVES LOST [N SPOKANE'S BIG BLAZE Eight Persons Known to Have Been In- cinerated. Entrapped by Flames in the Great Eastern Building. {One Woman Crazed by the Awful Fate of Her Two Daughters. ACT OF GREAT HEROISM. Mining Engineer Sacrifices Himself to Save a Mother and Her Children. Spectal Dispatch to The Call. [+4 44444+ 4444444444+ THE DEAD. Miss Alice Wilson, aged 18. Miss Maud Wilson, her sister, aged 5. Mrs. Rose Smith, tight-rope artist, known as Greba; aged 20. Mrs. H. B. Davies of Nebraska City, Nebr., aged 72. W. B. Gordon, mining en- gineer. Mrs. Cora Peters and daughters, Ethel aged 9 and T. two and Alma; 2045 DR A A2 0 5 6 . 00115 Prtbt ettt ettt - R R R e S R R R e SPOKANE, Jan. 25.—Eight lives lost, families broken, a mother crazed by the loss of her two daughters and a property loss of over a quarter of mil- lion dollars—that is the result of last night’s fire in the Great Eastern block. The list of dead so far known fol- lows: Miss AliceWilson, aged 18; Miss Maud Wilson, her sister, aged 5; Mrs. Rose Smith, tight-rope artist, known as Greba, aged 20; Mrs. H. B. Davies of Nebraska City, Nebr., aged 72; W. B. Gordon, mining ineer; Mrs. Cora Peters and two daughters, Ethel and Alma, aged 9 and 7. Mrs. Peters was erroneously reported to-day as Mrs. | Gordon. Gordon sacrificed his life try- | ing to save her and her children, and it was in their rooms that he met his death. To-day the local Board of Fire In- surance Agents compiled an estimate of the property lost, fixing it at $225,000. The insurance was $133,825. The loss | is generally believed to be far in ex- | cess of the estimate, for the building | cost $250,000 only nine years ago. Mrs. J. K. Wilson, whose home was formerly at Tekoa, lost both of her daughters. She has become insane over the loss, and is being cared for at the Protestant Sanitarium. Mrs. H. B. Davies, who was killed by falling to the pavement from the fifth floor, fell in attempting to follow her son-in-law down an electric cable. | Her hands slipped on the icy strands and she fell headlong. She retained consciousness until she died two hours | later. She had recently been visiting | her daughter, Dr. Emma J. Pronger, who saved herself by leaping from the | fifth floor and catching a ladder a floor below. Mrs. Davies leaves two sons, Rev. F. G. Davies of the First Baptist Church of Ottumwa, Iowa, and Sam- uel T. Davies of Nebraska City, Nebr. | Her body will be shipped to the latter place for interment. Mrs. Smith, the tight-rope walker, had an inside room on the fifth floor. She was recovering from an attack of pleurisy. Her screams were heard but no one could save her, because of the intense smoke. Mrs. Cora Peters hailed from Wicks, Mont., and had relatives at Marshall Junction, this State. She was some- times known as Mrs. W. B. Gordon, | although another lady who lives a few | blocks up the street is generally ac- | credited with the name. Gordon was ' not in the building when the fire | started. He rushed upstairs when the halls were filling with smoke and tried to get Mrs. Gordon and children out of 88889!33BRSS!88285838%%%%H@%%%%fi%%fl%%%%%%%% 2888253‘88333388%38383838383888RZ%%flufl@@%8383838'53’A’Z?u%fi%%%%%%388888882898?8%288828338888288!88 PEOPLE WIN ONE VICTORY First Step Taken at Los Angeles for City Water. Issue by Breaking Into the Field in Its Usual and Awkward Fashion. LOS ANGELES, Jan. 25.—Somebody has evidently awakened the San Francisco's yellow journal from the trance it has been in relative to events in Los Angeles. After The Call has won a number of de- clded victories for the people in the great war for economical munici- pa! ownership of the water works in this city, the Examiner, for the ‘first time seemingly, discovers that there is an issue, or rather, a num- ber of them, between the people of Los Angeles and that arch monop- oly, the Los Angeles City Water Company. Just what the purpose of the Examiner is in coming into the fight at this late day, after The Call has victoriously borne the brunt of the battle for more than a week, is not quite clear. Judging, how- ever, from the peculiar tactics adopted by its local correspondent, who is employed on one of the syndicated papers, the faking journal’s pur- pose is either to delude its readers by another one of its infamous strokes of fake enterprise, or it is seeking a pretext to get behind the Los Angeles City Water Company in the contest that is now on with full vigor. Through its agents, the Examiner caused to be distributed in this city to-day a circular in which the following three questions were pro- pounded: “Are you in favor of municipal ownership of the City Water Com- pany’'s plant?” “Are you in favor of the position taken by the majority of the City Council on the water question?” “Do you favor the position taken by Mayor Snyder on the water question?” To these questions, citizens were asked to answer in the affirmative or in the negative and to subscribe their names and addresses. If the Examiner were really allve to the situation and sincere and honest in the handling of this great water question, it would not have undertaken to reanimate a corpse. The issues it attempts to raise are dead. The three questions in which it appears to be deeply interested all of a sudden, have been fully and emphatically an- swered by the people of this city in the platforms adopted by the Re- publican, the Democratic and the Populist city conventions before the last municipal election, more than a year ago. The water plank in each of the platforms adopted by the difierent political parties has been lived up to by Mayor Snyder and a minority of the City Coun- cil, comprising Councilmen Grider and Hutchison. From. this statement of facts it is not difficult to form a conclu- sion as to how a large majority of the people of Los Angeles feel in this matter. They have already answered the first and third ques- tions, now ridiculously propounded by the Examiner, in the affirmative, and the second question in the negative. The course entered upon to- 'Examiner Seeks to Befog the 58 @ S 3 0 $38 353808205888 28 580858 3828380808 2888082032 58083808 080888088t s day by the Examiner will only tend to befog the situation. Its ques- tions do not formulate any of the live issues of the great water prob- £ lem of Los Angeles. 8 The situation may be briefly stated as follows: There is a contract #3 or lease between the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles City % ‘Water Company. This lease expires in July of this year. Under its £ terms the water plant and all that appertains thereto reverts to the % city on the payment by the latter for the imprcvements made by the £ water company during the period of the lease. The only disagree- % n.ent between the city and the water company is over the value of thesa improvements. The expert civil engineer appointed by the city 1o make an inventory and place a valuation upon the improvements es- t!mnted@ them to be worth, at a liberal valuation, a little less than one million two hundred thousand dollars. The water company claims that they should be reimbursed in the sum of three million dollars. Thus the matter now stands. What the people desire is an early set- tlement of this question of price. By the most progressive people and those most conversant with the situation it is held that whatever is paid for this worn-out and obso- lete plant of the Los Angeles City Water Company will be an abso- lute loss to the city. This claim is based on the fact that neither the water sources nor the plant are adequate to the needs of Los Angeles and are daily becoming less adequate. It is becoming more and more the opinion of the best classof taxpayers that an entirely new water system should be designed and operated—one that will be sufficient to supply a city of 350,000 inhabitants, and Mayor Snyder and Councilmen Gris der and Hutchison are the two representatives of this class of people. In the remarkable change of attitude assumed by the City Coun- cil to-day, brought about through the efforts of The Call, may be seen the first step toward the accomplishment of the wishes of the peo- ple. If this iIs followed by other measures equally public spirited, ju- dicious and well directed the chances of the water company to mulct the people will certainly be diminished. With the city engaged in the enterprise of constructing its own water works, it will be a much simpler matter to arrive at a fair and equitable valuation of the so-called improvements which the Los An- geles City Water Company is to sell to the city. Meanwhile Mayor Snyder’s position, whieh is held to be proper by some of the best legal authorities in this city, if sustained by the Council would give the city the key to the situation. At the expira- tion of the lease he proposes to have the city take possession of the water works which the Los Angeles City Water Company holds un- der a lease from the city, and to operate them under municipal con- trol. This would make it devolve upon the water company to institute any litigation that might be found necessary to determine the value of the improvements. FEEPEEREEEEEAEEE FREEEEREEREERRERE R The Monetary Conference. Sacramento’s New Chief. Hawailans Must Have Their Rights. Storm Sweeps the East. Pranks of College Boys. A. B, Spreckels May Be Chosen. FIFTH PAGE. Congress at Work. Political War in Alameda. Bangquet to the Governor. SIXTH PAGE. Editortal. Look to the Future. Two Comical Boodlers. Trying to Ereak In. A Visit From the President. Coolie Competition. Gold-Finder Marshall's Genealogy. Corridor Storfes. SEVENTH PAGE. Letter Carriers Threatened. A Whaler's Luck Ashore. News Along the Front. EIGHTH PAGE. Native Daughters' Jubilee, NINTH PAGE. Coptic Nearly Swamped. Burglars Rob a Tailor. Death of Alex Badlam. TENTH PAGB. Commercial World. ELEVENTH PAGE. News From Over the Bay. The Klondike Schemer Evolved. Mystery of Hoffman's Death. TWELFTH PAGE. Racing at Ingleside. THIRTEENTH PAGE. Rirths, Marriages and Deaths. FOURTEENTH PAGE. Herolsm of a Private Soldier. The City Hall Dome Scandal. Desperate Robbers in a Saloon. Why Dr. Brown Confessed. PPPP90900999990990900990990990090900909990900009000%00 P00000000000600009000900900000@ 9000 V90000000 90000000 their fifth floor rooms. The boy is! supposed to have escaped by the back stairs and is sald to have sprained his ankle doing so. Gordon was cut off by smoke. John H. Peet, from the avenue, saw Gordon’s face at the window and tried to have ladders elevated to him, but the ladders fouled the electric wires and | produced a short circuit. Then the peo- ple began to swarm down the ladders from the fourth floor, jumping out to catch them. Presently Gordon was seen to fall back, evidently overcome by | | smoke, and flames played where his | face had been. He was a mining man, | | formerly superintendent of a smelter at | Wicks, Mont., and later of the smel- | | ter at Pilot Bay, B. C. He was re- garded highly among mining men. The ! Jocal mining men will bury him when the remains are recovered. i | TAll the loss of life occurred on the @ | fifth floor. When the fire started in the | @ | basement the flames ate their way | @ | through the first floor before being dis- | © | covered, then shot up the elevator and | @ | air shaft to the roof, filling the upper | © | corridors with dense smoke. This @ | caused a panic among the people. Sto- @ | ries of hearbreadth escapes on all the | ol floors are numerous. @ | 9000000000000 000000000000900000000000000000000090000000¢ On the second, third and fourth floors there was no panic. City Con- | troller George Liebes, Willlam Gaston, | N. B. Buckler and others directed the | escapes and saved many lives by quiet- | ing the women and covering delicate women, who were making frantic efforts to get out, clad in only night @ ® ® ks @ ® ® ® @ close to zero. clothes, although the temperature 'l-ll LOS ANGELES, Jan. 25.—The people | of Los Angeles have won their drst| victory in the City Council in their | great battle with the water company. | This victory was only made possible by | the exposures which have been made by The Call as to the actual condition in which the fight was. The people had been Lasely deceived and betrayed by | the syndicated press, and had only baen | given such information as the corpo- ration desired they should have. The result was the rights of the peo- ple were being trifled with. Matters | were progressing just as the water company desired them to, and the deal whereby the people of this city will be | mulcted In the sum of $2,000,000 or bound hand and foot to the monopoly | for another period of fifty years was | being rapidly carried to a successful consummation. But things have changed. The Call has aroused the people to the danger | which confronts them. The water- logged syndicated local press is dis- mayed, and the water stock holders | realize that their job to hold up the water rate payers of this city after their lease of the city’'s plant expires is doomed to certain defeat. This is the work The Call has thus | far accomplished, and its labors in this | connection are by no means at an end. | No citizen of Los Angeles who is at all | posted on the water fight will contend | for a moment that the action the City Council took to-day in passing a reso- lution appointing a special committes to investigate sources of mountain wa- ter supply for this city and report back within three weeks would have been taken by the Aldermanic body if The Call had not laid bare the water com- pany’s plot. To-day such action was taken by a unanimous vote. ‘When the Council met this morning Councilman L. M. Grider offered the resolution covering the matter, and which was given in full in The Call of yesterday. - Councilman Ashman, who was the first to desert the water cora- pany phalanx, seconded the resolution. This threw the water company forces into confusion. They knew not what to do. Up jumped Councilman Toll with an amendment to the resolu- tion which provided that the investi- ®ation as to sources of mountain sup- ply should be made by a special com- mittee instead of by the Water Supply and Fire and Water Committees. Upon this amendment the vote was six to three—Nickoll, Baker, Matthus, Silver, Toll and . Blanchard; against, Grider, Ashman and Hutchison. The resolu- tion as amended was then carried by a unanimous vote. The appointment of the committee was of course left to President Silver, and here came a surprise. Mr. Sllver at once named as the committee: Messrs. Grider,.-Hutchison and Mat- thus. The personnel of the committee could not be improved on. Messrs. Grider and Hutchison are the firm and