SAN FRANCISCO TO-DAY.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2068, 30 November 1906, Page 2

SAN FRANCISCO TO-DAY.

BRUTAL MURDER IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. "Futari keto ga kita—." These words, uttered by Sasaki, a young Japanese elerk, just before he relapsed into unconsciousness, afford almost the only clue to the identity of two men who, in the broad glitro of noon hour, perpetrated one of the boldes thiurders and bank robberies in the police annals of San Francisco. "Futari keto go kita— -," translated, means "Two white men came." Sasaki did not finish the sentence. His skull had been smashed with an ugly bludgeon that had crushed out the life of the bank maniißor. He sunk into unconsciousness, and his lips will probably never tell the ghastly tale of minder and robbery. At 12.15 o'clock one late September afternoon two men entered the Kimmon Bank at 1M O'Farrell Street, and, after beating the manager, M. lUnnekata, and clerk, \ Sasaki, into insensibility, robbed the ,ank of about: .'iOOOdol. in gold and silver, which they found in the money trays near the paying teller's window. Muneknta's sJculi was badly fractured, and he died of hi* injuries at Central Emergency two hours later. There is some hope >f Sasaki's recovery, although his skull wui severely fractured. The fact that the tic tuns were Japanese, and the bank robbed was a Japanese institute, gives unusual interest to this remarkable case. The most astonishing feature of rho crime in that no one of the many hundreds of people in the streets outside or in the neighboring stores and houses can be found who heard any outcry from the bank or saw the robbers enter or leaTe the premises. People were passing up and down on the sidewalk outsido, can n-fve. running over the tracks in front of the bank, across the street women and children were sitting on the steps of a row of Hats, in the middle of the block on the cornel' opposite the bank in the open win(lows scores of seamstresses were working in ;• tailoring establishment, vet not one ('l' these people saw or heard anything of (h.: terrible crime being committed inly a few ;.anls away. The blood-stained weapon which the murderers used is the only material clue in the hands of the detectives. It is an inch-and-a-quarter wrought-iron gas-pipe, wrapped in a piece of brown Manila paper, so that it looks like a roll of music, and it is tied with a common brown strimr. There is onothing only that would lead to the identification of the murderers, and that is the number of well-defined finger-prints in bloodstains on the paper wrapping. Kimmon Ginko is a branch of a larger institution of the same name in Yokohama, and some of the wealthiest financiers in Japan, among them the well-known millionaire tea merchant, Ofani Kahoi, are largely interested in it. The local branch was incorporated last March by M. Shibata, a prominent local merchant, and M. Munekata, the dead manager, and others, with ft capital of IOO.OOOdoIs. The bank was formerly located on Mason Street, between O'Farrell and Geary Streets. During the April earthquake and fire the manager, Munekata, wa sone of the few bankers able to take all the cash out of his vaults on the first day of the fire. This money he placed in the hands of the Japanese Consul for safe keeping, and later he authorised the Consul to expend it for the relief of the Japanese fire sufferers. Owing to his generosity on that occasion, and his general reputation for doing kindly deedfl, the murdered bank manager was one of the most popular members of the local Japanese colony.

To enable tho Irish mail to pick Tip sufiiciont water to run to London without a stop, a trough half a mile long is being constructed botwoen Ferrysido and Car* marthen. Miss Ella Clommons, thp sistor of & well-known Now York society loader, has married a Chinaman in San Francisco with full Oriental ceremony. Currency is given in the 'Manchester Guardian' to tho rumor that the Government intends to nationalise the railways. . It is stated that the Kaiser has lately been studying the problems of his capital by wandering about alono and unrecognised in crowded Berlin streets. A magnificent crop of H,OOO acres of wheat was seen by some recent Tapanui \isitors to Australia. Grass was abundant, and tho cry this season is "too much r{iin"—not a usual one in Australia. A scheme has received tho sanction of tho French Government for an aerial ' railway to the summit of the Mont Blancrange. It will provide passengers wjth the greatest thrill on earth. The chalice in the village church at *'■ Daberkoff, mar Rtettin, was tilled by mis- *■ tako with sulphuric acid instead of wine. : Three women had drunk before the mis- ... take was discovered. Mr John Hall-Edwards, the leading British X-ray expert, has become practioally crippled, and leads a life of excruciating pain, from a complaint contracted during his experiments.