The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 9, 1904, Page 25

_— THE WEATHER | AR K 2 [ Froecast made at San Franeclsco for Octo- \ thirty bours endivg midnight, ber 9: i San Francisco £nd vicinity—Showers i : & 7/ Funday; fresh southwest wind, | G 0O, Local Forecaster, L R | Temporarily in charge. — > olafGIONG OF FRAUD nee to- gale. ORPHEUM—Y; SR Camire. TAC- “The Tedgerfoot.™ ~ “Dealers.in White Wom- ¢ to-day. Y Boy, 'S —'tDown the Line.!" nee_toMay. GRAND—%The Burgomaster.’’) Mati- MAJESTIC:- “A JapaméSe Nightin- day. TIVOLI—"The Serenade.” Mati- ville. Matinee to- AN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1904- TO 36. INTREPID RIDES THE WAUES New Traming Ship Grlides Down Ways and Rests Upon the Waters of the Bay. i And see! she stirs! Shestarts,—she moves,—she seems | to feel The thrill of life along her keel, | fAnd, spurning with her foot the | ground, | With one exulting, joyous bound, She leaps into the ocean’s arms. —From Longfellow’s “Building of the Skip.” | ZA0OAN ano N AZI7H Frerd b to The Call 8.—At 12:11 p. m. to- nder of artillery, the » whi es and the ex-| t plaudits of thousands of spec- | steel training ship In- ed from her ways at It f the most nspiring events ever wit- | | ns of the new ship were flags of ail kinds in the | to the scene.| companies of | | Island s(atinu} ositions near the new | | | | was one nd THE INIRER/LD JUS) AFIER AZZNG- b s LAINCHED . n whose muscle and | shioned the vessel were | n dense cro ot LAUNCHED YESTERDAY AT 3 B 10e Vb RIS SRan SAN FRANCISCAN WHO CHRISTE decorated hip. Boats of all VIEW OF UNCLE SAM'S NEW TRAINING SHIP SHORTLY AFTER SHE WAS AR it LAND NAVY YARD AND THE FAIR HER INTREPID, | | and the wharves | jo were black with | rs, while almost | n was flying to the| dotted the b breeze United States Senator George C. Per- RUNS AWAY VITH MISS member of the Naval Senate, arrived dur- | ved s and was rec ¥ before noon Rear roduced the Sen- e t . ed at the stern of t¥ v/ Perkins spoke 1 as —_— IMPORTANT OCCASION. of a newly bui * Fresno Man Deserts Wife and Five Children, FRESNO, Oct. 8.—Pretty Miss Ora McDowell, the 16-year-old daughter | of Mr. and Mrs. George McDowell of ned and | t the present | than ordin- reason that constructed in a good | ing her r at may better ps war and defend the It seems to this ship and the navy this city, disappeared about a week y yard at |ag0. About the same time Charles L. in 1852 by |Lane, a man of family, having a of which | wife and five children, also disap-| first raised | peared. It was said that they had | at Monterey) | a1oneq, but the parents of the girl | i it was recom- | pproved by the f as the best site rd in California. were loth to place credence in what they termed a silly rumor. Now comes word from a reliable | source that the couple did elope and | from here went to Seattle. The lit-| | tle girl's parents are heart broken over her rash step and threaten to | bring an action for abduction against Lane. our Government has or buildings. docks, shops, nd other improvements 9»60,50#. and now owns the plant on the Pa v gt .,,d“m— in this| yane is a contractor and was in HIE Lhe Dist years cOIDAres | good circumstances. His wife is at a K g "gf With that | 1565 o know why he deserted her. Phipbuilding establishment in | The man knew Ora well, but no one noticed anything more than friendly relations between the two. The girl's e had the honor of | father stands well in the civil service being one of your representatives in| gepartment of this city. He says the - —————=—=1llaw will be put into operation to Continued on Page 27, Cobunn 3. bring the couple back to Fresno. “Among the new vessels built in this | wee 1 URLOINED KISS CAUSE OF TROUBLE Theft May Cost the, | revolver at her head, ordered her to Republicans Montana, ——— Special Dispatch to The Call. BUTTE, Mont, Oct. 8—Because State Senator William F. Meyers of Red Lodge stole a kiss from a pretty society girl of Carbon County a few days ago President Roosevelt, it is claimed here, may lose Montana, and the Republicans also are liable to lose control of the State Legislature anq thereby fail to ‘elect a Republican United States Senator. The Red Lodge Picket, a Republican paper, has bolted the ticket because of the stolen kiss and L. O. Casswell, candidate for County Attorney, has withdrawn from the ticket, because he will not run on the same ticket with the kiss stealer, and is out to fight him. The chairman of the County Cen- tral Committee also threatens to re- sign, and says he will not ~support Meyers. Ex-Senator T. H. Carter and Lee Mantle have been appealed to to pull Meyers off the ticket. ler. | her to go to the vault and hand him actions. Perpetrated on Quartermaster’s Depot Causes lIts Officials Much Tribulation AJOR DEVOL called his own board of inquiry and Washington was not satisfied with his The matter of settling the difficulty was then left to Colonel Patten, chief quarter- l | master of the Pacific, to adjust. Quartermaster General Humphrey did not want to press in- vestigation, but Secretary of War Taft urged action and gave audience to clerk who claimed that there had been juggling with transportation figures, causing enormous expense to the Government. THROW BODY OF COLONEL FROM TR Russians Mutiny on Their Way to | Front. —_— Even Cossack Regiments Show Signs of In- surrection. | General Klegel at Kiev Orders 16,000 | Reservists Searched for Sedi- ; tious Literature. Special Dispatch to The Call. ST. PETERSBURG, Oct. 8.—While | the Bugulma Regiment, ordered to the | front from Samara, was en route to Ufa, a mutiny broke out. The colonel of the regiment and a sergeant were killed and their corpses thrown from the train. Another mutiny occurred among the Penda reservists, who mal- treated their colonel. Even Don Cossacks aré mutinous. Captain Mirenoff, an officer of the Im- perial Guard, a Cossack regiment, was recently arrested for making a speech charging ‘the government with respon- sibility for the war. General Kiegel, the new military governor of Kiev, or- dered 16,000 reservists under his com- mand to be searched. All the regi- ments were subjected to this humiliat- ing process the same day. Klegel thought he would find seditious litera- ture, which had been distributed among them. Only trifling discover- ies were made. The officers of the regi- ments have joined in a vehement pro- t‘agamst the indignity. BLOODHOUNDS TRACK THIEF Saloon-Keeper Robs Towa Bank and Locks Woman Cashier in Empty Vault A Epecial Dispatch to The Call, OMAHA, Neb,, Oct. 8.—Bloodhounds this morning succeeded in tracking Karl Karrer, a saloon-keeper, who is new under arrest charged wish rob- bing the bank at Treynor, Iowa, of $1400 after he had locked the woman cashier, who was alone in the building, in the vault. The robbery was com- mitted Thursday afternoon while half the inhabitants of the village were ab- sent, attending the fall carnival. Miss Florence Flood, daughter of the president of Treynor Savings Bank, was in the bank alone when a masked man entered and, pointing a give him the money in the cash draw- She obeyed and he then ordered whatever cash was there. As she passed the money out, he pushed her back into the vault and locked her in. He made his escape in a buggy. As soon as the robbery was discov- ered a posse was formed and the rob- ber was tracked to a point where he jabandoned his team and plunged in- to a corn field. Twenty-four hours later the dogs arrived at this point and at once took up the trail follow- ing it into the corn fleld to a spot where the fugitive had apparently re- turned for a comrade supposedly waiting for darkness. From this point the dogs doubled back to Treynor and made direct for Karrer's house, where he was found. —_————————— SMALLPOX CAUSES DEATH OF SOLDIER ON THE LOGAN Army Transport Arrives at Honolulu From Manila and Is Placed in Partial Quarantine, HONOLULU, H. L, Oct. 8.—The United States army transport Logan, which arrived here to-day, reported the death of a soldier .at sea from smallpox. The Logan .was partially lqwantinem She will sail for San Francisco to-night. T. C. Grover Furnishes War Department With Letters Proving Gross Carelessness Officials of the army transport service and the depot quartermaster’s de- partment at San Francisco have resorted to the old tactics of trying to sup- press information and to deny statements they know to be correct. The second scandal involving the depot quartermaster’s office in this city had been stu- diously kept from the press until The Call yesterday related the story of the serious charges brought against the local branch of the quartermaster's ser- vice which have kept Major C. A. Devoland his associates troubled for the last year. It became necessary to invoke a Congressional inquiry to make the War Department ackuowledge the frauds in the army transport service that were uncovered during the Chamberlain and Maus investigation of 1903. Glaring swindles that were common talk among persons identified with the wholesale trade of this city were specifically denied. It was even stated that there was no such thing as a report from Colonel Chamberlain exposing the gross extrav- agance of the service. Congress forced the documents to be presented, and the public knows what happened. Having lately discovered irregularities in the accounts of the transportation department, the local quartermaster made a number of -changes of heads of departments, and was probably going to let it go at that. The evidence of queer transactions was carefully gathered by a special board of inquiry, con- sisting of Major Devol, Captain Stanley and Captain Baker. No direct charges of fraud were brought against any of the many clerks through whose hands the accounts for draying passed, for the investigation was to de- termine how it was possible that bills could have been allowed that were palpably made up of gross overcharges. Work Only Half Done. The truth in the matter is that the entire service had been honeycombed with fraud, criminal carelessness and bad management, and the Chamberlain and Maus reports only did a part of the work of unraveling the tangle. The first inquiry regarding the other alleged irregularities was about one year ago. About six months later T. C. Grover, a clerk in the transportation department, who is now in the service at Jeffersonville, Ind., was removed to that post from this city. Grover went to Washington and was well received by the War Department, Governor Taft being the man, according to his story, whom he saw. Grover then reported at Jeffersonville, and later was granted a thirty days’ leave of absence. He came back to San Francisco and was here two weeks ago'and obtained further evidence for the perusal of the War De- partment. Whether this evidence is in the hands of Sacretary Taft or Quarter- master General Humphrey is not known. Grover a.few days ago returned to his post in Indiana. Before leaving he wrote that he had “evidence that would convinceé any one of the crookedness that had been extant in the service,” adding: “'I will keep firing away at them as long as they will accept it.” ‘When Grover made threat to have the whole system of graft that had caused So much trouble exposed, and the War Depaftment had asked for an explanation from the ‘local office of the depot quartermaster, there was a stir in army circles. ‘Major Devol had been trying to clear away the scandal by making changes in the various departments. The major un- dertook to form a court of inquiry on his own authority, with the result that Captain Baker, Captain Stanley and himself undertook the investiga- tion. The findings of this court were carefully filed awayv and, through care- lessness, Washington was not apprised of the holding of the investigation. Clerk A. W. Knox was discharged about this time for intoxication. He thought that he had not been given a square deal and he flled a protest with the War Department, which read: “I beg to call your attention to the methods of conducting the army transport service at San Francisco and to the strange way the board of inquiry has handled the testimony.” He then related his own case in detail. . Devol Called to Account. Knox received a reply from the War Department saying that it had no knowledge of an investigation having taken place at San Francisco except in the matter of some hay contracts. Major Devol was asked by the departmént for an explanation and in reply the major told of his action in looking up the drayage bills and the medical department accounts. The War Department reprimanded the major for having conducted an inves- tigation without the authority of the quartermaster general and then placed the matter in the hands of Colonel Patten, the general quartermas- ter for the Pacific Coast, for a second investigation and with authority to act. At Washington General Humphrey, quartermaster general, was loth to delve into the evidence offered, but Secretary of War Taft insisted on hear- ing Grover's story. Recently F. W. Baker, who audited the drayage accounts, was trans- ferred to. Philadelphia, but not before he had received a severe reprimand for allowing the bills to go through unchallenged. Grover is again to have an audience with the War Department and he will submit copies of letters and accounts that he is said to have made during his term of service here. For some reason the department has used every endeavor to keep Grover from making a public expose of the manner in which the Government has been robbed through bad manage- ment and worse. The following is the copy of a letter from Grover giving his experi- ence with the Washington authorities: . “I did not succeed in seeing President Roosevelt, but T saw Mr. Loeb, his secretary, who courteously referred me to Secretary Taft. I laid the case briefly before Mr. Taft and he listened with attention. He assured me that he would have the matter thoroughly investigated.” Why the local transport service officials and those of the quartermas- ter’s depot should lend themselves to an effort to cover up the many irregu- larities in the transportation accounts, medical supplies accounts and other departments under fire, is hard to understand. It is not thought that any of the new officials have been entangled in the scandal. Major Devol's effort to minimize the trouble is absurd to any one familiar with the case. Harry T. Scott, ex-purveyor of the transport service, whe is now with the Western Warehouse Company, says that he was not called upon to testi- fy at the secret investigation, nor was there any reason why he should have been, as he was not in the transportation department. H2 affirms, however, that the !nvestigation, prior to the one ordered by the War Department, was conducted by Devol, Stanley and Baker. Humphrey Evades Point. Quartermaster General Humphrey in an interview at Washington yes- terday evaded the issue neatly when questioned by an Associated Press rep- resentative. He is quoted as saying: “No complaint has been received at the War -Department of the transport service on the Pacific and no general investigation has been ordered.” Of course not. The charges relate not to the army- transport service, but to the contracts for transportation of sup- plies in this city and the management of the medical supply depot. cially to the matter of draying, where Grover avers there has been bold and deliberate fraud. The shifting about of men and transferring of heads of departments to outside stations has been brought about by orders from headquarters and further investigation is now or soon will be in progress. It has been s Captain Cahrles T. Baker, whose name was mentioned yesterday in con- nection with the transfer of officers from the quartermaster’s Py 4 city, for stations in the Philippine Islands, was erroncously mmw.d b thin those that were transferred to the islands as a result of being involved in the investigations. As a matter of fact. Captain Baker was a member of the investigating board, and it was partly dué o his report that the employes mentioned were transferred. When seen yesterday Captain Baker said: “My position at the general depot of the quartermaster's department in this eity is that of assistant depot quartermaster and as such I have no connec- tion whatever with the transportation branch of the depot or the transport service, of which Major C. A. Deyol is general superinténdent and in ab- solute charge of every detail relating therato. G ‘Continued on Page 28, Columns 3 and 4. NEW YORE CAMPAIGY LISTLES Thorough Canvass of State Is Made by - the Herald. Roesevelt Will Come fo the Bronx With a Very Large Plurality. - | Returns of Correspondents Show That | Higgins for Governor Will Run Far Behind His Ticket. SRR AR | NEW YORK, €t 8—For the pur- | pose of giving its readers reliable in- | formation, untinged with partnership, | as to the political outlook of the State of New York one month before election day, the Herald t well equipped cor- regpondents throughout the Stata | Broadly speaking. the State was di- vided into four districts on geograph- ical lines. One district took the south- | ern tier of counties, beginning at Rock- |land and running almost across the State. Another consisted of the counties around Albany and west out to the Mo- hawk Valley. Another was the north- ern section, beginning at Saratoga and running north to the Canadian line and west to Jefferson, while still another in- cluded the fifteen counties west of Os- wego which run in a double tler west to the Ohio line. Important and repre- sentative counties were selected and bad spots for both parties were picked out. The object was to give as nearly as possible an exact picture of the condi- tions now prevailing in the section of country which in 1900, roughly, gave McKinley 171,000 plurality, as against | 29,000 plurality in New York City, and Odell in 1902 the 131,000 with which he beat 122,000 for Coler in the great city. The reports to the Herald show contentment among the farmers and business men, listléssness in the cam- paign which is almost unexampled, a united Democracy with the exception of one county and a well equipped Re- publican machine. The reports also show that Roosevelt will “come to the Bronx"” with a very large plurality; in a few counties exceeding the vote for McKinley in 1900, and in some equaling it and in some of them rume ning below. Higgins, for Governor, will run far behind ticket. -— 0T THE CAUSE OF SEPARATION Towa Jury Returns Verdiet in Favor of Californian Accused by Son-in-Law 59 Special Dispatch to The Call SIOUX CITY, Iowa, Oct. 8.—After a sensational trial lasting three days a Jury in the United States Court returned a verdict this evening in favor of Frederick Schmidt, a wealthy Cali- fornia fruit raiser, declaring he was not responsible for the separation of his daughter from her husband, Wil- liam gJ. McCrum. a Cherokee, Iowa, farmer. MecCrum sued the father-in-law for $15,000 damages for alienation of the affections of his wife. The testimony showed the estrangement was caused by McCrum frequently hugging and kissing the hired girl, Mary Kirchner, who admitted these facts. Mrs. Me- Crum sent for her father and went home with him, refusing to return to her husband. —_———————— SELECT SAN FRANCISCO FOR CONVENTION CITY xt Annual Session of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to Be Held Here. N ST. LOUIS, Oct. $.—The United Daughters of the Confederacy con- cluded their annual convention to- night after deciding to held the next meeting in San Francisco, the time ® be decided by the president. Murs. Jefferson Davis was elected honorary president general of the society and Mrs. W. B. Pritchard of San Fran- clsco was elected an honorary prese ident. »