The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 1, 1900, Page 1

VOLUME LXXXVIII-NO. 154. SAN FRANCISCO, . THURSDAY, NOVEMBE i LT D WORKN, STHEDULES ployes Submita | Request, GEORGE W. ROOT, CLERK OF THE INVOLVED IN A GRAVE SCANDAL WHICH IS CALLED | TO THE ATTENTION OF CHIEF JUSTICE BEATTY Southern PaciticEm- CTeditors Accuse the Clerk of Deception, Double Dealing and AIcEm Swindling—Root Brings a Storm About His Head by Choosing as a Deputy a Confessed Embezzler. | .06&600006000000060000600404*009000060#004004##0040000000000#096’ + An ugly scandal has burst forth in the office of George W. Root, clerk of the Supreme Court. . - + Mana, S + Root is accused of barterin, ositions in his office for political and financial favors. His creditors have + W + g P ;. & s + threatened him with suits and Chief Justice Beatty of the Supreme Court has been implored to make him 4 FflVOI‘b a,n E,Qn[— + pay a debt which, it is alleged, he incurred to make good money received by him from the Stats Treas- + e 5 ': ury and gambled and lost by him on the races. s : HOUI‘ Da} . + He is accused of notorious and open gambling and one of his creditors claims that he was grossly 4 ° + swindled by Root, who secured his savings of years made through hard and persistent labor. To cap the : climax of scandal, Root will dismiss an admittedly efficient deputy this morning and replace him in his G00D PROSPECT FOR CHANGE 3 oo of s i 4 apd : * + position of ponsibility by a man who is a self-confessed embezzler. + —_— + + COD] 411 Re resenti R‘I dM Br444 4444094290494 4444442223294 2 2444030404444 4 4400044484040 0444 P § - 11}2 allroad Xen ! CANDAL broken like a s the mercy of his employer, offering to | fairs. One of the most serious allegatious Formulates Plan in Secret Ses- over the office of George W. make restitution. He said he had lost his | made against him has ceen preferred by d M L Clerk of the Supreme C money on the racetrack. Anderson decid- | James J. Gaffney, vice president of the slon of Two Weeks. gravest accusations are being|ed to give Boody a chance, and as far as | San Francisco Transfer Compamy. Gaff- - t Root and the sens, the police were concerned the matter was ney doclares that at the most earnest For two weeks olicdon'] # r has been called to the at a pleading and solicitation of Root and a representing m . e n tef Justice Beatty of the This morning at 9 o’clock W. E. Boody | friend he loaned Root $513 for a slngle' e o Rikle Comuany. | preme ¢ For months this scandal | will be sworn in as a deputy in the office | day. This money, Gaffney #&ys, "was' . was not until | of the Clerk of the Supreme Court, to take | loaned to Root to make good money which inted to a po-| the pl made vacant by the discharge | Root had collécted from the State tfeas- ibility in his office -confessed embezzler that the storm ' k T. Barnett. Boody has been an | ury to pay the rent of the quarterS oc- of Bovee. Toy & Sonntag for' cupied by the Supreme Courts and .the S Mark and Consiga Freight in care of San Francisco 4 Transfer Company A7 AR at TR R R kbR Rk acting as San Francisco Transfer Company 3 W (//1 L Frosrny B oy Foy W% _ Main Office, 12 GRANT AVENUE, Near Market Telephone maln 505 E AN , I B i R 1, 1900. EME COURT, | ol 1 | | | ! 11s d SEoRGE. KRS HoEE. &t 2 meeting of superintendents held ir butlding yes tions broke. Mr. Sta the meeting | Root ts accused of having conspired to | that the employes ent the com- | cheat one man out of several hundreds of pigls s and of having secured $0 from ter. He pre The Clerk of the Supreme Court er. notorfous and who 1 ged with being a shameless rz track gambler, in gambling the money which he received State and which he should have satisfy a debt of the State. He is charged with being a patron of gam- blers in whose debt he has been, and yes- : he appointed to a position in his man who says he became an em- losses on the *It means 1t @ldn’t, ing two week ing our case. WILLARD MAY MANAGE THE NEW DEFENDER terd office 2 bezzler because of heavy race track. The creditors of Root have haunted him at his office in the Parrott bullding. impor- tuning him for their money and threaten- ing him with serlious harm. His friends have borrowed money for him when his Plans Are Kept Secret, but the Per- sonnel of the Syndicate Is | Fairly Well Known. NEW YORK, Nov. 1 Trose was are looking of the America’s cup their work in secret. knows what is being done except those few who are “in the helm,” and they will say nothing when asked about the new boat, declar- ing they know nothing. Certain of their plans, however, out, and it is now sald that the sy is completed, and all the mon: to bufld the new boat and to p: penses for the season has been subscribed Cornelius Vanderbilt is at the head of e syndicate, and Commodore L. C. Led- e Jour: T t re st No o manent relief was won. He has placed friends of his creditors in positions in his office, bartering his official gifts for finan- cial favor. But still the little army of the unpaid haunted him. Appeals were made to him, t@his father and his friends. In desperation one of his creditors went to Chief Justice Beatty with a hope of securing rellef. Threats of legal proceed- ings were made time and again, but those who claim to be the victims of Root had dicate wanted the ex- 4, Vice Commodore August Belmont, | POt the money with which to prosecute Rear Commodore C. F. L. Robinson, ex- | them. Commodore E. M. Brown and a few Root Appoints a Self-Confessed Em- others are members. This, it is sald, will | Eoanler. be announced in & few days. | The ugly rumors in reference to the As C. Oliver Islin and W. Bueler Dun-| nunper i which Root has made appoint- can Jr. announced that they would have hing to do with the new yacht or :he; Columbia, 2 meanager had to be found. | chibald Rogers, Charles Francis Adams | 4 E. A. Willard have been most talked ¢ Guring the last few days and it is now 214 on good authority that E. A. Willard be the man Willard safled the Vigilant in the races against the Defender in 1565 and has been prominently identified with venty years or more. Mr. terday, declined to | either confirming or ments in his office reached a climax yes- terday when the Clerk of the Supreme Court appointed W. E. Boody as a deputy in his office. A year ago last March Boody confessed that he was an embez- zler and would plead gullty to that charge if it were made against him. He was at that time and had been for two years the trusted agent of H. F. Anderson of Ben Lomond, Santa Cruz County. As such agent Boody handled a great deal of money for Anderson, who had gone to Eu- rope for a year. When he returned he was not satisfied with the condition of Boody's accounts and demanded a settle- ment. This was not forthcoming, and An- derson applied to the police. Two detec- tives were detalled on the case, but were unable to find Boody. The latter had evidently heard that he was wanted and surrendered himself. He said that he did not know what charge would be preferred against him, but if Anderson charged him with embezzlement he would plead gu\lty. An investigation was made and Boody threw himself on statement It is also said that the new syndicate pay the cost of running the Columbia. t year Commodore J. Plerpont Morgan sldered the cost of the two boats, and syndicate, it is said, will do the same t year. Highlanders Ordered to China. ». DURBAN, N Oct. 31L.—The Gordon ders and the Devonshire Regi- have been ordered o be ready to sall for China in a few days. of expose, ugly facts and serious allega- | credit had been exhausted, but no per- some time, and he fs prominent in Ala- m. a politics. He worked for Root dur- ing the campaign that made Root clerk | of the Supreme Court, and this, coupled with the fact that he and Root are per-| | sonal friends, 18 the reason Root gives for ‘ | s his appointment. | | “I have known Boody for five years | | now,” said Root yesterday, “and he and | | I have been very friendly. He has engi- | neered several deals of importance for me | | and 1 have tried to look out for him. I } GEORGE W. ROOT, CLERK OF THE SUPREME COURT, PRECIPITATES A SCANDAL I JAMES J. GAFFNEY AND GEORGE KRISTOFF PRE- ZZLER A DEPUTY. ‘T THE CLERK. 118 OFFICE BY MAK- ‘f‘ I got him a place in the Tax Collector’s of- - fice, but when the civil service was R 7 plied to the office he had to go. Sinc ; then he has been connected with Bovee, | | ING A SELF-CONFESSED EMBE! Toy & Sonntag. He asked me to make a FER GRAVE CHARGES AGAINS place for him, and T have done so. There L is no pull behind him; it is an appoint- ment made for friendship alone. How Root Barters Positions. | “In regard to the discharge of Barnett, !'T think he understands all about it. I am sure I have his personal friendship still, but, of course, I do not ask for his political friendship. He came to me at Bacramento and asked me if I wished his support, and, of course, I said I would be grateful for anything he could do for me. I think he overestimates his strength In Alameda County, but, anyway, he has been working for me for sixteen months at §150'a month, and I think that pays for anything he did for me during the cam- paign. “I have a good man in Sacramento, and one whom I did not wish to let go. The man I have in Los Angeles has married since I appointed him and he now has his wife to support. The chief deputy ir this office is an old friend of mine and I would | mot let him go, and the assistant lLiere has a widowed mother and some brothers and | sisters to support. Barnett is not married and he has no one dependent upon him. He has done good work for Metealf and Metcalf can surely look out for him. He 18 a good clerk—an excellent clerk, and when he left I was willing to give him any recommendation In that line that he wanted. “I would have kept him to the end of the year, but I figured that by that time all the available places would have been filled, and so I thought it was better to make the change at once. He will be looked out for; that is certain, and I knew It when I selected him as the one to be discharged.” This is the manner in which Root makes and unmakes the deputies in his office. He dismisses a clerk whose ability he admits for one who has been under the eye of the police and in the shadow of the gravest suspicion, A But the appointment of his clerks is not the most serious reflection upon his af- Clerk of the Supreme Court in the Par- rott bullding. This money received from the treasury, Gaffney says, was gambled | and lost by Root on the races. On August 26, 1899, Gaffney loaned Root the money for one day without grace, and he has not received back one dollar. Grave Charges of Corruption. “I loaned this money to Root,” sald Mr. Gaffney yesterday, “to get him out of a very serious predicament. He came to me with A. W. Duncan, who told me that Root would be thrown out of the of- fice of the Clerk of the Supreme Court if he did not get it. He said that Root had collected the money with which to pay the rent of the Supreme Court quarters and had gambled and lost it on the races. He sald that the agent of the Parrott building was constantly after Root, who was afraid to go near his office. “Both pleaded with me to lend Root the money, but I had had an experience with Root which made me hesitate. Just after he had been elected Clerk of the Supreme Court and before he took office he bor- rowed $500 from me, with the understand- ing that the loan was to be for. thirty days. It took me five months and the greatest amount of trouble to get my morey back, and I was not anxious to re- peat the experience. “But Root continued to plead. He sald that he needed the money only for one day and he would give me a chattel mort- gage on his furtniture if I would lerd him what He® wanted. Finally Duncan said that he would pay me if Root did not, and with that understanding I agreed to lend it. Duncan’s interest in the matter was created by the fact that his brother is a deputy in Root's office. On August 26, 1899, I loaned Root $51371, which I handed to him in a check that I had just received. I took his note for the amount, the note to run one day without grace. Duncan wrote on the back his indorsement that he would pay if Root did not. “Since that time I have been utterly un- able to get a cent out pf Root, although I have been to his office forty or fifty times. He always had the same story—no money. I told him that I would expose him, but he always begged for time. He knew that I could not use violence upon him for fear of injuring my family. I told him that he was robbing my family in robbing me, but my protests did no good. An Appeal to Chief Justice Beatty. “Finally I appealed to Chief Justice Beatty to intercede for me. I showed him the note which Root had given me and told him that the Clerk of the Supreme Court ought to be thrown out or be made to pay his bills. I told Chief Justice Beatty the entire circumstances under which Root had obtained the money from me, but the Chief Justice told me that he could do nothing as Root was an elective officer and the Supreme Court could do nothing «s long as he performed his duties. “Even while he owed me the money Root had the nerve to ask me for $300 thore, saying ghat he had a chance to buy an Interest in a poolroom at Sacramento. But I wanted the money I had already given him. He kept denying me until now the note that was to run for a day has been running for more than [fourteen months and stlll Root has showed no signs of paying. And you may be sure that my experlence with the Clerk of the Supreme Court has not been exceptional. He has treated others as he has (reated me.” 8 And Mr. Gaffney shook his head in a manner that boded no good for George ‘W. Root. He was perfectly correct in saying that kis experience with Root was not excep- tional. During the past three weeks George W. Root has been compelled to entertal= PRICE FIVE WILL SPEND | product of the soil. { | Robinson has been quietly perfecting the | !plans, and yesterday he stated that noth- Ing but the defeat of the present admin- | |istration would thwart the consummation | of the big enterprise. far as to survey, ! | struction and order material. | 88,000,000 has been pledged, the bulk of the money eoming from responsible New York | ana London houses. | rallroad it is proposed to construct & big five would be secured to the enterprising cap- Italists. at this vast wealth? clal | | double San Francisco’s population inside of ten years. commercial center of the East. tablishment of a free port would soon put This Paper not | to be taken fror:\ ‘ the Library-*** CENTS., MILLIONS IN PHILIPPINES Capitalists to Build a Big Railroad in Luzon. g ' New York, London and San Francisco Financiers Backing Project. Palis FISV i |BRYAN'S SUCCESS THE ONLY BAR { | Organizer of Enterpriss Says Devel- opment of Island Will Double Gity’s Population. Provided President McKinley is re-elect- ed, San Francisco, New York and London capitalisty will proceed at once to build a big railroad system in the Philippines, opening up territ zon that, according to C. R. Robinson, a | | millioraire railroad and mining promoter, | who s stopping at the Oceidental, is rich tn-the island of Lu- almost every Kind of For two weeks Mr. n minerais and That the promoters are sincere is fndi- cated by the fact that they have gone so plap ‘every Qetall of con- More than In addition to the dock at Mariveles, which ig about twenty- miles from Manila. By establishing free port there a fine commercial trade Mr. Robinson leaves for Manila to-day. He has spent twenty years theve, making occasional trips to States. He is an | extensive land owner in the Philippines ! and is at the head of the Towboat and hDo& Company of Manila. “people of this country,” he sait yesterday, “have no idea of“the vast of wealth in those islands. Ewery then I hear somebody aslk, t are we going to do with them? What an absurd question. Keep them, of course, What fools we would be if w now and mated. There is gold, silver, copp ccal—yes, there is coal enough in sight to supply the whole Eastern Hemisphere for 10 years to come! “What opportunity have we had to get None. In the pas: meant death, or something about as b for a foreigner to go beyond the gates of Manila. Every now and then you read about some would-be investor retyrning to the States with a petulant story about his failure to discover ax ing in the Philipine Islands. this fellow go? there six months—perhaps a year—tried to make a million with $500 capital; was | | unsuccessful, and then he comes back and | | tells the ignorant public that the islands | are not what they are cracked up to be and that they will always be a heavy | weight on Uncle Sam’s shoulders. ything promis- Where aid To Manila. He stayed “I predict that the opening of commer- relations with these islands will Manila Bay can be made the The es- Hongkong in the background and the | Philippines would become one of the most | important coaling stations in the world. Transport service would give way to reg- —_—— | ular steamship traffic and there would be | a rush of business that would startle the dally a man who claims to have been de- frauded by Root and who daily demands his money, the amounit of which, as evi- denced by a promissory note bearing Root’s signature, is $1266. The mah who is thus persistent is George Kristoff, who came to California a few years ago to better his fortunes and whe has lost the | savings of his lifetime and is left penni- less by reason of the trust he had In promises which have been broken untii Pe has become well nigh discouraged. Root’s Nemesis Haunts Him. Still, like a Nemesis, he haunts the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court. | When the clerk is busy with others and he has been bowed out into the outer office Kristoff frequents the vicinity. He has already become well known, by sight at least, to those whose duties dafly call them to the Supreme Court. He has blua | eyes and arching eyebrows that almost | meet. He i= of medium height and has | light hair, is stocky of bulld and has that ! in his manner that would indicate reso- luteness of purpose. His avowed intention is not to quit seeking for his money until he gets it. He departs one day only to reappear the next and he has always the | same mission. | Mr. Kristoff told his story yesterday and showed his proofs of his evidence of the correctness of some of the main facts in the writing of the Supreme Court Clerk. | In addition to the note, a copy of which is | printed herewith, Mr. Kristoff has letters signed by Root. One of these is dated San Francisco, January 29, 139. and is as follows: Friend George: I got your letter at Sacra- | mento and also the one at home. I watted for you at the house to-day, as I wished to talic with | you and also give you some money, but I have not got it all yet, but expect to before long; am sure of having it by the last of February and can get you a job until that time. Will | Continued on Page Two. i | store. | as was his custom, world.” Mr. Robinson says it will take from four to five years to bulld the rallroad. The grading can be dcne in from eighteen months to two years. A straight line has | been surveyed, the idea being to branch out from the main road after the latter's completion and as the country is openmed {up. Between 300 and 400 miles of track will be laid. BLOW UP A SAFE AND SET FIRE TO A TOWN Attempt to Rob Postoffice in Shelby, Nebraska, Results Disastrously to Citizens. SHELBY, Neb., Oct. 3.—As the result | of the blowing open of the safe of the | postoffice between midnight and 2 o’clock this morning Shelby had the most disas- trous fire in the history of the town. The entire opera-house block, with all the stores and offices contained therein, was totally destroyed. The total loss is $29,600, partially covered by insurance. The losses in detall are: Opera-house block, owned by Dr. Inks, George E. Brigham and Frank E. Brig- ham, $12,000, insurance $3000; Frank E. Erigham, general merchandise, $10,009, in- surance $7700; Elmer E. Knorr, hardware and jewelry, $2000; the Sheiby Sun, $800; Dr. Ink's office, $200, insurance $200; Dr. Woodward's office, $200; Dr. Bell, dentist, $200; Ida M. Yertey, store, $200; George E. Prigham’s farm implement store, $§1200. The fire was discovered about 2 o'clock by Mr. Hartel, who happened to be pass- ing.* No one heard the explosion in the postoffice, which was located in Knorr's The burglars got nothing from the safe, for Postmaster John Ballenger had, taken all the cash home the evening before. The burglars got their tools by break- ing into W. L. Gould's blacksmith shop. They also entered Ratburn’s general mer- chandise sf re and Goetzes meat market, but carried away nothing.