SKETCHES FROM AMERICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 77

SKETCHES FROM AMERICA.

Bt Maokilanda. I The we?k has been rich in the dramatic arid comic incidents which are so typically Amprican. One of the most tragic has boen the shooting of tlit* =pecia' precentor, F. J. Heney. though the tragedy ! i» not so mi; - li in tho acPi-I a 1 " i in the story it ha.> bi ought to light. Her-ey ( is the special prosecutor ;n the trial of i the famous Spii Francisco grafters, of . whom Abiah-tni Ruef is the chief. The j man who attacked Heney is named Haas. ! It appears that some years •'go Haas was j convicted of embezzlement on the evidence ; of a man who afterwards committed sui- { cide in a lunitic asylum. Haas was par- i doned later and restored to citizenship. I Since then he lias led a reputable life, ' married, and had children. Neither wife nor children knew of his past record. One day he was summoned as a, juror. He . tried to evade service, and asked to be j relieved, but was refused, so, unable to ; face the ordeal of confession, took his j seat. One day Heney produced a police ; identification, card and a photograph of ' Haas in prison garb, and publically pro- j claimed thß man 'a felon. Haas declares, that the act speit ruin for him both in j his business and domestic relations. He | had trier! io live down the public disgrace, j but could not, hence his attack. Accoid- i ing to last reports Heirey has recovered i sufficiently to proclaim that he will live j to prosecute his assail.- nt. All San Fran- i cisco has been much stirred, for it is oniy | a few weeks sine: Heney predicted that • such a fata would come upon him be- j cause- of tho rage and despair of the men j he was prosecuting. A vast crowd j gathered a few minutes after the shot had j been fired, but the court officials hacH driven Haas into a corner of the jury-box, and no one took up the cry of lynching. The whole affair had been transacted actually in the courtroom. Honey's life story : is as. typically American us the act which j has, for tho time being at least, laid him • upon the shelf. His chief attribute is reckl-aps coxirageouer.tss and his willingruss to fight any man with his own weapons. The record's of his college days consist ; mainly of lights. He liteially fought his j way through the vf-rloos grades, and j emerged from' grammar school with a keuii .' desire to figiiL boys in a higher spheie. j His father wished to send him next to a | Jesuit school, but the boy rebelled, and j was put Lo work instead. "Accordingly he f went to nu;ht school, and then started i teaching until he had earned monoy j enough to carry him to Berkeley — from > which he was expelled in his first year" oa j account of his fighting proclivities. He lv.d fought the editor of the Collage magazine lo extract the rame of the author who had written a derogatory article con- , cernini? him, and then had laid the- author ' low. Next came a wild life, until a doctor made him undertlanJ that without sobriety he could not keep hid ability io fight— and win. Then came a period when he studied for the law — and carried a gun to ohoot an enemy on sight. His i first trial was a murder case, and during • it he lost his temper so completely that he tried to brain the pios-ecuting attorney with a couit chair. However, he secured an acquittal for his clients. He studied haider, and took the case of a woman who < tiled for divorce, for the reason that not another lawyer m the city would touch ■ it, as the "lady's husband had vowed ■ death to the man who helped her. Heney | killed the husband, and' was acquitted, the jury merely wuiidtiin^ "-.vhy he bad not done it sooner." Next he flung himself , into politics, and bogan to tight plunderers i and boodlers in a judicial way, brought 19 prominent men to trial, and secured the • conviction of 18. Ons was a United States senator, two members of the national House of Representatives, one was President and two were members of tbe Oregon senate, and another was the mayor of a large city. The remainder also he:d good om_.es. Small wonder that to-d-\y Heney has many enemies and many friends. The present prosecution en which he is engaged is being paid ior by • Rudolf Spreckels, r.nd was brougnt about by a remark of Honey's made at a punl.c banquet: "If I could get lOO.OOOdoI to k is I stw fit, I could get enough evidenco to send both Ruef and Schmitz to gaol. Spieckels found tho money, and row Heney, in ths American phrase, is "making good." In the jnakspg good the smaller men go under — H;ia& is one ot them, but one who has iut ?&. The after>n:,th of the Me politu-il battles is now beinj l>lt, primary irqu ly secrets are lc-a-i-ng oat, vo.es ire be.-i t; ir-countad—.-lid men are b- ing shot. Senator Cnxnvck i« the \n< to lV'.l. Hs \< Jt ls ehot oovn i- t'- -'-,-■- >>i Vr^UiV.r. the .•apitjl of Ic^ue-rce. Trie senator owned

a nevspaper (won in a poker game), in which appeared sarca&tic paragraphs concerning y Captain Cooper, who was on the opposite side politically. The captain ami his son warned the senator what would happen if criticism continued, but the newt-paper man took no notice. The recent election proved the last straw. One morning the senator was standing in the main street speaking to a lady when Captain Cooper and his son approached and wiled to him to come from the shelter of a woman's skirts. He obeyed, and drew his own revolver. No one is cerEain who fired first, but the younger Cooper was wounded and the senator fell dead. The captain put his arm round his son, and they walked together to the nearest doctor. The senator's body lay where it felj until an ambulauce arrived to take it to the undertaker's. There were three bullets in the body. In a quieter way there has been an attack on Mr Taft : not on his body, but on his religious beliefs. It has suddenly been proclaimed abroad that he is an "infidel," and therefore not fit to occupy the Presidential chair of a Christian country. Mr Roosevelt has taken up the gage of battle in Mr Taft's defence — (it is a serious question what Mr Taft wilJ do when" Mr Roosevelt has retreated to the wilds of Africa!), — and declares that the age of" bigotry has passed, and creeds should have no place in politics. As for the truth, "Big Bill" is a Unitarian, and his wife and brother are Roman Catholics. Catholic and Protestant, Christian and Jew, sit side by side at the Cabinet table, so says Mr Roosevelt. Honesty, worth, and upright living alone are the necessary qualifications for a public man: his religious beliefs are a thing apart ; but to o-ovcin wisely a country as vast as America and a nation composed of so many different peoples and creeds, he must be broad. Any trace ot narrowness would mean the halting of true liberty. Meanwhile Mr Taft himself is getting rid of "that tired feeling," and mediating as to whether he is the twenty-sixth President or the thirty-fourth, for a- hot contest on the subject is raging in many quarters. Th? discrepancy is due Io a doubt whether it is the men who should be mounted or the {r.rms for which they have been tier led. It :s evkknt that no time is to be lost imder ths new regime, for the first official step towards tariff Tevbion has already be^n taken, and the Ways and Means Committee is to begin its hearings on the subject immediately. Congress could not attack the difficult question, because the r.ext !.= a short session, and no real gocd could be done in the time. The present coin..) ittee is to gathex toother the information furnished by manufacturers and consumers ir order that the problem may be leady for the Howe at the ea,rliest possible "moment. The intricacy of it is recognised, and the need for careful inquiry. The extraordinary manner in v<iu-'-li the changing of the tariff on one aitk-Ie may affect the cost of a. score is fully undei stood, hence it is not likely that any* violent change will be made. Now let me end with an as typically American anecdote as these with which this letter was begun. It comes from Colorado, whsr© the divorced wife of the well-known steel magnate Phipps is at present residing. She was driving in the perk a few days since when, a well-dressed woman stopped the automobile, explaining that she was a reporter, and must have an interview "right away." Accordingly Mrs Phipp* invited' her to drive with her while they talked. As scon as the automobile staited the unknown woman opened li.?r handbag atid displayed two s Licks of dynamite, and announced that f-be w?.« desperate and must have lOO.COOdoI Mrs Phipps declared that the •ceTi.c-E-d was preposterous, and that she had i'ot the money with her. The other gi-jv. mere desperate, and in fear Mrs Phipps agreed to drive to the bank and get 10,000dol. On the way they pa-se-cl JSli Phipps'a house, and she wa.i pcrmitttil to enter for soms wraps. She telephoned I.t story to the bank, arxl a-?ked thvm to prepare for b&v ariival, seize the v CNuai, and rescue har- litflo daughter, v, ho unfortunately., had retua-n-ed from .-che-ol a* her mother • drew up at the bov-e. whereupon ths unknown had in- = '-tCvl r.p~-n retaining her as a ho-tage. Wrur, they arrived at the bank Mr*, rk'pi^ descended, sayir.g she would get tb^ money. The stranger fat by ths ihi s '! with the dynamite'" wrapped in lier r >i: "A?:cJ>ief. Meanwhile the br.nk effic.-'. thought it best to get the child out «•; .v, iv'<> v, ay before the gerxTil ir.eke Kim:i.- <-o sc^cd Lc-r and attempted to lake j-hoV-r in th? bank: but the chaufff.'r. -thinklrL' a kidnapping was tnkirrj * 'a - ■•'". Vr \ ; - e;-es, ttn-;J. o d to re;? : n 10 •• -~"'>]i ot 1.-er. m hcr^up m the p,oio rf[ >rter r i-eelng she could do little more,

dramatically hurled the dreaded dynamite into the midst of the scrimmagers. It failed to explode ! Of course she was promptly arrested, and immediately unfolded a tale which would do credit to the imagination of the most sensational of novelists. She began by giving her name as Mrs Cones, but declares that it is not her real one, which she will remember later on. At present she is under the influence of a clairvoyant, who had such control of her that he had obliged her to act in the extraordinary manner she did. Of course she herself is entirely innocent.