The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 12, 1903, Page 1

VOLUME XCIV—-NO. 78. SAN FRANCISCO, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1903. PRICE FIVE CENTS. SUCCESSOR OF MURDERED RUSSIAN CONSUL FAILS TO Lk SRS Anxiety Over Dis- appearance of Mandelstam. Not Heard From After JStarting for Monastir. REACH HIS DESTINATION @\'e (@ THFT GETS RO0T'S POST N CABINET —Elihu f War, the the first succeeded w Gover- just when and th ual under- Secretary w Presi- take the nd t bour esented ot informed the it can n yet and k n he will present it the Presiden nefit of Roo ainly un- ar. Root’s suc- be veral months, cer x of the nor Taft will be etary of War there ca sbt. He is familiar with many of blems which the Secretary of War meet and solve; he is a warm nce in his ability is understood t change Involved. P tment as Secretary necessitate the appoint- jent of the Philippine In all probability General succeed to thé pres- mjssion, his work as a having been eminent- the administration. nges would be involved in vernor Taft as Sec- the d of the ¢ member of the satisfactory ch [ Some other he appoiptment of G 2id at this time. ——— e Sultan Continues to Apologize. ST. PETERSBL Aug. 11.—The Rus- sian Embassador Constantinople tel- cgraphs t vy command of the Sultan atter's son, Princ: Ahmed Effendl, t the embassy to express the deep and regret caused in the mind of n by the murder of the Russlan ynsu Monastir and requested the Embassador to notify the Czar of this second expression of the Sultan's sorrow. expects that | i of the President, who has | and | be | nothing definite con- | Turkish Troops in Macedonia Are Deserting. Sell Rifles to Insu- gents to Obtain Food. m DANEFR BULGARIAMN FOREIGN ~INISTER | 1 COURIER INFORMING MOUNTAINEERS OF " MASSACRE BY TURWKS H | , sy — —! T i | | FOREMOST BULGARIAN OF- “ | FICIAL AND TYPICAL MACE- | l DONIAN SCENE | 1 e | ONSTANTINOPLE, Aug.11.—Gre ¢ | anxiety is felt for the safety of | Dr. Mandelstam, the acting Rus- | sian Consul at Uskub, who was appointed to succeed the late M. | | Rostkovski. In spite of the refusal of | the Mutesarif (Governor) to giv: him an | escort, Dr. Mandelstam insisted upon pro- | ceeding to his new post and, after refer- | ring the matter to Hilmi Pashn, the In-| spector General, he obtained escort | and started his own responsibuity | the country for Monastir. Noth- ing has been heard of him since. an upon across The Sultan has offered an indemnity of | 40,00 to the widow of the la‘e M. Rost- kovski. She is a member of the well- known Russian family of Muravieff, and M. Rostkovski was related to the laie Prince Lobanoff, who was Russian Min- ister of Forelgn Affairs; hence the anx- lety of the Turkish authorities to have the matter satisfactorily settled with Rus- Rostkoyski was in disfavor with the Turkish authorities in Monastir, owing.to his persistence In investigating all the fighting in the district. Foa rumored here that the Turkish troop- in Macedonia have become so de- | moralized by their failure to receive pay | | that hundreds of them are deserting and | | selling their rifles to insurgents in oraer to obtain provisions. = AR BULGARIANS BEYOND CONTROL. Men of All Political Parties Aiding the Macedonians. SOFIA, Bulgaria, Aug. 1.—The Pre- mier and the Minister of tho Interfor have proceeded to Dubnitza with the in- tention of inspecting the Bulgarian posts | along the Macedonian frontier. This s | | regarded as additional proof of the Gov- | ernment’s desire to maintain peace. It is now sald that Prince Ferdinand will not return to Sofia until after his fete day, August 15, as be wishes to show he is not responsible for the present situa- tion in Macedonia. The representatives of the Macedonian revolutionary committee announce that the revolution broke out in the vilayet | of Uskub last Sunday and in the vilayet of Adrianople on Monday. - Telegraphic communication is interrupted. Adria- nople forms the seventh revolutionary district, with Chief Ghirdjikoff and Cap- tains Ikonomoff and Madjaroff n com- | mand. The representatives of the committee also publish a contradiction of the re- port of alleged atrocities committed by Bulgarians and accuse the Turks of at- CREAT TRUST OF COLLIERS * IND CARRIERS Special Dispatch to The Call PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 11.—Sensational Wall street news came to Philadelphia by wire'after the close of the market to- day. It accounts for the strength of Reading. The message came from the usually reliable house of Moore & Schley to its Philadelphia correspondents, The message said it was reported in Wall street that the Lelaware and Hud- son Company and the Delaware, Lacka- wanna and Western Railroad Company would guarantee a dividend of 4 per cent on Reading common An arrangement of this sort would very nearly complete an effectual commuflity of interest among the anthracite produc- ers and carriers. The report that the Reading will be leased indicates that J. Pierpont Morgan may be about to con- svmmate his plans for a close union of coal Interests. One reason for his delay probably has been a desire to estabilsh the Reading’s earning capacity to the sat- isfaction of the lessors. The earnings are now eminently satis- factory. The Reading is paying a full dividend of 4 per cent on first preferred and is believed to be able to pay the full rate (4 per cent) on second preferred also, while it is earning a handsome sum for the common. It is well known that the Pennsylvania Railroad, through the Bal- timore and Ohio, and the New York Cen- tral, through the Lake Shore, own large amounts of Reading first and second pre- ferred stocks. Hence it would be im- possible for the lease of the Reading to be made unless it met the approval of both the Pennsylvania and the Central man- agements, Both William Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller Jr. are directors of the Lack- awanna and these men are Gould's allies. This proposed lease may be the first sign of truce between the Pennsylvania and Gould factions. It will be the first open step wheréby Gould's friends acquire an interest in the Reading and the prospec- tive results have great possibilities, if it develops that the Pennsylvania is to per- quit Gould to get into Philadelphia and JJew York over the Reading. e e e e e e e ] tempting to prepare the mind of Europe for a massacre of innocent Ckristlans, General Tzconcheff, president of the Macedonian committee, has addressed an appeal to his adherents to assist the in- surgents in Macedonia even by revolu- tionary means. T N HES G PATFORMS Horror of the Paris Tunnel Tragedy Grows. R | Number of Victims Isi in Excess of One Hundred. RO Panic-Stricken Thousands Throng Entrances to Subway. B ECod 1 Special Cable to The Call and New York | Herald. Copyright, 1903, by the New York Herald Publishing Company. PARIS, Aug. 11.—Paris is appalled—that is the only word that can describe the feeling produced among the population by | the dread catastrophe of last night. When access was gained this morning to the: stations of the underground railroad, at the scene of the fires and subsequent | panic eighty-four bodies were found on | the platforms. As many persons were in- | cinerated in the burning cars, it is proba- | ble that the total number of dead will be | found to have been far in excess of one | hundred. | This is how the catastrophe oceurred Trai No. 43, on the Metropolitan Under- ground Railroad, consisting of eight crowded carriages, toming from the rorte Dauphine and going toward the Place de la Nation, stopped at Boulevard Barbes, | owing to a slight accident to the motor. Its passengers were landed. Then train No. 52 came along. Its passengers aiso got off. The two trains were combined and No. 52 pushed No. 3 toward the| workshops. | IGNORES THE WARNING. The stationmaster at Les Couronnes no- ticed small jets of flame arising from be- neath the carriages and catching the bot- toms of the cars. He shouted to the driver: “Stop! You will not‘have time to reach your gestination.’ i “We shall get there all right,” answered the motorman. The two trains then proceeded into the tunnel, the officials shutting the doors. Suddenly, as the first carriage was drawing into Menilmontant station, a vio- lent explosion occurred. Blue flame arose between the carriage containing the mo- tor and the next one. In a few minutes the whole sixteen carriages were fa sheet of fire. The officials jumped to the rails | and fled toward the station. They were just in time, as the flames had already | reached the roof and wz!ls of the tunnel. | Electric wires were fizzling and the tun- nel, except for the flames of the burning | vehicles, was in darkness Thick smoke began to enter Menilmon- | tant station and also to roll toward Les Couronnes. While the two trains were burniug third train approached from Pere la Chaise. The officials at Menilmontant | warned the driver of the danger and he | at once reversed direc and went back as quickly as possible, thus escaping with all of his passengers. WILD RUSH OF PASSENGERS. Meanwhile another train came up from Beliville behind the burning trains and stopped at Les Couronnes just as .ae smoke began to enter the station from the tunnel. Then the catastrophe occurred! On seeing the smoke the passengers jump- ed to the station platform and _aced in| the direction of Menlimontant, trying to | make their way to the staircase end. They were driven back by smoke toward the other end of the plat- | form, where there is a white brick wail. | There they crowded together and later seventy-five bodles were found there in a heap. Deserted by the flignt for safety this fourth train also took fire and was con- sumed. Many of the ‘rightened passen- gers, seeing escape cut off, huddled in the cars and probably were suffocated by smoke before the flames reached them. SCENES AT TUNNEL'S MOUTH. The scenes at the mouth of the tunnet where the victims were brought forth were of the most heart-rending descrip- tion—crowds of weeping men, women and children struggling forward in an effort to recognize their missing relatives and felends. Most of the victims are from the middle and working clusses, as the trains were ' carrying them home from their work. Although the accident oc- curred at 8 o'clock last evening the offi- cials and firemen were unable to descend into the tunnel this morning owing to the blinding clouds of smoke from the burn- ing train. Frequent attempts were made by heroic volunteers whom it was neces- sary to rescue, half suffocated. At ten minutes after 3 o'clock Sergeant Ahrens, wearing a respirator, succeeded in making the descent. He remained sev- en minutes and brought the first informa- tion to the effect that corpses were strewn all about the roadway in the tunnel. Then he collapsed and was taken to the hospital. Twenty minutes later firemen forced their way down through the tunnel station at Menilmontant and returned soon afterward with geven bodies—three mun, two.young boys and two young women. These persons had been asphyxi- ated as their positions showed ihey had been groping their way through the smoke that filled the tunnel, seeking a way to escape, when they were overcome. The work of bringing up the bodies went on steadily after that under the personal Continued on Page 2, Column 1., BLACKLEGS SEEK TO MAKE TOWN OF COLMA A PLAGUE SEES THAEE CONVICTS IN CHINATOWN Folsom Contractor Notifies the Police. About 3 o'clock this morning a con- tractor of Folsom, who is visiting the city, appeared at the Central police station and re- ported that he had seen the three fugitive convicts, “Redshirt” Gordon, Fahey and ‘Woods, in the doorway of a houre in an alley on Washington street, between Du- pont and Stockton., Detectives were at once detailed to accompany the Folsom man in a search for the fugitives. The Chinatown squad was also notified to be on the lookout. The Folsom man says heis positive the men he saw were the convicts. RULING MAY AFFECT MANY FINANCIALLY Decision of Great Importance to Investors Is Rendered at Los Angeles. Spectal Dispatch to The Cail 1.0S ANGELES, Aug. 1L.—If a decision rendered by Superfor Judge Trask is sus- tained by the Supreme Court it will be of great importance to thousands of peo- ple throughout the State and upon many of them it may have a serious effect financially. In a word, the decision is to the effect that the stockholders of a cor- poraticn are liable for the debts of that corporation to the full amount of the par value of their stock regardless of whether such corporation is organizel under the laws of any other State. and that while the corporation itself may not be able to compel the payment of the full value of the stock, the creditors of such cor- poration may do £o. “Fairbanks, Morse & Company against A. A. Irish, et al” is the title of the suit that gave rise to this deci- sion. According to the facts brought out a widow bought 40,000 shares of the stock for $200 with the understanding that the stock was non-asscssable. The company coon spent the $2000 in trying to locate an oil well and then the investor, becom- ing frightened at the possibllity of being called upon to aid the defunct concern, aisposed of her stock to a niece for a consideration. This was before any suit was brought against the company by any of its creditors. Afterward the widow was declared re- sponsible to thagreditors of the company for 100 cents on every dollars. Thus while the company may be debarred from recovering the balance of 80 cents on each share sold for 20 cents, the creditors of the company are not so debarred. and may appeal to the original purchasers of the stock for settlement. Hundreds upon hundreds of oil mining companies have been organized under the jaws of Arizona and most of these com- panies, especially those known as “‘wild- cat” corporations, have advertised in their prospectus that the stock was’ not assessable and if a share of stock of the par value of $100 s purchased for. two bits or less, the purchaser cannot be as- sessed for any' purpose. This Judge Trask holds is not gdod in law and that the man who paid two bits for a share of stock is liable for $100 of the debts of the company, and that the same is true of every share of stock which he may have purchased. The effect of such a ruling upon the thousands of persons who during the oil boom several years ago purchased stock by the hundreds of shares, if the decision ve affirmed by the Supreme Court, Is manifest, for it gives the creditors of such companies the means of colieéting in full what is owed and what is more they can by application to the courts compel such corporations to disclose the names of the stockholders. . SPOT OF GAMBLING HELLS OFFICIALS WHO ARE TRYING TO BLOCK SCHEMES OF GAMBLERS. { Would Incorporate and Tax Grave- yards. GANG of pothouse politicians, blacklegs and gamblers have launched a scheme whereby the town of Colma is to be made a plague spot of vice and the silent cities of the dead in its vicinity are to be defiled by the presence of open gambling hells and poolrooms at theiy very gates. Not only do the gamblers plot to estab- lish their unsavory nests within a stone's throw of the cemetery gates but under the pretext of legitimate taxation for the support of good municipal government they have designed that the cemeteries with their countless habitations of the dead shall pay the dole by which the depravity of the living may be pandered to. Al of this is cunningly disguised under the petition for the incorperation of the town of Colma as a city of the sixth class, which is now in the hands of the Supervisors of San Mateo County. But their zeal to accomplish their | purposes under the hollow sanction of the law the conspirators have revealed their purposes by their very acts. In order that the town of Colma may sup- port a municipal government the gam- blers have found it necessary to incor- porate in their demand a territory twelve miles square, almost the area of San Francis From the present site of Col- | ma they have asked that the extent of | the incorperated city embrace a district | extending up to the southern boundary ¢t San Francisco Ceunty and west to the sand wastes of the ocean. The taxes from this vast tract of territory, added to the blood money which would be ex- torted from nine cemeteries, would be sufficient to maintain a municipai govern- ment, and thus give sanction to the main- tenance of the gambling resorts. BACKED BY GAMBLERS. . But the five Supervisors to a man ad- mit that the scheme for the incorporation of Colma is the work of San Francisco gamblers, working under the cover of agents in San Mateo County. They ac- knowledge that the incorporation of Col- ma will be the signal for a rush of the siffraff of San Francisco to the very gates of the sacred places of the dead. They have not the power to refuse a petition signed by fifty bona fide taxpayers of the district, but the option lies with them to curtall the territory demanded by the petitioners. 1t now remains for the Su- pervisors of San Mateo County to so far reduce the enmormous area sought as to render the support of a municipal gov- ernment out of the question. It is known that the gamblers have been at work on their scheme for some | time. Several months ago Superintendent | E. B. McPherson of the Cypress Lawn Cemetery was approached with the offer of political.preferment if he would launch the incorporation movement. He refused, and shortly after R. S. Thornton, J. T. Casey and George C. Luce appeared as champions of the cause. On July 6 a petition was handed in to the Board of Supervisors demanding incorporation. For ! some unaccountable reason this was later withdrawn and a second submitted at the meeting of the board heid on August 3. ‘When this second instrument was placed in the hands of the Suvervisors it bore the names of sixty-three reputed taxpay- ers of the district. H. W. Brown, an attorney living in Colma, protested to the petition on the grounds that it con- tained the names of several who were not legal electors of the township. Act- ing on his cbjection, the board referred the matter to District Attorney J. J. Bul- in Condemn Conspirators’ Schemes. + lock, to be reported back by him at the meeting of that body which is to be heid on the 17th of this month. MAKE STRONG DEMANDS. After setting forth the fact that none of the territory sought for incorporation is at present under municipal govern- ment, the petition demands that the fol- lowing territory be turned over to the municipality to be known as the town of | Colma; Beginning at a point on the northern boundary line of San Mateo County. where said northern boundary line is in- tersected by the line dividing the land of the Concordia Land Company and the land of the Crocker estate (being at the eastern boundary line of Jefferson School district), and running thence west on and along the said northern boundary line of San Mateo County to the shore of the Pa- cific Ocean; thence southerly along the shore of the Pacific Ocean to its intersec- tion with the northern boundary line of Rancho San Pedro; thence easterly on a straight line to the common corner of the lands of Elizabeth McMahon, H. W. Westphal and Flood & Mackay (being the most southerly corner of the land of Eliz- abeth McMahon) as shown on the “Of- ficial Map of San Mateo County, Califor- nia,” approved by the Board of Super- visors of said county in August, 15%4; thence northeasterly along the line divid- ing the land of Elizabeth McMahon from the lands of Flood & Mackay and of $ohn Lennon, and along the extension of said dividing line to the northwesterly line of the main county road to San Jose; thence easterly crossing said road to the point of intersection of the northeasterly line of said county road with the line dividing the-land of Holy Cross Cemetery and D. Zudo (being the southeastern boundary line of Holy Cross Cemetery); then north- easterly along said line dividing the land of the Holy Cross Cemetery and D. Zudo to the northwestern boundary line of the lands of the Abbey Homestead Associa- tion; thence southeasterly along said southwestern boundary line of the lands of the Abbey Homestead Assoclation to the most southerly corner of the lands of the Abbey Homestead Association and the western line of the iand of the Crock- er estate; thence northerly, northwester- ly, southwesterly, northwesterly, north- easterly and northwesterly along the line dividing the lands of the Abbey Home- stead Assoclation from the land of the Crocker estate, to the dividing line be- tween sections sevél (7) and eight 3), in township three (3) south, of range five (5) west, Mount Diablo Base and Merid- jan; thence north on and along said di- viding line between said sections seven (M and eight (9), and along the dividing line between sections five (5) and six (8), in township_ three (3) south, of range five (5) west, to'the dividing line between the lands of the Crocker estate and of Col- lins et al.; thence northeasterly along said dividing line and along the dividing line between the land of the Concordia Land Company and the land of the Crock- er estate to the place of beginning. ELECTORS’ NAMES USED. The petition bears the names of the fol- lowing alleged electors and residents of the territory designated in the nstru- ment: e George C. Luce, J. T. Casey.8. R. Thorn- ton, Will Horst, A. J. Spring, C. J. Ad- ams, Antone Sturla, Eugene Geary, Rob- ert Parkinson, James O’Comnor, A. L. Erwin, B. Engler, A. Stampanoni, J. W. Johnson, Edward Oakes, B. Seminoft (His X Mark), M. J. _.faloney, ' Steve Waterdoll, Edward Parkinson, Geor; Sharman, James O'Regan, Patrick Callan, J. H. Dennis, James Oakes, S. Belli, Harry Plerce, Alphonso Giangi, A. F. De- camilli, Enrico Biggio, Carlo Chiosso, V. J. Hohmann, L. Lagomarsine, J. E. Rodgers, T. Lagomarsino, J. T. Me- Carthy, Thos. Eagan (His X Mark), G. Selicani, F. C. Kelly, Daniel Neville, Michael S. Griffin, John H. Maloney, Frank S. Knowles, John Biggio, P. Jen- sen, Patrick Taylor, Joseph Smith, Pat- Continued on Page 2, Columna &