The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 17, 1902, Page 1

SAN FRANCISCO, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1902, PRICE FIVE CENTS MASKED ASSASSIN SHOOTS SERVANT GIRL AND MYSTERY SHROUDS CRIME 3 EX-SUPERVISOR REED DENOUNCES SPRING VALLEY WATER COMPANY AN THE CITY’S BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS Before a Large Audience the A:torney Accuses Corporation of Bribery, the Bulletin of Blackmail and Incompetent San Fran- cisco Officials of Barring SAYS BULLETI FATTENS ITSELF BY BLACKMAIL UT the chief offender | is the San Francisco | Bulletin. That paper under the manage- | ment of Georme K. | Fiteh pur an inde- | pendent =and honest ca- | reer in Sam Francisco journalism and had = powerful influemce in this community. But under his | suceessor, R. A. Crothers, | the San Francisco Bulletin is the scarlet woman eof jour- nalism. It will be any one’s | mistress for a lay, if paid its price. It is a motorious fact that for the past several years the Bulietin has sup- ported prominent Demo- statesman, lately re- from mctive political At lmat ita support be- came lukewarm and finaily changed to a well-directed blackmailing roast. The statesman’s explanation of the phemomena has become famous local jourmalism. It was “the lease has expired. in that . = It is well known fact that the Bulietin holds up candidates for office at elec- tions in this town and de- mands money as the price of rt or immunity from I cite these in- stances drawn from politics, simply because the proof is absolutely convincing. The Bulletin 48 a common | strampet. It is & pity that it hes infiuence or an exten- | circulation. it ix the . | atve duty of every goed citizen to minimize its peranicious in- fimence, and expose iis cor- rupt practices, because mnot only in peolities, but in the | business world as well, the | Bulletin blackmalls and | thrives. > there crawling within the lmits of the city and county of San Francisco any- | thing more nauseous and de- graded tham the “koughten Bulletin,” or its corrupt pro- prietor, hypocritically pre- tending to be for decemecy and good government? i 7 SOR ered an address la at the Academy of Sci- ng on the subject ol cisco’'s Water Supply” ge sudience, which cheered his remarks. listened to with close caustic criticisms lic Works, the Spring Weter Company and the Bulletin plause. the tened to of ¥ the arraign- jon of the city the water company and the Bulle- questions of the ’s govern- tinent unanimously and he was the majority meetin was ject of the city’s or Reed said evening, who furnished the | 3 | g & trestie out in the middie of Lake Merced | th= Acquisitio D \ n of ‘a Public Utii v| | | | structed on a wrong guinciple. its projectors believed that sufficient rain water could be caught and stored in the San Mateo Mountains for the needs of San Francisco for years to come. But they made a sad mistake. Milllons of dollars have been spent on the peninsula | reservoirs, yet for the last five years they have yielded practically no new water, Five 8g0 the reservoirs were full, now they are about onme-sixth full. The lessened rainfall of the last five years has been a severe blow to the agricultural reglons of the State, but even more to the Spring Valley Water Works. That company is compelled to draw on the stored water of the peninsula reservoirs to a greater | extent_than the inflow, while its other sources Charles Wesley | of | address some of | f California provides that . February of each year ths | ative f each municipality shall es- b rates of compensation to be col- P e of water supplied to any city or town over the State the mandute | or the inhabit- XIV of the constitution is now eing | ed with. A discussion of San Fran & water qhestion is therefore timely, and humble opinion is of great importance, San Francisco’s Present Supply. tains 2 con gallo! sbou Most bad The £pricg Valley Water Works s con- | rancisco’s ependence for water is al- rely upon the Spring Valley Water ke tacion Water Company sup- neumers and is the only rival of the The sources of water of the Spring Water Works are three—Lake Merced, a reservoirs and Alameda Creek £u s a former arm of the ocean rain water of several f land, some of it thickly in- peninsula reservoirs are San Mateo County. but ha reservolr sites, ent areas ear's supply of water for San e reservoirs were once the Spring Valley Water ainfall of the past five ] develop to the ut- searing properties of Alameda reek has « very large drain- reservolr sites—at least, none Jght hindrance. 1In order to make of this water Chief Engineer of undersround s just above Sunel, round tunnels ob- of over eight million From these various sources galions a day are secured. of the water is good, but some of it is and getting worse ns per day t 26,000,000 When full they | waters of winter run’ into | of supply are not sufficient for the needs of San Francisco, let alone its future necessities. The water company is like & man who has money In bank and a small income from his business, but whose expenses are wreater than this income. He has to draw on the bank to keep going, and the question i, How long will it be before he is bankrupt? In like manner the Spring Valley Water Works has been drawing on the peninsula res- ervoirs for five years, and ite capital—for wa- ter is its capital—has been gradually lessened. The company has been making great efforts in the meantime to stay the dtain on its stored water by increasing its supply from other sources. It has spent, and is spending, mil- lions in Alameda; it has r-contly been using the polluted water of Lobos Creek, polsoned with the drainage from sewers, hospitzis and graveyards, but was compelled to stop by the last Board of Supervicors; and it Is now bufl present | BOARD OF WORKS | IS DECLARED THE WORST OBSTACLE UT the chief difcui- | ties in the way of municipal ownership | M San Francisco's water supply are the Spring Valley Water Works and the Board of Public | Weorks and its City Engineer. The Spring Valley Water Works is a rich, powerful | and unscrupulous corpora- tion. It is one of the chief | members of what Arthur McEwen so happily described as the “Associated Villain- | lew” It is using and will use every kind of imfluence to defeat municipal ownership and there are many powerful | factors in melding public | ovinion that are only too anxious to be used, if they be well paid. There are the pur- | chasable politicians and the purchasable press. The pur- chasable press is a danger factor against the people's interests. . e . The most serious difficul- | ty, however, which the cause of municipal ownership is Ilborlnq under in San Fran- cisco is’ a2 bureaucratic, ex- travagant, dawdiing, incom- petent Board of = Public Works and City Engineer. They came intfo office on the | high tide of the demand for public ownership of public mtilities, and have success- fully dissipated the enthu- siasm of the people, and al- mont destroved belief in the possibility of the practical success of such a policy. T fa on of time when no part of the penin- + ! T | | 1 |1 i | | | | | e s s s { ! EX-SUPERVISOR WHO DE- NOUNCED WATER COMPANY | AND THE BULLETIN. & — in order to drain the mud flats by placing its suction pipe in the deepest part of the lake. | ©On February 11, 1802, Chief Engineer | Schussler justified the expenditure of large sums of money in Alameda last year on the ground that the supply of water was running short. The question was asked by Supervisor | | Wynn, “What 1s the necessity of these proper- | ties that have been acquired to be used at the i present time by the Spring Valley Water Com- | | pany?* Engineer Schussler answered, “If we did not have that property we might find some morn- ing that we did not have quite the amount that we had heretofore.” | People Hard to Scare. Chief Engineer Schuseler also sald: *T sald last year we were in the fourth dry year, and | in spite of having had four unproductive years, " we still had water enough for the fifth year, | and that is this year. 'We are in this year | | now.”" From which the inference is plain that an- other dry year will be disastrous. We are near- 1y six inches short of rain this year as com- | pared with last year. It takes a great deal to scare the people of San Francisco. A gentleman said to me the other day that if war were declared against the United States and a hostile fleet were threatening San Francisco our people would | mot believe they were in danger tili the bombs were crashing through the roofs of their dwellings. No greater calamity than a scar- city of water can face any people, vet it ha: only been recently that the question of a water | famine could interest our people. They are, | however, waking up. The San Francisco Call | { 18 one of the organs of conservatism. No .one { can charge it with being a supporter of munt- | cipal ownerehip, yet on the 19th of last De- cember it had the following editorfal: i i’ The Real Water Problem. | “San Francisco emerges from the contro- | versy over the use of Point Lobos Creek-as | @ source of water supply only to confront a | more important problem. It is fairly certain the Spring Valley Water Company resorted | to that ereek mainly because it could not ob- | tain fromits other sources of supply a quan- j tity of water adequate to the demards at all seasons of the year. The real question before | the city, therefore, is not onme of preventing | the use of water drawn from contaminated | Water sheds. but of providing a source of water | supply which shall be not only pure but abund- | ant “The Spring Valley Water Company has evi- | dently reached the limit of its present - re- | i sources. The water taken from Point Lobos iCreek has been condemned, and It will be but a comparatively short time when the supply drawn from Lake Merced must be condemned also; for the settlement of population is ex- in_that direction. In fact, it is o1 |Pursuit of a Singlé | Fugitive Lures Mounted Force Into | carbines and revolvers until they | cers and ten men killed and several offi- | | Western horses, known as cayuses, gath- | ered from the ranges of the inter-moun- BOER LEADS THE ENEMY INTO TRAP Burgher Ends in Disaster. Britisa Lose Twelve, Killed and More Than Forty Wounded. a Position Flanked on Three Sides by Hidden Patriots. PRETORIA, Feb, 16.—One hundred and fifty mounted infantrymen while patrol- ling the Klin River, south of Johannes- burg, on February 12 surrounded a farm- bouse where they suspected Boers were in niding. A singlé Boer broke away from: the house and the British started to pur- | sue him, The Boer climbed a kopje, the British following. - Immediately a heavy | fire was opened upon them from three sides, The British found themselves in a trap and in a position where they were unable to make any defense. . Bight of the British officexs made a gal- lans effort and defended the ridge with were The British lost two offi- | | | | overpowered. cers and forty men wounded before the force was able to fall back under cover of | | & blockhouse. LONDON, Feb. 16.—Lord Kitchener in | addition to reporting the Klip River af- | fair, fays: “A party from the South African con- | stabulary line on the Watervale River en- countered on February 10 a superfor force of the enemy near Vantondorsbek pnd was.driven back with-losalt . Actording to #a- special dispatct’ from Pretoria the mounted infantrymen who were trappsi at Klip River were all freshy from home and unused to Boer tactics. The bulk of the casualties occurred dur- ing the retreat of the British. The. killed included Major Dowell, the com- mander of the force. MISSION OF KRUGER’S AGENTS PARIS, Feb. 16.—The Temps, in an au- thorized note, says that only Wessels and ‘Wolmarens, of the Boer delegates in Europe, have safled for the United States and that Fischer remains In Brussels. The note says the journey of Wessels and ‘Wolmarens has no diplomatic object; that it simply appeared necessary that they . enter into direct relations with the pro-Boer committees in the United States with a view to mutual understanding and organization. San Francisco will be one of the cities visited by the Boer agents. THE HAGUE, Feb. 16.—Messrs. Wolma- rens and Wessels sailed for New York on board the Holland-American steamship liner from Boulogne on February 14. Their tfip to the United States was decided upon at a conference held at the house of Mr. Kruger on February 12. Wolmarens and Wessels intend to tour the United States in the interest of the Boers. LONDON, Feb. 16.—In a dispatch from Amsterdam the correspondent of the Dally Mail says Mr. Kruger expects fa- vorable results from® the tour in the United States of Wessels and Wolmarens, and that they intend to exploit the diplo- matic disclosures in the matter of the Spanish-American war dispute. e CAYUSES FOR THE RAND. SALT LAKE, Feb. 16—Three thousand tain States are to be shipped to South Africa for use in the British army. The animals were purchased by agents of the British army, who have been scouring the country for weeks, and have been concen- trated in corrals in this city and at Grand Junction, Colo. The first shipment was made from here to-day, a trainload being sent direct to New Orleans. Shipments will be made daily until the entire lot is disposed of. PATRIOTISM OF MRS, DEWET. DURBAN, Feb. 16.—Mrs. Dewet in an interview held at the Maritzburg concen- tration camp sald that two of her sons were still fighting with their fathef. She regretted that the Government had not permitted her to communicate with her husband, and sald she was certain he would never surrender. Mrs. Dewet de- clared she would rather see her husband die than submit. = : THOUSANDS LOSE_ THEIR LIVES IN THE EARTHQUAKE BERLIN, Feb. 16._It is reported from Baku, Trans- Caucasia, that thousands of persons were killed by the earthquake in the Shamaka district, and that the towns and villages for twenty versts around Shamaka suffered WP ANNIE ANDERSON IS ACCOSTED BY THUG, WHO SPEEDS BULLET THROUGH - HER BODY WITHOUT APPARENT MOTIVE Cowardly Deed I: Perpetraied Within Shadow of Her Employer’s “Home---Police Hurry toScene but Up to a Late Hour Fail to Find Ciew to Woman’s Assailant and She Makes Dyving S:atement on their hands. . Annie Anderson, a servant girl in the employ of E. L. Snell, 224 Ashbury street, was shot down by an unknown man, _présumably a shortly before 10 o’clock last night almost within the shadow of the home of the family for whom she worked. No ap- arent motive for the crime exists. The ‘bullet entered the left side and passed through the lungs and the physicians say it will probably prove fatal. The wounded woman staggered along the street and succeeded in getting to the door of the Snell home. She rang the bell and when Mrs. Snell opened the door the bleeding victim of the unknown assassin fell head- long info the hallway. Miss Anderson, who is about 32 years of age, recently came from Sweden. She does not talk English and could give little information that would lead to the iden- tity of the man who shot her. At the Receiving Hospital, where she was taken, Miss Anderson made a rampling stats- ment, in which she said that either the conductor or the gripman of the Hayes- street car on which she rode from Sixth street to the scene of the shooting had fired the shot. Gripman £. L. Jones and Conductor John Wyatt, who manned the car, state that they let the woman off the car at Ashbury street. They gid not hear any shooting. 46 Says She Heard Shot. fiiss Anderson says that when the car arrived at the corner of Ashbury and Hayes streets she heard a shot on the dummy. She became frightened and ran out of the car and started down Ashbury street to the Snell home. She had only gone a few steps when a man wearing a mask and a rain coat accosted her and said, “Come here,” or “Where are you going?” Miss Anderson tried to run away, but the man grasped her by the throat and placing the pistol he carried in his hand up to her side pulled the trigger and fired. The wounded servant girl cried out in agony and the footpad, if footpad it was, became frightened and ran away. She then staggered on a few feet up the street to the Snell home. Chief of Police Wittman and Captain Seymour, who live in the neighborhood of the shooting, were summoned at once and police headquarters ;was also noti- fled. Detective Jerry Dinan was detailed to go at once to the scene, and he as- sisted Chlef Wittman and Captain Sey- mour in the search for the man who did the shooting. He notified all the po- lice officers along the line to be on the alert for suspicious characters, but up to an early hour this morning no arrests were made. Suspicious Character on Car. About 11:30 last night a suspicious look- ing character boarded a McAllister-street car at Central avenue. Gripman J. R. Minto noticed that the man was out of breath as if he had been running quite a distance and spoke to Conductor Upton about it. He walked into the car and acted very nervously all during the trip to town. The stranger rode on the car until {t reached the ferry, where he alight- ed and ran up East street and ‘took a Jackson-street car. The police believe he might be the man who shot the woman. As soon as Miss Anderson staggered in- tq the house Mrs. Snell and her husband 4 verely. ’ o | put her in bed and telephoned at once for Drs. Shiels and Cross. Upon.their arrival HE police have another my!fl'fl’yl“’{ footpad, | s —p M\ y VICTIM OF AN UNKNOWN ASSAS- SIN WHO SHOT HER DOWN WITHOUT APPARENT MOTIVE. ke Emergency Hospital ambulance and had the woman removed to the hospital. At the hospital Miss Anderson, through Po- liceman Nelson, who acted as interpreter, made some startling statements fmplica- | ting the crew of the car on which she | rode, but which Chief Wittman and Cap- | tain Seymour discredit entirely. | She” stated that she believed that she was shot by the gripman. Both gripman | and conductor were closely questioned by the police, and they could give no reason for such a statement except that the wo- | man had become delirfous as a result of | the wound. H Knéw Nothing of the Shooting. Neither of the men knew of the shoot- ing and were in bed when informed of it by a Call reporter. The police are inclined to believe that the woman was so badly frightened that she does not really know how the shooting occurred or that she is trying to conceal something. On the other hand her story of the af-| fair In every particular save the implica- tion of the car crew seems probable and was given in a very coherent manner. The theory of the police at an early hour this morning is that Miss Anderson | was the victim of a footpad or some per- son, perhaps a lover, whose jealousy prompted him to make an attempt upon her life. ‘While Dr. Maher was dressing her wound at the hospital Miss Anderson said that she boarded the Hayes-street car at Sixth street. She also stated this emphatically in her dying 'statement made later to Assistant District Attorney John J. Greeley. Conductor John Wyatt states positively that the woman got on the car at the ferry, but as Miss Ander- son says that she had been in attendance at,_the Swedish church on Jessie street, near Sixth, and that she had only left her sister and brother a few minutes be- | fore, the conductor is probably mistaken..l Relatives Not Located. Miss Anderson’s sister and brother live at 521 O'Farrell street, but they had not been located by the police up to an early hour. Miss Louise Meyer, who is also | a Swedish girl working for a family that lives near the Snell home, accompanied | the wounded woman to the hospital. Miss | Meyer said tha. she knew of no person who could have any desire to put Miss Anderson out of the way. Miss Meyer and Miss Anderson came here from Swe- den last October. Miss Meyer talks very | good English. She said that she and Miss Anderson were falrly well acquainted. She knew‘ of mo entanglements or love affairs in which Miss Anderson was concerned, and was inclined to believe her companion’s story that the comductor and gripman ‘were responsible for the shooting. Miss Anderson could not be shaken in her statement that there was shooting on the outside of the car before she left it. i i i | | wounded woman, got ox The conductor and gripman state posi- tively that tney heard no shots, and the people in the neighborhood bear out their stories. Several gentlemen who live in tne vicinity of the shooting say that only {one -hot was fired. The bullet was fired at close range. It burned a hole in the white coat which she wore and left pow- der marks for fully fout or five inches ]around the spot where the builet entered. Mystery Shrouds Case. The woman's poBitive statements and the seemingly rational way in which she described the shooting in every particular, save that portion of it in which she casts suspicion upon the conductor, involves the case in a tangled skein of mystery, which the police may have a hard task unravel- ing. John Wyatt, conductor on car No. 207 of the Hayes-street line, says that a woman with a light colored coat and straw hat and black veil, which answers the de- scription of the wearing apparel of the nis car at the ferry and got off at Ashbury and Hayes streets about 5 p. m. He noticed her particularly, because she was the only passenger beyond the Hayes-street power house. Both C, L. Jones, the gripman, and Con- ductor Wyatt state that they heard no shots in the locality after the woman left the car. They were utterly surprised at the news of the shooting. They returned from the trip to the park at 10 o’clock and went home, and at that time nothing was known at the power-house of the occur- rence. Both are positive there was not a fourth person on the car. Chief Wittman and Captain Seymour, after interviewing both gripman and conductor, were compietely satisfled that neither were implicated im any way with the murderous assault. The excited man who boarded the Me- Allister-street car an hour and a half after the shooting did not wear an over- coat of any kind. He was described as being 5 feet $ inches in height, dressed in black, with a derby hat and dark brown mustache. When the wounded woman arrived at the hospital Detective Dinan immediately telephoned for Policeman Nelson to act as interpreter for Assistant District Ate torney John J. Greeley, whe was thers to take the dying woman's statement. It was as follows: I, Annie Anderson, believing 1 am now about to die, make this, my dying statement. I came from the Swedish church on Jessie street. 1 bade my sister farewell and I started to g0 home. I took. the car near Sixth street and I sat on the car until I came to Ashbury street. 1 had gone a few steps when a man came and took hold of me and then he shot me and T crfed and people came and he yan away. He had a mask on his face: he had a rain coat om and the cape hid his face. 1 couldn’t see him very good, it was all done so quickly. This happened at 9:30 p. m., February 16, 1002, There were no others on the car that I saw, except the conductor and the man that steers the car. I think it was one of them on the car that sho{ me, for he was shooting while 3 Was i the car. - e