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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 1907)
SECTION TWO Pages 1 to 12 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING VOL. XXVI. PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 27, 1907. NO. 43. (Compiled from Brooklyn Eagle of September 28, 1937. MORE HIGH FINANCE Darlington & Co., of Brooklyn, Tail as Result of Tight Money Market. , No event in recerrt years has so shaken the mercantile world as the failure of the Darlington Company to open their big store in Brooklyn, N. ' It was to be the largest and highest-grade department store in that city. Immense quantities of merchan dise had been imported, from Henry Kayser & Fils, of 32 Faubourg Poig . soniere, Paris, France, and orders for over $500,000 of merchandise were al ready placed with manufacturers in this country. With the store's open ing but a week away, the bottom fell out of the whole affair. From a transcript in the possession of Sheriff Flaherty, of Kings County, K. Y., it appears that the Darlington Company, incorporated at $1,000,000, started in business with a paid-up capital of only $1000. The transcript shows that ten shares of the capital stock were issued for incorporation purposes at the par value of $100 each. Ralph Leininger, president of the Darlington Company, held four of these shares ; J. A. Kohnery vice-president, treasurer and manager of the Darlington Company, held three shares, and George D. Beattys, lawyer, of 49 "Wall street, held three shares. About four years ago Mr. Leininger started in the real estate business with the small amount he had saved from his salary. It wasn 't long before he was doing an .enormous business. He formed the Kingston Realty Company, which boasted in its literature of hav ing the largest business operations in Brooklyn. Leininger rose on the crest of the boom. He reached a point where he would have been a million aire if he had been able to sell all his holdings at the prevailing prices. Then the boom began to die down. Leininger saw the end coming. "There is no future in the real es tate business," he told his friends. "The boom. is over and I am going to get into a business where I can get along without woifclng myself to death. I am going to become the head of a big department store. " a Leininger Said He Was Beady to Put $900,000 Into the Store. Darlington 's store was the result of that determination. Mr. Darlington arranged with J.-A. Kohner formerly of Chapman's and later with Jour neay & Burnham's, to get a lease on the Offerman' Building. He told Mr. Kohner that he wanted the finest store in Brooklyn. "You will need $650,000," Mr. Kohner told him. "Oh, I don't want it restricted to $650,000," said Mr. Leininger. "I am ready to -.put $900,000 in the store." Mr. Kohner started out with the de termination to make Darlington's the best store in Brooklyn. He offered re markably large salaries to get the best designers, buyers and department heads from other large department stores. He built up an organization that was said to be one of the strong est ever got together for a new depart ment store. In employing buyers he would tell them to quit their old places right away and go on salary with the new company. Many high salaried men and women gave up their places and went on salary immediate ly with Darlington 's. They had noth ing to do, but were instructed to take a vacation until called upon to work. The recent tight money market in Xew York tied up Mr. Leininger 's capital and made his real estate a drug on the market. He found him self unable to raise the necessary cap ital, and so the department Btore fell with a crash that startled the mercan tile world. . Mr. Leininger is, with two excep tions, the heaviest insured man in the United States. He carries $1,500,000 of insurance, and this amount is ex ceeded only by John Wanamaker and his son, Rodman Wanamaker. He bor rowed to the limit on his insurance to avert the crash. In reference to the above announcement, which is without a parallel in the history of American merchandising, Lipman, Wolfe & Co. direct attention to their great two-page adver tisement in the first news section of this paper. It announces a sale without precedent a sale of the highest-class imported new Fall stocks of a store that never opened absolutely new and desirable merchandise of first quality, at the lowest sale prices ever recorded. Clpmati.lUoffe$CQ NEW YORK TRIES TO SHIFT BUME Cause for Stock Shrinkage Lies in Wall-Street Methods. . ROOSEVELT'S PLAN RIGHT Financial Hurry In Metropolis Haa Little Effect ' on General Pros perity of the Country, Espe cially In Western Sections. NEW YORK, Oct. 22. In ten months of this year three billion dollars in market value has been Wrung from the securities that furnish the life blood of "the street." These securities represent the ownership of railroad. Industrial, mining and other properties extending over the length and breadth of the United States. Wall street, banking on the securities alone, Is in the deepest depths of gloom over this three billion dollar shrinkage. Recently It has been on the verge of panic over declining stock quotations and the discovery that reckless, plunging speculators , have been playing fast and loose with the funds of some of Its banks. The officers and directors of one bank have been kicked into the street and financial assistance has been ex tended by the clearing-house to othsrs that without assistance could not have withstood the strain of the rapidly falling market. Country at Large Safe. With the country at large the situation is distinctly different. Surprising as it may be to wall street, the country is not "busted' or even on the high road to the poorhouse. Banking on actual properties rather than on the "securities" that are the all in all to Wall street, tne country Is prosperous and serene. In some lines of business, notably copper and the iron and steel Industry, there is hesitation, it is true, but general con ditions are still good, and except for the pessimists of the speculative markets there is little or no fear for the future. The country's crops, while not up. to the average of recent banner years in volume, bring higher prices and are of greater total value, and the world is fur nishing a ready market. Conservative figures place the value of the produce or the farms of the United States this year at the enormous sum - of 16,500,000,000. Some estimates run higher. The mines and the forests have produced other bil lions, and the country at large is not in Wall street's predicament. It is rich and getting richer, and the poverty of the narrow way that runs from Trinity Chnrch to the river disturbs only a very small percentage of thetotal population. There was a time, and not very long ago, when Wall street ruled the nation's finances. But the little old United States has been growing financially, and the wailing of a few "busted" speculators Is no longer a signal for general alarm. Makes Intel est ing Story. The break in Wall street and the causes that led up to It make a rather depressing but an interesting story. It is chiefly a tale of wrecked fortunes and badly twisted speculators. Men who were worth millions In January are "broke" , today, and many of them have had empty pocketbooks since the panic of March 14. The man who asks Wall street the cause will get the answer in just one word Roosevelt. Upon the man in the White House speculative New York places the blame for all its recent disasters. In the brokerage-shops of the financial dis trict the President of the United States is called "trust buster," "corppration baiter," "fortune wrecker," and a lot of other names even less complimentary. What the President calls his efforts to pecure a "square deal" for rich and poor alike, his efforts to make the laws of the land apply to the mighty as well as to the mite, are termed in Wall street "assaults on corporations" and, "attacks on vested rights." Wall street has a -ery bad case of Rooseveltphobla. "High Finance" Remembered. Reasonable people away from the mar kets ' see the situation in a somewhat different light. They agree with the spec ulative interests that the confidence of the investing public has been destroyed, but they do not hold Roosevelt respon sible. They carry their memories back to the time when the investigations of the big life insurance companies uncov ered a system of financial rottenness that had not been dreamed of before. They remember the manipulative trickery ex posed by the Interstate Commerce Com mission and other Investigating bodies In their examination of railroad manage ment. They remember the Union Pa cific dividend episode, when the direc tors of one of the greatest properties in the United States were accused of with holding Information from ordinary stock holders till the Insiders had had time to profit by secret knowledge of -facts that belonged to all alike. Roosevelt may be responsible for the uncovering of "yellow dog" funds and the various forms of corporation wrecking that have been practiced in high finance, but he was never responsible for their existence.. And, curious as it may seem, Wall street withholds its hatred from the men who were guilty of the wrongdoing to bestow It all upon- the man they hold responsible for exposing corporate cor ruption.. Loss of Confidence. If lack of confidence was one of the causes that has brought the break in se curities, lack of money was certainly an other. Early in the year it became evi dent that the money crop for speculative purposes would be short. The amount of funds required for the conduct of the general commerce and industry of the country was larger than ever before. Bankers began to preach conservatism in Investments and conservatism in general business. They warned the public that there was not enough money and credit In the country to carry on business at the pace it was then going and still main tain the high level in stocks. Western bankers have been working on that theory all through the year. Instead of sending their cash to Wall street to boost .the price of securities, they Invest ed if themselves. They took a leaf out of the city banker's book and began buy ing commercial paper on a scale that surprised and somewhat alarmed their metropolitan brethren. Lacking the usual contributions ef Western funds to hoist the market quota tions, many of the patriotic Wall street director! of railroad and other corpora tions resorted to the evpedlent of raising dividend rates. The banks that were fur nishing the money to carry stocks charged more interest for the accommodation and the dividend expedient was resorted Co in order that stocks should come nearer to paying their own board. In that way the dividends of many a corporation were raised far beyond the .point of conserv ative finance In order that the speculative directors of the properties might not be put of pocket in carrying stocks they did not really own. ' Still another reason for the decline in security values, and one for which Presi dent Roosevelt cannot be blamed by even his bitterest critics, is the glutting of the markets with new stocks and bonds. In this direction the railroads were particu larly ravenous. They and the industrial corporations choked the banks, the bond houses, the brokers' offices and. the in vestors with new Isfeues of securities.' They sopped up every dollar that could be gathered in that way, but the limit was reached at last. Toward - the end they began to tempt the appetite pf the investor with short-term notes at low prices and high rates of interest. Europe Mistrustful. And Europe played its part In the tragedy. Investors across the water were alarmed by the exposures of rottenness in high financial places and expressed their Inability to comprehend American corporation methods. They could not un derstand why the Union Pacific should raise to 10 per cent a year the dividend on Its common stock that was not' worth much over $10 a share 10 years ago and then immediately after go Into the mar ket to sell J90.000.000 of bonds to pay for needed Improvements. It made the prob lem all the more difficult that the Union Pacific should be carrying more than $200,000,000 of the stocks of other com panies New York Central, Baltimore & Ohio, Alton and so on while it needed cash to Improve and extend its own lines. In some European centers it is not con sidered exactly proper for the manage ment of a railroad corporation to specu late In that way with funds that belong to the stockholders. The Union Pacific situation was another destroyer of con fidence, and again Roosevelt was hardly to blame. Helnze's efforts to run a corner in his United Copper stock and his failure to do so have little more bearing on the general business of the country at large than a burglar breaking into a flat. . It played hob with Wall street, however, especially as it involved the reputation of a bank of some former standing, and came so closely on the heels of the re' duction In the dividend on Amalgamated Copper. Those events put' copper stocks decidedly out of favor and added many millions to the market shrinkage. Helnze's experience as a bank pres ident Is important In another respect. It serves to show that the methods that win In the mining and political camps of Montana are not necessarily success ful in the financial district of New York. Manufacturing Little 'Affected... Mournful as the situation Is In. "Wall street, there Is nothing depressing in the business affairs of the country. The rail roads still have all tbe business they can handle and expect to .have . more. . The traffic manager's wail that he has' not cars enough to carry the freight that is forced on him Is heard already on some lines.. General merchandise is still going forward In good volume, and -collections are good. vIron and steel, though quiet just at present so far as new business is concerned, give promise of more activ ity as soon as money eases, making it possible to push new enterprises on a more reasonable basis. And even as'tt Is the mills have - orders enough to keep them going for months to come if no' further orders are received." HAS BULLET FOR EDWARD FORMER SOUTH . AFRICAN PO LICEMAN THREATENS KING. Imaginary Grievance Arouses ' Ani mosity of Man Caught Roam ing Around Chippenham. NEWMARKET, England. Oct. 26. The police here today : arrested a man sus pected of having designs on the life of King Edward or the JPrlnce of Wales. The prisoner, who was a member of the Beehuanaland (South Africa), police named J. H. Pearse, was found wander ing in Chippenham Park, where the King had been shooting this week and in which the Prince is going to shoot on Monday. Pearse, when taken into custody, said he Intended to "shoot" the boss who was shooting here. After a preliminary ex amination in the police court he was re manded for further inquiry regarding his past life. It appears that he participated In the Jameson raid and is laboring under the impression that he has a grievance against King Edward. His Majesty left Newmarket early yes terday and returned to London. INDICTED FOR GRAFTING - Ex-Speaker of Indiana House and Cashier of Concern. INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 2. The Marion County grand Jury today returned Indict ments against Henry Marshall, of la- fayette. president of the Western Con struction Company, and formerly speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives. George W. Baxter, cashier of the com pany, was Indicted also. The company has contracts with the city of Indianap olis for repairing asphalt on asphalt streets. Harry Brunaugh, agent of the company. charged with padding tne inspectors re. ports, was brought back today from De troit, whither he had fled. Bridegroom Drowns Himself. NEW YORK, Oct 26. Herbert Parkin a passenger on the steamer Baltic, which arrived today from Liverpool, leaped overboard last Sunday night and w drowned. Parkin gave a fellow passenger the address of a woman In Hull, England asking that she be notified. Then he rushed to the rail and jumped overboard, The liner was stopped an- a lifeboat lowered, but no trace of the man could be found. Parkin was on his way to Kansas, where. It Is said, he was soon to nave been married. Railroad Dodging Taxes. ' ALBANY, Or., Oct. 26. (Special.) Though it has not yet paid Its taxes for 1906, and all of Its property In Linn County is now being listed to be sold at delinquent tax sale next Spring, the Cor vallis & Eastern Railroad Company today filed formal complaint with the Board of Equalization regarding its 1907 assess ment. It protests that the valuation of $8500 per mile placed on its roadbed and rolling stock, as well as the valuation on Its roundhouse, machine shop and other property It owns In tola city, Is excessive. CARS AT YORKERS SMASHED BY MOB Policemen and Carmen Have Skulls Cracked With Stones. - TRACKS MUCH DAMAGED Appearance of Oars When Factories 4 Pour Crowds Into Streets Proves Signal for Violence The Police Fight Bravly. YONKT3RS, N. Y., Oct. 26. As a result of an attempt of the Yonkers City Rail way Company to run cars this afternoon, three policement and a strikebreaker are in the hospital. The Jactories had Just closed for the Saturday half-holiday when the cars left the barns and the streets were filled with workmen. As the cars moved slowly along the avenues they were followed by thousands of men and boys, yelling and hooting. Two cars that ran along Rlverdale ave nue were attacked by a mob and every pane of glass in them was smashed with stones. Two mounted policemen who tried to drive back the rioters were knocked off their horses and finally were rescued by other policemen, who charged Into the mobs, hitting right and left with their heavy nightsticks. The motorman of one of the ears at tacked was struck on the head with stones and knocked unconscious. It was sup posed his skull was fractured. He and the two policemen were taken to the hos pital. A similar scene was enacted in War burton avenue. Policeman Kennedy, who tried to restore order, was hit on the head with a stone and severely cut. He was taken to the hospital. 'The motormen and conductors of the cars sent out, with the - exception of the men taken to the hospital, managed to get away unhurt After the attack on the cars, the mob tore up the switchpoles In the tracks in Warburton and Ashburton avenues and threw, them into the river. The streets this afternoon were crowd ed with excited people and It is feared that the disturbances will be renewed. . The; strikebreakers are rapidly losing heart as a result of their experience dur ing the last two days, and it is said that 60 have left town. Militia May Check Car Strikers. . NEW YORK, Oct. 26. The strike for higher wages by the conductors and mo tormen- of the Yonkers Railway Company has given; rise to reports that National Guardsmen will be ordered to the sub urb. : The company's latest efforts to run cars have been unsuccessful, because the tracks were obstructed by strike sympa thizers, and the car crews were stoned. President Mayer, of the comDanv. has been arraigned in the Court of Special Sessions , on a charge by Health Officer McCormick of violating the sanitary code in housing strikebreakers. RECEIVER FOR HER ESTATE Mrs. Mills, of Perry, Accuses Trus- tees of Mismanagement. ST. LOUIS. Mo' Oct. 26. (Special.) On petition of Mrs. Harriet R. Mills, of Perry, Washington, . the Federal Court at Springfield, 111., has appoint ed a receiver for the estate of her mother, Augustine K. Root. The re ceiver, Albert Orrendorf, arrived in Alton yesterday and took possession of the property. He was accompanied by a Deputy U. S. Marshal from the Federal Court ' at Springfield, who served a writ upon the trustees of the estate directing them to turn the prop erty over to the receiver. Under the terms of the will filed September, 1906, the estate, which Is a large one, was to have been kepi. in trust ror nve years and then dis tributed among the heirs. Mrs. Mills charged mismanagement and further alleged that the four other heirs signed an agreement to divide the estate be fore the' trust period ended. DISLIKES THE SOCIALISTS Mayor Moore Says They Must Go Either to Jail or to the Woods. SEATTLE, Waih., Oct. 26. (Special.) "If the Socialists want to speak or hold meetings they can go to the woods or to Jait." That is the reply Mayor W. H. Moore gave a committee of Socialists today when they called upon him to announce that they intended to begin a series of street meetings. "The Salvation Army Is permitted to hold meetings in the streets," declared the Socialists. "It makes no difference," the Mayor retorted, and then he offered the dis ciples of discontent the alternative of wandering into the timbered dlRtcfcts or spending a night In the City Prison, al ready condemned by the health authori ties. The Socialists announced afterward that they had completed a fund for ball ing out their orators and had a commit- tee of .speakers named to talk on street corners. .They will continue their fight Indefinitely. WASTING GOOD LIQUORS How Robber Suspects Amused Themselves. SPOKANE, Wash, Oct. 26. (Special.) Lining up bottles containing $20 worth of wine or beer on the bar of the dance hall . at Bonners Ferry, and then with one sweep of ' another bottle breaking all Into many pieces was one of the - pleasantries indulged in by C. R. McDonald and Ed S-iith, arrested on suspicion of being the Great Northern train robbers, while they were spending several days there. They spent $381 In one' night. Such was the story related yesterday by ' Theodore Riley, proprietor of the dance hall. "No sooner would they sweep away 20 bottles of beer or four bottles of champagne than they would call for an other bunch to he set up on the bar,' said 'Riley today in remarking upon the amusements of the two men during the three days they were at his resort. First they would call for $20 wortn of beer to be placed upon the bar. Then one of the men would, with an other bottle, dash all the bottles to" pieces. The other fellow would then call for $30 worth of champagne to be put up and the four bottles would scarcely be placed on the bar before they were knocked to smlthereena, vv niie tney were tnus enjoying mem- selves they drank but little. "While they were in the midst of their rough house one of them asked permission to break the mirror behind the bar, saying he would pay more than it was worth, but I . objected to this. The other fellow then went out to the rear of the building In search of an ax, declaring that he In tended to out the bar to pieces and then pay me for It. I was mighty glad he was unable, to find the ax." Spokane bankers today positively identified the $14,395 taken from C. E. McDonald and Ed Smith, suspected train robbers, as part of the consign ment from the Commercial National Bank of Chicako to the Old National Bank, this city, September . The money was still wrapped as described by the Chicago bank, dated September 6, and O. K.'d by Reoeiver S. S. The money was taken to the vaults of the Union Trust Company today by Chlet Rice and locked up. EIGHTEEN PEOPLE HURT IN SEATTLE ACCIDENT. Passengers Leap Into the Street. Two Men Unconscious List , of Those Injured. SEATTLE, Wash., Oct. 26. (Spe cial.) At least 1& persons were injured. two of them possibly seriously, In a streetcar accident tonight, when a cable-car on the Madison-street line broke loose at Fourth avenue and dashed down hill toward the turntable at Western avenue. The runaway car crossed Second avenue traveling at the rate of 50 miles an hour, and crashed into an ascending car, hurling it back onto a third coach on the turntable at the foot of the hill. All the way from Third avenue passengers on the hill car leaped In frantic fear of death. On both of the cars at the foot of the hill the conductors ordered passengers to Jump and run for their lives, and1 everyone was gotten out of danger be fore the crash came. When the cars came together, car 42, hurled by the runaway car against car 47, was thrown from the tracks and both the others danwged. By a peculiar coincidence, the runaway car was the least damaged of all. A week or more ago a similar acci dent occurred, the cable car breaking loose as did the one tonight at the brow of the Fourth-avenue hill. The accident occurred shortly be fore midnight when the hill car was heavily loaded with a theater crowd. At first It was believed two men had been killed. They are at a local hos pital unconscious and physicians are attempting to save their lives. The injured who have been identified are: George B. Kent, unconscious, extent of Injuries undetermined; Mrs. William Anderson, face seriously cut; A. Bunch, skull fractured; L Greengart en. clerk, both hips hurt. wrist sprained; M. Gorgans, arm fractured, scalp wounds, possibly skull fractured; Mrs. A. G. Howatt, hurt about the head and left hip; R. Schuman, employe Madison-street power house, left leg cut; H. L Gregg, cuts about head, not seri ous; James Henry, wholesale meat deal er, cut and bruised, skull may be frac tured; Miss Hurst, young daughter of James Hurst, bruised badly; Miss Mamie Rordon, face fcruised, cut and suffering from shock; R. S. Kinsle, back hurt; Miss Peterson, employe Seattle General Hospital, cut about face; Clara Rosen, Ballard, bruised and Injured Internally; E. R. Hart, face and head badly bruised, right arm bruised and wrenched, left side bruised: Thomas Brace, bruised about head and legs: Mrs. Brace. Injured right side; Robert Allen. 114 Valley street, bruised about head and shoulders. ROBBED AT GUN'S MUZZLE M. E. Templcton Accosted by Two Highwaymen. M. E. Templeton. wire chief of the Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Company, while walking south on Sixth street toward his home, was held up and robbed by two highwaymen. who relieved him of $3a In coin. Templeton resides at 330 Sixth street and reached Sixth and Clay streets about 12:30 o'clock this morning, when he was accosted by a lone man who demanded his money. Templeton be lieving he could run a bluff on the fellow, announced that he had no money with him, but at this Juncture the second highwayman arrived and held a revolver to the victims' head to emphasize the demand, while the first man hastily searched his pockets. The men secured $35 in money, but failed to take a watch or any other article on the person of the victim The thugs are described as tough- looking fellows, about medium build and smooth shaven. .Patrol Sergeants Wendorf and John son were sent out to look for the men as soon as the hold-up was reported, but at a late hojir had failed to find any trace of them. . BLOW UP OLD PROSPECTOR Montana Dynamiters Commit Das tardly Deed in Mountains. BOULDER. Mont.. Oct. 26. A dastardly attempt has been made on the life of Charles Heuer. a well-known old-time prospector. Heuer was preparing his breakfast at his mountain home, when without warning the side of the cabin was blown away. , Heuer's right arm was nearly blown off and he also sustained a number of bad injuries and burns about the body and face. After a trying time in extricating himself from the debris, he made his way to this place, where medical treatment was given. He will probably recover. PLEADS GUILTY; LOSES JURYTRIAL Baby Dies at End of Journey. TACOMA, Wash., Oct. 26. Special.) At the close of a long and anxious Jour ney, coming from Bryan, Mich., to join her husband In Tacoma, Mrs. . Joseph Multhaupt held the lifeless form of her little baby in her arms as she got off the train at the Northern Pacific Depot. The baby had been sick on the way and died Just as the train was coming into Tacoma. Marlon Grey, Matrimonial Agent, Hastens to a Sick Friend. SENTENCE IS DEFERRED Pretty Deputy of Cupid Foregoes Chance of Acquittal That She May Hasten to Bedside of Girl Friend Gives Vp Business. CHICAGO. Oct. 26. (Special.) Because a girl friend was seriously 111, probably dying, Marion Grey, Elgin's handsome and mysterious matrimonial agent, pleaded guilty to using the mails to do fraud in Judge Bethea's court today. She pleaded that she did not know she was doing wrong, and begged for the mercy of the court. Judge Bethea suspended action until the next term of court. Miss Grey hurried from the courtroom to go to the side of her sick friend, whom she said she wished to nurse. "I am willing to plead guilty to do any thingJust so 1t will all be over," she told the Federal authorities. "1 have a dear friend wno Is 111 of typhoid fever. Her mother died recently, and I am anx ious to go to the girl's bedside so that I can help to take care of her." now She Begins Business. The friend for whom Miss Grey was willing to sacrifice her chance of an ac quittal In a trial by Jury is said to ve Miss Ona Wlndolf. of Canton, O. When the pretty organizer of the Searchlight Club appeared in court she told, for the first time, how she started the business of finding life mates for $S a try. "While I was attending school at Ann Arbor the girl students and my self answered matrimonial advertise ments as a prank and to play Jokes on the teachers," she explained to Judge Bethea. "I developed the scheme I had from the literature I received from other matrimonial bureaus." Says She Has Given It Up. She declared that she entered the business of mating hearts to get money to continue her education and had never thought It was illegal to trick trusting swains and maidens, un til she was arrested. "You can be Imprisoned, or fined heavily for your offense. ' Are you willing to give up this business?" askctl Judge Bethea. , "I have given it up," she sobbed. The- pretty matrimonial agent, who Is 20 years of age, nearly fainted as she stood before the bar of the Fed eral Judge. She covered her face with her hands when Judge Bethea told her that she could be punished with a fine of $500 or 18 months' Imprisonment, or both. T DEATH OF FRANK GRAY NOT SATISFACTORILY EXPLAINED. Tries to Get Clear of Woman 'With Whom He Is Living, but Cannot. Murder Is Suspected. SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26. (Specials Charles A. Gray, father of Frank Gray, the young singer in a Golden Gate avenue music hall, whose life was ended by a bullet in his apart ments at 927 Eddy street, last Monday morning. Is speeding on his way to San Francisco from Denver to investi gate his son's death. Gray Is not satisfied that his son committed suicide. Friends of the dead youth who are familiar with the circumstances surrounding his death wired to Denver that a more rigid in vestigation than that conducted by the police Is warranted. They, have already conducted one on their own account and they say that details have been found widely diverging from those supplied by May Melville, or Mamie Acton as she was known here, who was the sole witness to Gray's death and who is said to have owned the revolver from which the shot was fired. Gray, who was but 22 years old, had no reason to kill himself and his disposition was unusually cheery. Morgue officials say that the wound which caused death could hardly have been self-inflicted, the bullet having en tered the left temple and ranged slightly downward. Gray was right-handed. The pistol, if fired by him. must have been held in the left hand. The powder marks on the dead man's face Indicated that the muzzle of the weapon had been held several Inches away. Gray was one of a team of entertainers known as the McHimry Brothers. He had been living with the Melville woman, who is 18 years his senior. The woman, as May Melville, was at one time the keeper of a notorious house in Sacra mento. She has been known to enter the hall where Gray was employed and sit at a table for hours alone without taking her eyes from his- face. The morning Gray met his death, she had a trivial tilt with him. Friends of Gray say that a few days before he was killed the woman remarked to two women friends: . "Something will happen before Monday night that will shock you all; something that will startle you." "You are not going to kill yourself?" they asked. " "May Melville Is too wise a girl for that," is said to have been her reply. Gray, say his friends, had been try ing to shake himself clear from the woman. He had saved enough money to take him away, his friends say, but the woman had learned of It and had spent his savings. The Monday on which the tragedy occurred she was to have left for Sacramento at his request to open a lodging-house at that place. Gray had agreed to follow her. but had told friends that he would not keep his promise. President Congratulates Him. WASHINGTON, Oct. 26. President Roosevelt today congratulated Secretary Cortelyou on his admirable handling of .the present financial crisis.