The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 26, 1900, Page 1

VOLUME LXXXVII—NO. 57. SAN FRANCISCO, FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1900. PRICE FIVE CENTS. REICN OF MUCH HARD FIGHTING TERROR IN YET AHEAD OF BULLER H[]N[]LU[U British Relief Column Cannot Reach Ladysmith Harvest of Death Is Increas- ing Daily in the Islands. 0XE WHITE VICTIM Armed Citizens of Hilo Meet Attor- ney General Cooper at Wharf and Refuse Him Landing. ONDON, Jan. 26.—At 2 o'clock this morning we know as much as we did at 10 o'clock yesterday morning —nothing more. General Bullexr’s dispatch announcing the taking of | Spion Kop is the only intelligence which has reached London, and that is so brief that we have little detall of what has happened. If Splon Kop'is situated | ¢ as indicated, at a point where two ridges unite, running northeast to Dewdrop and I northwest to Acton Homes, its occupation | 4 by the British troops must have cut the advance of the Boer position in two. According to General Buller's dispateh | General Warren thinks the position along the Tugela has been rendered untenable by the capture of Splon Kop, assuming. of | course, that the British are able to hold it. The Boers were holding a very long line. It was something like thirty miles long, their extreme right being at Spion Kop and Mount Fabamyana, the center | opposite Potgieters Drift and the left at Coleneo. It was impossible for them to be equally strong in force throughout this | | distance. While they held General Lyt- | ease through the bite of a flea. telton’s brigade in check at Potgleters Drift they tried an attack on Colensc, | + D+4+44+ 444444444444 +44+44@ | which proved ineffectual against Barton | brigade. (CTORIA, Jan. %5.—The harvest of | It was natural for them to suppose that death is increasing dally at Hono- | t: > attack, which had gone on almost un- lulu. According to advices re- | !Nterruptedly for four days on the western | ceived by the steamer Miowera, @000 0-0+0+000+0 which arrived this morning, when she left, on January 17, the death roll | had reached thirty-pine. She brought no | ¢ passengers from the infected port, but her | purser says a thousand or more were of- fering, for there was & panic in the | plague-stricken city. The panic was due | ¢ to the fact that the last victim of the < plague had been a white woman and one whose mode of life was such that none ¢ would ever have dreamed that she would ¢ have fallen a victim. The lady, Mrs. George E. Boardman, lived in the best of | ¢ style in a good part of the town. She ¢ had a large house and kept several ser- ¢ vants. She was of excellent family and ¢ prominent in church work of the city. Her husband, who is an agent for the im- portation of Japanese laborers, has “a ' ¢ slight touch of Hawailan blood. She was © certainly thought by all to be immune. After an illness of two weeks she de- veloped plague symptoms and on the 14th, two days later, was dead. & Many are the stories told of how she be- came infected. She was manager of the art department of a large store and,a ¢ @ead rat was feund in her ‘department. Ene oo perintended the removal of the rat &nd it 1s thought she then contracted the disease. Others say that obe of her o servants was in the cordoned districts and ¢ she secured his release from quarantine o end contracted the scourge from him. When it was known that she had fallen & victim the panic was intense and there was talk of & general quarantine with the suspension of all business. No such action PS was, however, taken. é A sanitary committee has been organ- ized by the citizens, the town has been ¢ @ivided and a volunteer inspector ap- @ pointed 1o each district. Each person in ¢ the district is seen twice a day by the in- Thus it is hoped that each new ¢ case will be discovered in its inciplency | o &nd thus the plague will be checked. The citizens of Hilo have taken a firm stand ¢ to prevent the landing of steamers there € from the infected ports. Sheriff Andrews, ¢ egent of the Board of Health, has issued orders forbidding communication with Honolulu, and the citizens armed with guns and other weapons see that no steamer lands from that port. Several steamers which had permits from the Board of Health were refused # landing, | end even supplies and water. When the Kinau was sentback without being allowed to land the Board of Health sent Attorney | General Cooper as its agent, at the same time revoking the commission of An- | drews. When Cooper reached Hilo he ‘was refused a landing, & mob armed with guns, etc., gathering on the wharf to pre- went him. On Andrews going on the Kinau to consult with Cooper the mob 2lso refused to allow him to return ashore, and he only got back with the help of the officers of the survey ship Pathfinder, who assisted him to make a landing by force. When the Miowera left the ques- | tion of food supply In many parts of the island was becoming serious, and the peo- ple of Honolulu greatly condemned the action of Hilo, which they charged was acting as it did to make itself the source ©f supply. The fire department is still busy daily burning down infected bulldings. No less than ten blocks have been burned. When the steamer was at Honolulu the steamer Yorihime Maru arrived from Japan with sbout 60 immigrants, and two days be- fore the steamer Doyo Maru arrived with | 900. There are now nearly 4000 in quaran- tine. Dr. A. Carmichael of the United States been stricken with the bubonic plague, and the attending doc- tors are of the opinion that he was inoculated with the dis- 0:00000040 SEE0e ! ; t ; i ; t 4046+ 0000000000000 THE BATTLE The above picture, taken from the London Graphic, shows well the final movement in the capture of Spion Kop by General Warren’s | men, as described in the dispatches. The advance in open order up the steep slope and the encounter at close quarters on the crest have been more than once repeated in the Natal campaign. e e | slopes of Mount Tabamyana, would be | Trichards Drift and Potgieters Drift, Marine Hospital has been appointed chief | continueu on the fifth. They therefore | which converge on Dewdrop, should be Quarentine officer at Manila, and he will may have strengthened their right, leav- | set free for Warren's division and Lyt- leave for his post by the next avallable | ing Spion Kop, which it is possible they | telton’s brigade. steamer. | deemed inaccessible, with only a .mall | Behind Spion Kop there are several fine Purser Young of the Miowera says he | garrison. This was General Warren's | positions for defense, which will doubtlcss was told at Honolulu that a number of | chance. be taken possession of by the Boers. The passengers are coming to the coast from | The Boers massed on Mount Tabamyana | most advanced one is Schumansdal, four there in salling vessels. discovered on Wednesday morning that | miles to the north, or General Joubert There was considerable excitement at | Spion Kop had been taken by the Britisn | may seek to concentrate his forces at Bydney when the Miowera left. The | attack, and endeavored to drive Warren's | eftfer Arnot Hill Farm or Dewdrop, plague bad broken out at Adelaide, and in | men from the position which they had | where he can make strong defensive posi- New Caledonia there had been sixteen | won. For the whole of Wednesday hey | tions. @eaths. The cases were averaging three | stormed it with shot and shell, but the| It is evident that at least' one more por doy. E British troops held on. When Buller sent | battle will have-to be fought before Bul- — T his telegram Spion Kop was still in Bri'- | ler can stretch his hand to White. FIRE R [l S ish hands. No list of casualties in the recent fight- Owing to the night march and suuden | ing has been received, but the Daily Mail —_— surprise of the Boer garrison Warren did | states that General Woodgate, one of not suffer many casualties before cawn{ Warren's brigade commanders, whom broke, but Buller states that the shell fire | Buller = reported . to be dangerously of the ememy was very deadly during | wounded. has since died. Wednesday and that the loss was consid- | In view of the hard fighting, General ok g ‘Buller may need considerable reinforce- It Is hardly possible that the British | ments, while the Ladysmith garrisqn is VICTORIA B. C.,Jan. 25.—What threat- ened 1o be one of the biggest fires Victoria has ever known was fortunately checked to-night, and the flames confined to one block which was wholly destroyed. Loss will Dot exceed $5000. — —— Mother of an Editor Dead. DENVER, Colo., Jan. 2.—Mrs. Eliza- beth Malone, mother of Rev. Thomas H. Malone, editor of the Rocky Mountain Catholic and well known as an author and were able to get any guns up to Spion Kop before Wednesday night, and in con- sequence they were probably unable to reply to the Boer artillery on the sur- rounding eminences. There is no doubt, however, that during Wednesday and Thursday the British guns were moved up under cover of dark- ness. With the artillery in place upon Splon Kop, the country can be swept for three or four miles around. The Boer positions, on two ridges running to the northwest and northeast at a level of 200 feet below, are commanded by the sum- mit. Spion Kop is nine miles in a direct line from drop, where many important roads converge, and sixteen miles from Ladysmith. Jecturer, died at the home of her son to- might, aged 77 years. If the Boers are forced back from their present position the two roads . from probably short of ammunition and*will not be able to give much help till the re- lief column draws much nearer to the town. On the Stock Exchange the news of the taking of Spion Kop was recelved with great enthusiasm, but there was no jump in prices, as the disposition is to profit by past experience and exercise caution until confirmatory information has been received that the Boer position Is really untenable, and that the British victory is a substantial one. —_—— TRIBESMEN ATTACK THE BRITISH TROOPS LAGOS, Colony of Lagos, British West "Africa, Jan. Z.—Advices have just been OF BELMONT. —o— received here from ‘Jebba that Captain Carroll of the Norfolk Regiment and 150 men of the West African frontier force while escorting the telegraph construction staff were attacked on January 9 by 2000 Mitchi and Basa tribesmen. Captain Eaton of the East Kent Regiment and twelve others were wounded and one member of the escort was killed. The tribesmen left elghty dead. Jebba is probably northwest of Lokoja, on the Niger, in which vicinity apparently the attack was made. 4 ———— OUT OF THE QUESTION UNTIL AFTER THE WAR Special Cable to The Call and ald. CoD‘vfll’hM 1900, by Bennett. New York Her- James Gordon BERLIN, Jan. 2%5.—The Weser Zeitung gives a semi-official’ denjal of the report that Germany has already taken the ini- tiative in summoning a conference for the regulation of maritime rights and has laid before the powers the principal points on which an agreement IS necessary. The Weser Zeitung declares that the summoning of such a conference before the end of the war is out of the question. It is, however, likely that after the war the powers will come to an agreement on the matter. Dr. Leyds will .arrive.in Berlin on Sat- urday. WILLIAM SENDS 600D WISHES TO THE DRAGOONS BERLIN, Jan.:25.—The North German Gaszette this ev publishes the follow- Firat | action for 200,000 francs as Unless a Most Important Battle Is Won. General Warren Has Abandoned Spion Kop. f R A R o R 2 S R R S g asad ag a2 222X LONDON, Jan. 26, 11:05 A. M.---The} War Office announces that General ‘%Warren has abandoned Spion Kop. e el B e e SR T e n ae aa g (Royal) Dragoons has sent a telegram to the Emperor from Spearmans Camp as follows: *The Royal Dragoons send their respectful greetings on the anniversary of the birthday of their colonel-in-chief.” The Emperor replied: ‘““The colonel-in- chief sends the Royal Dragoons his best thanks for their wishe: TOLSTOI HOPES TO HEAR OF BRITISH REVERSE MOSCOW, Jan. 2%.—Count Leo Tolstof, in an interview published in the Russki Listok, denounces the war in South Af- rica as showing the “sordid and soulless commercialism that rules the world.” He says: “I hope daily to hear of a fresh British reverse. It is incomprehen- self to be the land of freedom. should wish to crush small republics which have never done her the slightest injury.” s s el igaey ENGLAND’S AWAKENING. LONDON, Jan. 2.—Willlam St. John Broderick, Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, speaking last evening at Newark, said: ““The Government has not yet controlled the generals in their operations norstinted O+ 000000 +0+0 them in the’forces they have demanded. ‘We have implicitly followed the guidance of military advices.” Later in the speech he remarked: “It should be the duty.of the Government and the Parliament to see that our military organization is made equal to the needs of the empire.” MACRUM AND LEYDS PARIS, Jan. 25, 5 a. m.—The _Patrie ,vesterday asserted that Charles E. Ma- crum, former United Stgtes Consul at Pretoria, had visited the Foreign Office ‘with Dr. Leyds’*in order to fulfill a mis- sion Intrusted to him by President Kru- ger.” The Foreign Office declares the story a “fake” and Dr. Leyds in an interview published this morning says there is not a word of truth in the statement: that he has not seen Mr. Macrum, and that he is able to afirm publicly that Mr. Ma- crum is not the bearer of any letter from Mr. Kruger. FIGARO FILES CROSS COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES In Reply to Count Castellane’s Suit for 100,000 Francs, the Paper Sues for 200,000. PARIS, Jan. 2.—The Figaro publishes this morning the following statement by the manager of the paper: “Comte Boni de Castellane having had inserted in several newspapers his dis- patch of yesterday, which our chief editor personally could afford to disdain, but whose evident intention was to injure the commercial Dm'gem of the Figaro Com- any, we have decided to reply to the ‘omte’s of 100,000 francs by a cross damages.” sible to me that England, boasting her- | B S e R e R o o e e R e s S S e e e ESOLA IS WITHDRAWN FROM A LOST CAUSE Decency Wins a Triumph Be- fore the Police Commission. The Way Is Now Clear for the Election of a Man Who Is Qualified to Be Chief of Police. REDERICK L. ESO has been withdrawn by his s r, Mayor James D. Phelan,as a candidate for Chief of Police. The chief magis- trate of this city cannot keep his discreditable ante-election compact. He | cannot make of the Police Department of San Francisco a chattel which must be included among his personal belongings, to be pawned or bartered as the exigen- cles of his political bargains may dictate. The people of this city have been saved from a reign of terror in which the su- premacy of the evil elements of metro- politan life would be a menace to every home. A decent public opinion has won a triumph in which all good citizens have 2 share and have the deepest reasons for congratulation. In the fight to prevent the success of the gigantic conspiracy of political schem- ers to transform a great instrument of good government into a machine for evil doing, for a network of bribery, for the indulgence and protection of crime, some reputations have been lost, some political suns have set in the oblivion of dishon- orable acts; but those that have been punished raised themselves to a bad emi- nence of evil power and deserve the re- buke which they have received. The city will not be burdened by a dis- honest police administration planned by political tricksters as the price and re- ward for influence. The Police Commis- sioners have risen superior to the tremen- They have proved themselves worthy of the names which they have won in this community. They have asserted thelr manhood and bave in their actions an- | rounced to Mayor Phelan that his gift of office to them did not make them his pup- pets, to be pulled or crushed as his fancy dictated. They have announced to him in thelr deliberations that he cannot buy and sell them as he negotiates his bonds. This victory Is Instinct with meaning to the people of San Francisco. The struggle to secure it possessed no element of par- tisanship. It was tainted by no unworthy motive. It was inspired solely by the de- mand for a pure, decent public policy, to which the people of Sen Francisco are en- titled. The victory, which means so much to the people of this city. was won. yester- day at the meeting of the Police Com- mission. Uatf! the very Jast moment Mayor Phelan, recreant to the high trust imposed in him, unfaithful to the princi- ples which bring homor to public men, strove to force the commission to pay his | political debts. Indeed, his messenger in- vaded the very meceting room of the Com. missioners to plead, cajole and threaten. The Mayor was In consultation with the man to whom he had sold his political honor. He devised, in the desperation of a lost cause, to find some way to avoid the crash of fallure so quickly following the odium of dishonest acts and the ex- pose of a trickster’'s cheap scheme. But there was no way out. The Mayor had pleaded again with some of the Commis- sioners to give him the poor boon of a fictitious success, that under it and the charity of silence he might escape. - He asked them supplicatingly to appoint Esola if only for two weeks; to make him a temporary Chief of Police; to do any- thing that might permit his Honor to es- cape from the scorching light of ublic scorn. But the Commissioners were ob- durate. Their own repufations were at stake. They knew the significance of the | scheme and the serfous meaning of plac- ing the Police Departmerit in the hands of | men who would use it for their own pur- | poses. Each Commissioner was prepared to re- port his findings in the Investigation of | Mayor and his fellow-conspirators were | working. In substance the report of Coin- | misstoner Newhall was to the effect that | Esola is incompetent and unfit for the position of Chief of Police. Commissioner | Biggy was ready to report that Esoia is not only incompetent but for other rea- sons is an unworthy aspirant for the of- | fice. Commissioner Thomas had prepared a report exonerating Esola from the spe- cific charges 'preferred by an eveming newspaper. This report Commissioner Mc- Nutt was ready to sign. The commission was thus in a deadlock and the delay in reaching a conclusion convinced the Mayor that all hope of electing Esola was lost. Mayor Phelan dous political pressure placed upon them. |* the young leutenant, behind whom the | had been In conference with the leuten« ant’s chilef backer and with him had reached the inevitable conclusion that the desperate, disgraceful fight had been lost. The Mayor determined, therefore, to snatch at least a little consolation fromr the wreck of his plot so he sent his sec~ retary, Willlam P. Sullivan Jr., to the rooms of the Police Commission with a proposal which was offered as a com- promise, but which possessed no other significance than a plea for a poor com= cession. Mayor Phelan cared nothing thenm that his movements were observed by many. He sought no longer to hide the disgraceful fact that he had attempted to prostitute the commission and was striving still to Influence its action. The shame of that exposure was lost in the dread of a greater one, and so Colonel Sullivan khocked at the door of the Commissioners’ room and was ad- mitted. He came, he said, to offer a con- cession and to ask for one. He declared that Mayor Phelan agreed to withdraw Esola as a candidate for Chief of Police if the Commissioners would agree to sign a report exonerating the young leuten- ant from the specific charges preferred against him by an evening newspaper. ‘The Mayor was on his knees. He had no power to consummate the plot which clothes him now in the garb of a discred- ited politiclan. whose greed for place overmatched his judgment and covered him with confusion. The Commisgioners discussed the Mayor's plea at length. It was finally decided that public policy demands no more than the removal of Esola as a pre- sumptuous aspirant for Chief of Police and not necessarily his dismissal from the Police Department. So the Mayor’'s plead- ing found a listening ear, and by a unani- mous vote the following resolution was adopted: In re charges preferred by Fremont Older against F. L. Esola. We find Frederick L. Esola not guilty on any of the specific charges preferred against him by Fremont Older. This decision does mot mean that the board has come to any conclusion on the appoint- ment of & Chief of Police. GEORGE A. NEWHALL. President, WILLIAM THOMAS. ‘The concluding paragraph of the foree going resolution settles F. L. Esola as @ candidate for Chief of Police of this city. He has been withdrawn and the episode, as far as he is concerned, is over. Colonel Sullivan left the rooms of the Commis- sioners with rellef. The Commissioners then discussed the claims of other candi- dates. The name of Police Captain G. W. Wittman was suggested, but friends of his had already announced that he is not an aspirant for the position. He had sald that as a police captain he has a lucrative position during good behavior and he does not care to accept the larger salary but shorter term of Chief of Police with its hazard of political changes and dublous consequences. Under these cir- cumstances his name was withdrawn from the list of eligibles. Robert Hogan and Charles Holbrook were also consid- ered, but the Commissioners did not deem them available for the serious duties of the ‘position. The Commissioners had canvassed all of the candidates and had accepted none. The ground has been cleared, a serious difficulty has been passed and the odor of an unwelcome political nest has been removed from the deliberations of the commission. These gentlemen have in- sisted upon exercising their own personal judgment unhampered by anybody’s pledge or promise. They have nothing to disturb their purpose to obey an honor- able public policy and to place in com- mand of the Police Department of this city a man who shall be above reproach and shall possess the experience and the ability which shall qualify him to perform the serious and grave duties of his office. As The Call has said before it has no candidate and will ggest none. The Commissioners are men of affairs and of varied experience. They know the seri- ous obligation which has been placed upon them in their relation to the people of San Franeisco and they are asked simply to take a man of their own choosing to administer honorably and efficiently the tremendous machinery of the department of police. LONDON, Jan. 17.—The following ac- count of the battle of Colenso, written by an infantry officer present, was received by to-day's mail: “After that most terrible one-sided bat- tle of Colenso last Friday I fainted when 1 got to camp from sunstroke, and on Saturday morning I found that I had dys- entery. How any one escaped on Fricay i{s a marvel to me. We were nine and a half hours under fire, and it was like a severe hailstorm on a tin roof. I could not put my glasses up without hearing ‘phit-phit-phit.” From the very first I saw it would be no go. Directly we got under fire a corporal said to me, ‘I wonder how many Boers there are hidden in that wood opposite along the Tugela River: “] sald, ‘I expect it is full of them, as Buller has never shelled it at all.” T was right. Two companies of the Twenty- third went in, and jolly soon came out through us and exposed our four compa- nies to a double fire,'and I don’t ses iow we escaped at all. Then I saw about three companles of the Seventh Fusileers go in on the left of the taken guns, and they soon came out of it. After that we were told to advance a bit, and eventuaily we were called off as escort to the lost guns, with the result that we retired (when or- dered to, and ‘Tommy’ did not like the | word at all), and had six officers taken | and over 100’ men killed, wounded, miss- soners out of a total of thirteen I oL Pr 372 mon With which we stare: 2 bope T shal] never be again, and then: 13‘-«', To it'all, they Deppered us with all, they AN OFFICER’S STORY OF COLENSO DISASTER Correspondence of the Associated Press. shot, shell and those Mludy 1-pound Maxim-Nordenfeldt shells and- Mausers until we had retired well out of range. “But poor ‘Tommy’ was simply grand. On the troops went through it all. =They never hesitated one moment, never flinched. On they went, with destruction and death and agony all around them. I shall never forget the sight. A man was hit; on the line went. A shell fell be- tween two men at six paces; on they went. A shell blew a poor captain of the Connaught Rangers to bits. A sub- altern of the Inniskillings close by looked back, but could see absolutely no trace of his comrade left, and I see he is re. rted as missing, as they could not find im, and yet on went the line. My own company was most light ed. One old soldler, who used to_be the quarter- master’s storeman at Chatham, was in front of me while we once were ordered to turn in file to the left and wheel to right to double about half a mile to the right flank of the guns, and when a bul- let whizzed very close to him he began to play antics and skip about, laughing an i:kin( the while. The bullets were as thick as bees and I had several mighty close to my head. lay down. Showers of bullets came. was truly a one-sided game, as we could see no one to alm at at all. Just before we lay down a private behind me said: ‘Sir,. I don’t know how we got through all this without one of us getting hit. think God must be to us to-day.’ 'al:l much {mp by what this man said. b"'l'ohlhow what a m] 4 :flhv “Tor when near camp felt v 11 leas’ were giving way. 1 hed & pain"1n my back (the sun since 3 a. m.), so one of to fall out and ‘where he had Directly we halted