Here's a rare historical nugget: A summary of the reasons why people were behind bars in the Sonoma County jail during 1892, which I think was the only time such a list appeared in a Santa Rosa newspaper.
There were 500 prisoners that year, more than half (315) being held for misdemeanors, vagrancy, drunkenness and unspecified minor offenses - the whole list can be found below. Mostly the rest is predictable: People steal things valuable or not, people hurt other people causing varying degrees of damage, and people do stupid things that may show they are crazy. Two items that might surprise us today were child stealing (yikes!) and using vulgar language.
Both Santa Rosa and the county had laws against saying bad words in front of children or women, which was the topic of a previous article (see "THE HIGH COST OF CUSSING"). It was usually a charge thrown in with other offenses such as drunkenness or fighting, and continued to be used that way into the 1920s. But there were two cases in the 1890s that stand out because the law was seemingly used in a cruel and vindictive manner.
Alfred Jacobs, a Sebastopol 13 year-old was arrested in 1890 on two counts: assaulting his sixth grade school teacher and for using vulgar language. He was given two consecutive 60-day sentences by Judge Dougherty, but one of them was dropped when the assault charge was dismissed.
The boy stayed in jail as lawyers returned to court four times to debate a writ of habeas corpus. It's unclear what that meant in this situation - perhaps they were trying to square the circle of arresting a child by using a law meant to protect children. At any rate, they dithered until two months had passed and he was released anyway.
Jacobs would spend much of the 1890s behind bars, including two years at San Quentin for grand larceny. "After his release from the prison, Jacobs devoted himself most industriously to thievery, and has been in trouble many times," the Santa Rosa paper tsk-tsked in 1897. "District Attorney Seawell regards Jacobs as a dangerous menace to society." During that decade he was also locked up for vagrancy, horse theft and burglary.
Even if you don't take his age into account, there's no question his punishment was harsh; that same year adults were sentenced to only ten days for swearing. Perhaps the judge intended the extended sentence as sort of a "time out" to contemplate and reform his ways - or maybe the judge was an old-school "spare the rod, spoil the child" sadist. Whatever the reason, it's interesting to note just three days after Jacobs was given his long punishment, that judge gave a lecture on "the moral, intellectual and religious formation of character."
The other incident where profanity was treated as a serious crime happened in 1894 - and like the case of Alfred Jacobs, it was also heard in the courtroom of Judge Dougherty.
Until she was arrested Kate Norton lived in poverty with her three children. She and her 22 year-old daughter, Bertha, were taken by the Bodega constable to Santa Rosa on charges of insanity.
There was a history of the women being harassed by local boys, which the Democrat shamefully reported as if it were a big joke. "It seems to have been their part at the town of Bodega to amuse the boys, against their will of course, but the young boys of the town have been in the habit of annoying them into a frenzy to enjoy a little loquacious concert intersperced with pungent profanity." The paper said both were "intensely excitable and emotional and well stored with vulgar phrases and grossest profanity" because they were Irish immigrants.
The rest of this article can be read at the SantaRosaHistory.com website. Because of recurring problems with the Blogger platform, I am no longer wasting my time formatting and posting complete articles here. I will continue to create stubs for the sake of continuity, but will be publishing full articles only at SantaRosaHistory.com.
- Jeff Elliott
Come August it's Sonoma County Fair time in Santa Rosa; you can set your calendar by it. Even if you don't attend the Fair anymore it's one of those milestones that stubbornly refuse to be ignored, like Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December. One morning the checkout line at the Cash & Carry was taking forever because the people ahead of me were mostly paying with crumpled one dollar bills. Then I noticed what was on their warehouse push carts: The cheapest cooking oil, bags of sugar heavier than a five year-old child, gallons of colorful fruit syrups. Ding! August. County Fair.
But it wasn't always in August, or in Santa Rosa, and the fairgrounds has a very spotty history of even being a fairgrounds. Nor was there something every year which could be called the Sonoma County Fair; draw a timeline between 1883 and today and randomly pick a year - about a third of the time you'll come up fairless.
This is a history of how the “Sonoma County Fair” evolved, but just like every evolutionary tree there was no clear, inevitable path from when it took root to where it is now; what we have today is just one branch that won out among several of its kin that didn’t happen to do as well. Some were organized by locals who created an association or society for that purpose; some were an official event of the state’s agricultural district for the North Bay. But even whether the fair was independent vs. government-sponsored doesn’t fully explain how things developed; at different times, what became the “Sonoma County Fair” has been both. The district fairs were mostly exhibits to promote local livestock and produce; the private fairs usually featured professional/semi-professional horse racing. And again, the “Sonoma County Fair” embraced both.
Rightly Petaluma's Sonoma-Marin Fair should probably have the County Fair monicker, as it has a longer record (starting in 1867) and has been held most consistently. Even older was was the San Pablo Bay District Fair, which began in 1859. It was held in both the town of Sonoma and Vallejo and morphed into what was called the first "county fair" in the newspapers - the ongoing "Sonoma-Napa Mechanical Fair," which drew Victorian nerds from all over the state (lots of wine drinking, too). That one will get an article here of its own, someday.
But while those other towns were earnestly trying to establish and maintain those annual festivals, in Santa Rosa there was tepid interest in fair-making, and what did exist proceeded in fits and starts for decades. What the City of Roses really wanted was to become the City of Races.
The rest of this article can be read at the SantaRosaHistory.com website. Because of recurring problems with the Blogger platform, I am no longer wasting my time formatting and posting complete articles here. I will continue to create stubs for the sake of continuity, but will be publishing full articles only at SantaRosaHistory.com.
- Jeff Elliott
How did I miss that? Here are followups to earlier posts with new details found in 1908 Santa Rosa newspapers:
 | TERRORISM ON MARK WEST CREEK When a couple of barns caught fire in the summer of 1908, arson was widely suspected; Helen Finley Comstock, whose grandfather's barn was lost, said her family believed it was the work of the IWW (also known as the "Wobblies"). But my analysis showed that they were the least likely suspects. Odds were higher that the fires were lit by disturbed boys who had escaped from nearby work camps, or disgruntled hop pickers who were chased out of the Ukiah Valley after they tried to organize a strike for better wages. An overlooked item in the Press Democrat showed that authorities were specifically worried about the strikers destroying property: "The pickers are in an ugly mood and are presenting their claims for increased wages with a defiance that has caused the local authorities to prepare for an outbreak. Damage to property is feared." |
| PAINTERS OF SUNSHINE AND PATHOS What was displayed in the window of Bruner's art store in 1908? An item in the Santa Rosa Republican stated they were oil and watercolor still life paintings from the upcoming encyclopedia of Luther Burbank's work, along with copies of the books. Only one problem: There weren't any books, as that series was never produced. Another item reveals that the display traveled to San Francisco a few weeks later, and provides the additional details that these were mockups of book covers being shown with a wide price range of bindings, from cheap and plain to very, very luxe. |
| IN LOVE WITH DOROTHY ANNE Earlier I confessed that reading the gossip columns by "Dorothy Anne" were my guilty pleasures. While her comments on the society scene in post-earthquake Santa Rosa were sometimes cruel and snooty, she offered unique views of what it was like to live during those years (not to mention that some of her remarks were downright funny, intentionally or no). Of particular historic interest was her description of Luther Burbank's garden and her detailed tour of Burbank's now-demolished home. But who was she? Her identity was always kept secret. Thanks to a passing mention in a "Society Gossip" column after her byline had disappeared, we now know that she was Mary M. McConnell, and would have been 33-35 years old when writing for the Press Democrat. She dropped the column around the time of her engagement to Orrin Houts, whom she married in 1908; as Mrs. O. L. Houts, she drove an automobile in the Rose Carnival that year, taking first prize in the "Natural Flowers" category. (The Houts Auto Company soon became the town's first major auto dealership.) I'm crossing my fingers that a diary kept by Mary McConnell Houts turns up someday; it should be a rollicking good read. |
| HATE CRIME NOT SO FUNNY THE 2ND TIME Tom Mason, who smashed a Chinese man in the head with a brick, was sentenced to just three months in county jail. Mason's half-brother, who also had a role in the attack, apparently was not charged, but the judge suspected he lied under oath and reprimanded him. We also learn that the victim suffered a broken jaw. |
| SALOON TOWN A 1907 ordinance prevented restaurants from selling alcohol without an accompanying meal, and the next year Luigi Franchetti was arrested for breaking the law, witnessed by no fewer than three police officers - can you say, "entrapment?" Like an earlier incident where a lower Fourth street place was closed for offering a few crackers as a "meal," the law seems to have been unequally applied and targeted Italian-run eateries. |
| "THE STING" ACTUALLY HAPPENED HERE Although Santa Rosa had long profited from an underground economy of prostitution and gambling, it was decided in 1908 that the city drew the line at "pool rooms." These operations were off-track betting halls that mainly took bets on horse races, as gamblers listened to results being read by a telegraph operator with a direct line to the track. But sometimes con men intercepted the transmission and retransmitted it after the race was finished, allowing them to bet on a sure thing - this was the plot of Robert Redford's great movie, "The Sting." A simple version of that scam was tried here, but the criminal was quickly caught. That attempted swindle - combined with the newly-elected City Council's desire to show they were tough on crime - led Santa Rosa to write an ordinance forbidding this type of betting. It remained legal in many other parts of the state; on the same day that Santa Rosa outlawed them, a man in Redwood City was convicted of tapping the telegraph wires used by all San Francisco pool rooms. |
STRIKING HOP PICKERS AT UKIAH
Trouble is Feared and Ringleaders Who Try to Incite General Walkout Are Placed Under Arrest for Fear of an Outbreak
A general strike of hop pickers now threatens to complete the series of ill-fortunes that have beset the hop growers of the Ukiah valley this season. Today six ring leaders who tried to incite the pickers to a general walk-out are under arrest and unless the situation changes within the next 24 hours it is likely that more arrests will be made and the entire force of workers will leave the fields.
Three hundred pickers employed by Horst Bros. have already refused to work unless they are paid a dollar per hundred pounds, which means an increase of 20 cents over the present scale. The pickers are in an ugly mood and are presenting their claims for increased wages with a defiance that has caused the local authorities to prepare for an outbreak. Damage to property is feared.
The crop is only one-third harvested and in case a strike is declared will be almost a total lost. Many growers are already harvesting under a great loss this season on account of the low price hops are bringing in the market. They also have suffered from a scarcity of labor and for this season are at the mercy of the pickers.
Hopland, Sept. 4.-- The hop drying kiln of the American Hop and Barley Company here today is a total loss as the result of a fire discovered in the furnace room late yesterday. The damage has not been ascertained, but it is known to be extensive, as this firm has the largest plant in the state. The fire is thought to have started from a defective flue, although it is not considered improbable that the disaffected hop pickers who are on strike for higher wages may have been responsible.- Press Democrat, September 5, 1908
WILL MAKE EXHIBIT FOR SAN FRANCISCANS
The people of San Francisco are to be given an opportunity of viewing the splendid work being done by the Cree-Binner Company, in their edition of Luther Burbank's "New Creations." President E. Binner, of the company named, has gone to San Francisco and will there arrange for an exhibition of the drawings, paintings, plates and engravings which are being used in the publication. Samples of the work on the book and of the splendid covers will also be shown the people of the metropolis. The residents of San Francisco have requested that an opportunity be given them to see something of this work. A number of different prices of binding have been arranged for the work, ranging from $39.50 to $2000 for the set of works, which will be very elaborate.- Santa Rosa Republican, November 4, 1908
...Mrs. O. L. Houts, one of the welcome guests present, was called upon as "Dorothy Anne" for a toast, and her response was most appropriate. Mrs. Houts very happily alluded to the pleasure of the afternoon and to the reasons why she had relinquished her nom de plume "Dorothy Anne" (having herself become a bride a short time ago). While reviewing the many pleasantries of the afternoon, Mrs. Houts said she could not help realizing the possibilities presented for a good "story"...- "Society Gossip," Press Democrat, September 6, 1908
TOM MASON FOUND GUILTY
Gets Three Months Sentence to County Jail
Tom Mason was convicted by the jury in Judge Emmet Seawell's court this afternoon on the charge of assault in striking a Sebastopol Chinese on the head with a brick and breaking his jaw.
Mason was sentenced to serve three months in the county jail by Judge Seawell. The court also took occasion to reprimand John Poggie, a half brother of the defendant. He warned that individual to be careful in future of statements he made on the witness stand and declared he had not believed Poggie, and he felt sure the jury had also disbelieved his story.
Poggie was badly crestfallen by the lecture given him by the court.- Santa Rosa Republican, April 3, 1908
SAY HE SOLD "BOOZE" WITHOUT A MEAL
Luigi Franchetti, who is charged with serving liquor without a meal at his restaurant at Wilson and Seventh street, was tried before City Recorder Bagley Thursday afternoon. The case attracted a large number of Italians to the court room. The defendant was not represented by an attorney. Attorney A. M. Johnson appeared for City Attorney A. B. Ware.
Police Officers Ramsey, Yeager and Lindley, who witnessed the sale of liquor, testified to the facts and the arrest which followed immediately afterwards. Several witnesses were called on behalf of the defendant and questioned by Attorney Johnson. The only one who knew anything about the case testified to having been served beer in the place, but claimed to have had something to eat with it. He was uncertain in his answers and showed considerable doubt as to how he should answer some of the direct questions put to him by the Court.- Press Democrat, October 2, 1908
THE POOL ROOMS ABOLISHED HERE
Stringent Ordinance Passed By the City Council at its Meeting Last Night
Pool rooms and pool selling on races or any contest in Santa Rosa were wiped out by the City Council at its meeting last night by the passage of a stringent ordinance. The ordinance is in effect today and persons violating it is guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine not to exceed $300, or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed 150 days, or by both fine and imprisonment.
The ordinance not only makes it a misdemeanor for any person to conduct a pool room or sell poll tickets in Santa Rosa, but a person, his agent, or representative may not lease a room for the purpose of a pool room, neither can a telegraph or telephone company handle messages dealing with races or contest knowing that they are for use in a poolroom, etc.
[..]- Press Democrat, December 16, 1908
Remember the elaborate con game in the Oscar-winning movie, "The Sting?" Something like that scam occurred in Santa Rosa, 1908.
The definitive book on early 20th century cons is "The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man," where it's noted that the "wire" was invented in 1898 and refined in 1900 by the gang fictionally portrayed in the film. The classic version had two parts; the con man convinced the sucker that he always won horse race bets because he had tapped the telegraph wire, allowing a confederate to block and re-transmit race results after the winning horse was actually known. The confidence man asked the sucker to place a few bets for him because his winning streak was arousing suspicion at a certain private "horse pool room" for high-rollers. (The term "pool room" has nothing to do with billiards - it was the name for an off-track betting hall, also sometimes called "race horse turf exchanges." They were allowed in some cities even though horse racing was not legal in that state. The wire con was believable because the races - which sometimes were taking place hundreds of miles away - were reported by telegraph connections that were prone to interruptions and delays.)
In part two of the scam, the sucker was told that a long-shot would certainly win the final race of the day, and he should make the largest bet possible. That horse supposedly wins, but it was the practice of the pool rooms to pay off the last race on the following day. The next morning the sucker and the con man arrive together at the private pool room only to find the building empty. The con artist's final job is to convince the sucker to not report it to the police, arguing that he also might be sent to prison because he was part of the wire fraud conspiracy. And yes, sometimes a murder was faked to ensure the sucker was frightened into silence, just like in the movie - in the colorful parlance of the day, this touch was called the "cackle-bladder" because the con man popped open a pig's bladder filled with chicken blood to simulate a fatal wound. (A full description of the wire con can be found in a 1914 book available on-line).
The scam that was worked in Santa Rosa was neither as elaborate or as competent. According to an article in the April 3 San Francisco Call, the con man was a well-known young man named Walter Rea (age 21 at the time and a native Santa Rosan). "He is said to have bet $5 on a horse quoted at 80 to 1. When word was received that his horse had won he cashed in and left town. It is believed that a confederate tapped the wire and gave the wrong horse as the winner," reported the Call. Rea was caught and arrested on the complaint of W. J. Edgeworth, a Sebastopol man who was part owner of the pool room known as "Donahue's."
The incident serves as a postscript to the previous post, discussing the outcome of the 1908 Santa Rosa city election and how the town had long profited from an underground economy of prostitution and illegal gambling. In the articles transcribed here, it was revealed that there were two illegal pool rooms then operating in Santa Rosa. Police and the District Attorney apparently looked the other way, even though the election that would be held less than a week later was largely a referendum upon the city's tolerance for vice and crime (read update here).
POOL ROOM IS "STUNG"
Victimized for $400 Dollars Wednesday
One of the two poolrooms which have been operating in Santa Rosa for many months was "stung" Wednesday afternoon to the extent of four hundred dollars. Just how the "sting" was administered was not definitely stated, but it is believed to have been done by means of tapped wires. As the pool room is not a legal institution, those who benefited by the coup and secured the coin will probably not be molested, for if the proprietors have any warrants issued for the arrest of the youth who administered the "sting" they will have to testify in prosecuting that they have been conducting a pool room.
The young man who secured the pool room coin is well known around this city, and immediately after the tip was received that a certain horse had won, he is alleged to have "cashed in" his checks and departed. The man who was "stung" has done considerable talking since.- Santa Rosa Republican, April 2, 1908POOL ROOM SHOWN TO EXIST IN SANTA ROSA
The hearing of the case against Walter Rea, charged with beating a local pool room out of several hundred dollars, disclosed the existence of two pool rooms in the City of Roses, according to the testimony.
The testimony showed that Frank W. Brown received information by telegaph regarding races at his place of business, and that they were then transmitted by phone to Donahue's and later reduced to writing and sent to Donahue's place. Rea secured three hundred dollars on the purported victory of a certain horse, reported to have won, when the animal had been defeated. The money was paid by Donahue personally.
The case was continued until next Saturday for further hearing.- Santa Rosa Republican, April 20, 1908
Santa Rosa was quite the saloon town in the early 20th century, with 30 bars (or so) downtown, mostly on Fourth St. between Railroad Square and Courthouse Square. It was also a smoker's paradise, with about a half dozen tobacco stores along the same route. And in each bar, each smoke shop, were slot machines where a guy could plunk in a nickel and gamble for cigars.
Discussed here earlier was a loopy 1906 court ruling that declared a slot machine was a "banking device" as long as the payout was in cigars, beer, gum, or anything but cash. The item transcribed below provides details of the "house rules" that prevailed in Santa Rosa, showing clearly that the barkeep or smoke shop owner had an active hands-on role similar to a casino dealer, allowing a gambler to ask the proprietor for double-down bets. That's a big difference from passively having a machine on the side of the counter.
Card gambling in the cigar shops was also common, judging from a long debate in 1907 about whether tables should be banned in Healdsburg, but nothing specific about poker games appeared in the papers about Santa Rosa. But after the quake rebuilding settled down, it was likely still somewhat a "wide-open town," as earlier revealed by a 1905 exposé in the Santa Rosa Republican.
REDUCE ODDS ON SLOT MACHINES
After Today Local Cigar Dealers Will No Longer Pay on Queens, or Allow Drawing to Straights or Flushes--The Reason Why
In anticipation of the proposed license on slot machines, a new schedule goes into effect at the cigar stores tomorrow. No more will two Queens be good for a rope [cigar], and after today drawing to straights and flushes will be a thing of the past. It is the same old story--the "consumer pays the tax." The city has decided to license the slot machines, and the odds are to be changed so that the dear public will pay the license fee.
Although the printed schedule on the face of the machines only calls for payment when a pair of Kings or better appears, it has been the local custom to pay on the appearance of Queens. At one time, before the shake, the local dealers even paid on Jacks. It has also been the vogue here to allow customers who had made a play and secured all but one of a straight or flush to "draw" to the same upon payment of an extra nickel. Thus, if a customer who had four clubs and wanted a fifth should elect to pay for the privilege he was allowed to try again, the appearance of a club in the designated spot on the second turn being held to complete the flush and being regarded as equivalent to having drawn all five clubs on the first play. But the dealers say they are "too much loser" to keep this up, now that each machine is to be taxed $5 per quarter by the municipality. The regular printed schedule is to apply from now on.- Press Democrat, March 10, 1907
Hard to believe today, but a century ago the courts couldn't settle on a legal definition of gambling. Were you really placing a bet if you didn't hope to win money - but instead a beer, a handful of cigars, or even a cheek full of bubblegum? Apparently not, according to the 1906 Court of Appeals, ruling that a Petaluma man was innocent of a crime for dropping his nickel in a slot machine that could not give him hard cash in winnings.
The slot machines in question were apparently the sort invented in 1891. For a nickel, the five drums in the machine would spin, each holding the picture of ten playing cards. If the wheels stopped on a combination that displayed a winning poker hand, the bartender handed over a few cigars as the payout. According to several gambling history web sites - which freely plagiarize from each other, with never an original source cited - high-ranking cards were routinely removed from the drums, making a big jackpot impossible.
(Image courtesy SlotsDoc.com)
But because no payout was in coin, the machine was "a banking device," according to the court. The law narrowly defined gambling as being paid in "money, credits, checks and other representatives of value." Cigars, beer, and gum, were apparently worthless in the court's eyes.
SLOT FOR SMOKE IS NOT ILLEGAL
Decision in the Slot Machine Cases by the Appelate Court Occasions Much Interest Here
In the case of C. C. Williams of Petaluma, the Appellate Court has decided that a slot machine played by the dropping of a nickel and the pressing of a lever to disclose the face of cards is a banking device, and is [not] a gambling machine. But where the machine pays in cigars or tobacco it does not fall within the inhibition of the law, the court holds...
...Williams was one of the Petalumans arrested on December 4, 1905 and fined $100. It was on the words "other representatives of value that the case rested. The Appellate Court held that according to the rules of law the words coming after the words 'money' and 'checks' means incorporated items of a similar nature, and [sic] did not embrace cigars and other merchandise." In his opinion Justice Buckles holds as follows:
There is nothing in section 330 which prohibits gambling for cigars. It follows that the practitioner must be discharged.
[...]
Some of the points made in the opinion of Justice Buckles are set forth in the Sacramento Union as follows:
Williams was arrested for operating and conducting this machine and it was charged that a banking game was played upon it for "money, credits, checks and other representatives of value."
But there is no pretension, say the Court, that money or checks were played. It was charged that cigars are "other representatives of value."
The machine was operated by dropping in a nickel and pressing a lever, and cigars were delivered according to a schedule of card showings. The machine was used for cigars only. The slot machine is, says Judge Buckles, a banking game. But it is not a crime to run such a device as described unless played for "money, credits, checks and other representatives of value." If played for something not included in these, it is not a crime.
What did the legislature mean by "other representatives of value?" The gaming is limited to the kinds mentioned in the law and the Court cannot extend the prohibition.
The ingenuity of man has devised a banking game in the cigar slot machine by which gambling may be carried on for property not included within "money, credits, checks and other representatives of value." There is nothing in the law which prohibits gambling for cigars, hence the prisoner must be discharged, says the Court.- Press Democrat, August 2, 1906
In 1905, Santa Rosa had two faces - as did its main newspaper, the Press Democrat.
On one side was the sleepy little farm town, where we all met downtown Saturday night to listen to the brass band tootling away on the courthouse balcony as we shopped, and what crime was reported in the newspaper was the likes of an occasional stolen bicycle or attempted burglary. Santa Rosa could've been the model for the dear little town in "The Music Man."
But there was another Santa Rosa that was less sugar and a lot more spice. Downtown was more like a "mining camp" when there were horse races in town, and our small community had a red-light district large enough to service, well, a mining camp. Press Democrat editor Ernest L. Finley never mentioned that face of Santa Rosa, and didn't like it when the young lions over at the Santa Rosa Republican published an exposé of the illegal gambling scene and the city's complicity. In the weeks that followed, the saloonkeepers and others who profited from gambling attempted to intimidate or close the Republican through a subscriber and advertiser boycott. While Finley didn't openly endorse the call to shut down his rival, he used it as an opportunity to ambush the Republican by renewing a petty feud that he had started earlier in 1905.
For twenty years or more, Santa Rosa's nasty gambling addiction was kept out of the papers by editors like the Press Democrat's Ernest Finley and the Republican's Alan Lemmon. Whether they personally liked gambling (or for that matter, prostitution) is unknown; perhaps they kept mum because they feared exactly the sort of backlash from gambling interests as was faced by the new editor and publisher of the Republican. Most likely, though, the editors and town elders saw wide-spread gambling and prostitution as necessary evils to draw visitors. As transcribed in the previous post, the Sacramento Bee wrote an editorial in support of the Republican noting that this was an argument also made in the state capitol: "The same sort of talk has often been heard in Sacramento - that the majority of the residents favored gambling, at least during the State Fair and at all other times when efforts were made to draw crowds to the city."
And the number of visitors drawn to Santa Rosa and the amount of money gambled could be substantial. Although the PD usually described racetrack attendance in generalities like "a good sized crowd," the item below shows that even an off-season race could draw five hundred from San Francisco (that there were so many bordellos is no longer surprising) and that side bets at the racetrack could pay around double the $300 that an average American worker made at the time as an annual wage.
Yes, we had Trouble right here in our River City - With a capital 'T' and that rhymes with 'P' and that stands for 'ponies' and 'prostitution.' Only we didn't have a Harold Hill to rouse the town against it until 1905.
EXCITING FINISH IN MANY RACES
Meet Under Auspices of San Francisco Driving Club Proves a Success
The San Francisco Driving Club held a very successful race meet at the track of the Santa Rosa Stock Farm on Sunday afternoon and some excellent racing was witnessed by a large crowd of enthusiastic spectators. The afternoon was not devoid of sensational features and fun.
A special train brought five hundred visitors from San Francisco and a great many more swelled the crowd from this section. Owing to the oncoming of darkness two of the harness races were not finished and it was agreed to complete them and have another meet here next Sunday.
Some good time was made in the free for all, which by the way proved the most interesting event of the afternoon...five horses are entered and each owner puts up $100 apiece and the winner will take the $500 in addition to the club purse...- Press Democrat, October 17, 1905
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If it wasn't for that little matter of an earthquake in 1906, the biggest news story in early 20th century Santa Rosa would've been the exposé that for at least one week every year, Santa Rosa was a "wide-open town" where police tolerated criminal activity. Even though local children were found alongside professional gamblers from San Francisco at roulette wheels and crap tables in the backrooms of downtown saloons and hotels, illegal gambling was condoned, even encouraged, by the City Council - as well as by Press Democrat editor Ernest L. Finley.
Santa Rosa's biggest dirty little secret was that the August horse races brought in gamblers from outside Sonoma County, and the town welcomed them by throwing out state and city gambling laws. Local authorities kept an eye out for cheating during the illegal games, sometimes watching too closely; one deputy sheriff was found gambling himself, and a former deputy was running an illegal card game. An unnamed "prominent city official" was also among those betting and inviting his friends to "come up."
This pattern of lawlessness apparently dated back to the 1880s and was ignored until the 1905 racing season, when the new editor and publisher in charge of the Santa Rosa Republican published the investigative story below. This was a kind of fresh journalism that Santa Rosa had not before seen. The Press Democrat at this time of year read more like The Racing News, reporting all track results, time of each horse, and the purse for each race, complete with racetrack lingo: "Charlie T. was out for the long green," "Miss Win felt the flag." Photographs, otherwise rarely found in the PD at this time, were plentiful when it came to horsey portraits during racing week.
Press Democrat editor Finley first tried to downplay the rival paper's scoop. In a short item seen at right (transcribed below), and next to one of its typical racing blurbs, the PD reported only that "visiting jockeys, race attendants, etc., found small opportunity for indulging in their favorite pastime" because of the crackdown, still ignoring the larger problem that the paper had long ignored. When arrests were made the following day, the PD likewise made not much ado.
Finley apparently didn't see that he was on the wrong side of history by sanctioning illegality. Reform was in the wind during 1905 and following years, thanks in part to both the progressive leadership of newly-elected President Teddy Roosevelt and the golden age of muckraking journalism. Change was certainly the byword in San Francisco, where a series of Grand Juries and activist groups were starting to root out the corruption of long-time city boss Abe Reuf. Just days after the Santa Rosa Republican exposed illegal gaming in the City of Roses, an August 20 Press Democrat headline reported on the newly-released findings by the San Francisco Grand Jury, "POLICE INVOLVED IN CORRUPTION AND FRAUD." But the PD's skimpy article mentioned only "charges of malfeasance and misconduct" without going into detail that the Grand Jury found specifically that elected top SF officials and police were taking kickbacks and bribes from gamblers, whorehouses, and illegal saloons. Too close to home, perhaps?
To be fair, it must be noted that the Santa Rosa Republican likewise ignored local crime. As described in "Wide Open Town Part I," Santa Rosa had an enormous red-light district for the size of this town, with no fewer than eleven whorehouses just a couple of blocks away from the downtown courthouse. It was mentioned in passing once in an essay published by the Republican, but neither paper crusaded against Sonoma County's Ground Zero for prostitution.
It took Editorialissimo Finley a week to plan out a campaign, and his counterstrike was both brilliant and deplorable: he completely ignored everything about the illegal gambling issue, instead slamming the Republican for supposedly being ignorant about and/or hostile to vital Sonoma County agricultural issues. Distract and demonize: Finley's 1905 Press Democrat was the Fox News of its day - petty, mean, vindictive, and wrong.
Finley blasted away with charges that the Republican was trying to "force the price of hops downward" by simply printing bonafide market reports. The Republican foolishly defended itself, which gave the Press Democrat even more ammo. The Republican editor should have known better; this incident was an almost exact replay of the opening salvo of the newspaper feud of 1905, when the PD misquoted Luther Burbank, the Republican corrected the error, and the two papers ended up in a silly squabble over whether Burbank was "chagrined" or not.
But this time around the dance floor, the Press Democrat brought friends with sharp elbows. "This afternoon the Republican learned that a petition was being circulated among the merchants of the community asking that those who are advertisers with the Republican agree to discontinue their patronage, because of the stand that this paper has taken in the matter of printing the facts about the gambling games," the Republican noted in the issue following their exposé. A couple of days later, they noted that Frank Brown of the Oberon Saloon was leading a boycott of the Republican, followed by a smug little editorial note in the Press Democrat: "Santa Rosa should have a big street fair or something of the kind this year. Who will take the contract to get out and raise the necessary funds?" Promoting that upcoming street fair was none other than Frank Brown, who stayed true to his words and took out no advertisements in the Santa Rosa Republican. This exhibition of pique ended when the carnival arrived, and discovered that it wasn't being promoted at all in one of the town's newspapers.
And with that, the battle lines were drawn. Finley began calling the rival paper the "Evening Fakir," which he would continue to use until the earthquake. The Republican took to calling the Press Democrat the "Morning Screamer."
ILLEGAL GAMES WERE RUNNING IN SANTA ROSA LAST NIGHT
DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY THOMPSON ORDERS THEM CLOSED
For several weeks it has been known that preparations were quietly going on for the running of gambling games during the races here this week. Gambling was done last night in at least five places in town. Today, after the Chief of Police and Sheriff had stated that they did not feel called upon to interfere, the facts in the case were presented to the District Attorney. At noon Deputy Rolfe Thompson issued an order directing the peace officers to enfoce the law. Whether the illegal gamess will close remains to be seen.
The "Tiger" was loose in Santa Rosa last night.
Gambling games, prohibited not only by the State law but by city ordinances, were in full blast in at least five places in the city and no effort was made by the authorities to stop them.
In fact the games were even patronized by a deputy sheriff and at one of them a prominent city official was playing and inviting his friends to "come up."
While the games had hardly settled down to the kind of play that is usually seen in places where the "lid" is off, it was tolerably brisk, the patronage good and the operators took in a nice pile of coin.
An investigation made by the Republican during the evening disclosed scenes down town that resembled in miniature those in mining camps where gambling is the only diversion and amusement of the men.
Faro, roulette, craps and klondike were the games that were being run and they were not only patronized by the visitors from San Francisco, but by many residents of Santa Rosa.
There may have been games in progress elsewhere during the night, but those that were found in full blast were at the Occidental Hotel on Fourth street, at the Grand Hotel, corner of Third and Main streets, and at the Palace Saloon at the corners of Third and Main streets.
FARO AND ROULETTE.
At the Occidental Hotel there were four different games running. These were klondike, craps, roulette and faro. The klondike games was in the room where the bar is located. It was partly screened from view by a large curtain of calico-like stuff. The other three games were operated in the little room off the bar where cards are usually played.
It was in this room that the deputy sheriff already alluded to "bucked the tiger" and ventured some of the coin he earns by preserving law and order in the Imperial County of Sonoma. He took a spin at roulette, which was presided over by a man who might have been fifty or thereabouts, but who seemed an expert at making the wheel go around. On leaving the roulette game the deputy sheriff went to the klondike game, which was presided over by a man who, unless his appointment has recently been revoked, was also a deputy sheriff for the County of Sonoma. It is understood that the deputy was out under orders from the Sheriff to see that no "crooked" work was done.
BUCKING TIGER.
While the roulette wheel had a fair share of patronage it was apparently not so attractive to the men, young and old, as were the craps and faro games. Around these tables were the sons of some of the best people in Santa Rosa--parents who, doubtless, had not the slightest suspicion that their boys were witnessing the seductive games that the law has seen fit to prohibit for the good of society. Some of the boys ventured a little bit of money and most of them lost. But of course they were being initiated in the art of "bucking the tiger" and it was to be expected that they would have to pay for their experience.
Among these young men were those who hold positions of trust in business and official life here in Santa Rosa, and it is understood that one lost all the coin he had although, according to his own admissions, he had overdrawn his bank account.
MORE GAMES.
Across the street at the Oberon there were two games in operation with a piano player to help the sport along and make harmony with the click of the dice. Here, too, the games were hidden from public view by the use of a curtain which reached to the ceiling. Behind a klondike outfit and a crap game were in full blast. Patronage was good but, possibly, not so liberal as it was at the Occidental.
Another hotel--the Grand--had a klondike table going in the card room to the rear of the bar. The patronage here was somewhat limited, although the "tiger" was doubtless as easy to buck as it was elsewhere in the city.
On the opposite corner in the Palace Saloon another klondike game was going.
Further down Main street at 103, in the Senate Saloon, still another klondike game was to be seen, and the operator lazily counted his coin, as he pondered how much larger a crowd he would probably have had were he located on Fourth street.
OFFICERS IN EVIDENCE.
All during the evening the city's police officers were in evidence, and there is reason to believe that they were just a bit disturbed at the situation. Frequent conferences were held and there was much riding up and down on wheels as if they were looking for someone, but so far as is known the games were not molested.
The Republican has been informed that heretofore when there have been races at the track that the "lid" has been taken off and that gambling was winked at by the officials. Just why this was so the Republican is not informed. Other communities enforce the law and there is apparently no valid reason why the "tiger" should have swing in this city.
The law on the subject is too plain to be misunderstood or overlooked. Both the State and the city have laws on the subject. For the benefit of those who may not be familiar with them the Republican prints herewith quotations from State as well as city ordinances.
[..]
SEVERSON PASSES BUCK.
Chief of Police Severson was seen this morning and asked in regard to the games that were running last night. He said that he knew the games always ran during the race meets and that while they were prohibited by law he had heretofore received instructions from the Council to "keep things down" the best we could and prevent any crooked games. "I am powerless to do anything if the Council will not back me up," said Severson. "Two years ago I made an arrest and went to considerable expense but the Council would not allow the bill and I was out $58. I do not understand that things are any different now. If I hear that any more crooked games are being run the men who operate them will be pinched. Anyhow it is up to the Sheriff. I take my orders from him in the last resort and he ought to enforce the state law if it is being broken and the people do not like it. My policy will be to do the best I can under the circumstances unless I receive instructions to close up the games."
GRACE ALSO PASSES.
Sheriff Grace was also seen. He made the same statement that Severson had made - that it had been the custom to hold things down so that while the games were allowed to operate nothing but games he called "square" would be countenanced. The Sheriff thought that he was doing his duty under the circumstances, for it was only following custom which permitted more latitude in town during the week that the races were here. Said he when it was suggested that the state law was specific upon the subject: "I don't propose to stand for any crooked games. In order to do this I had Gist out last night with three others to wath the games and see that they were being run on the "square." If they are to be closed down it is up to the District Attorney. He is the man to act. You know I am not a candidate for re-election, and I think the orders should come from the office up stairs."
THOMPSON SPEAKS OUT.
District Attorney Pond is out of town enjoying his vacation, but in his absence Deputy Rolfe Thompson is in charge of the office. When the matter was broached to Mr. Thompson he said at once that if there were violations of the law the District Attorney's office would do all in its power to stop them. Accordingly he looked up the law, and after an investigation into the facts decided that his office would at once make a move to shut up the game. His plan was to instruct the peace officers of the county to do their duty and close the games.
ENCOURAGE CLEAN SPORT
In protesting against the continuance of gambling in Santa Rosa the Republican wishes it to be distinctly understood that the policy of this paper is for all legitimate sporting enterprise. The raising and breeding of fine horses is not only one of the most important industries in the county, but is one of the most important in the state as well. And speed contests between high-bred animals on a fine track are things that make the blood tingle in the veins of every true American. And the industry ought to be encouraged in every possible manner.
But it is assumed that it is no more necessary for the present races at the Santa Rosa track to be accompanied by the legally prohibited gambling games that it is in other places where the law is obeyed and enforced. The papers are full of instances where gambling has worked ruin to many bright, promising men and boys, and so thoughtul of society is the law that it has put strict prohibitions on the statute books.
OFFICERS INSTRUCTED TO CLOSE UP ALL GAMES
About noon Deputy District Attorney Thompson announced that he had been in communication with Mr. Pond over the telephone at Healdsburg and that the latter had said to go ahead and do what the situation demanded. "Mr. Pond also told me to notify the peace officers to enforce the law and to say that if they did not comply that actions would be brought against them for not performing their sworn duties," said Mr. Thompson.
"Acting upon these instructions I at once told Chief of Police Severson to close up all games he found operating. Mr. Severson said he would do so and I understand that he so informed his men. I made an effort to get at the Sheriff but he was closeted at the time. However, I shall see him later and say to him what I told the Chief of Police."
The Deputy District Attorney also caused to be published the notice which appears in larger type on this page [DEPUTY ROLFE THOMPSON ORDERS LAW ENFORCED...]. He said that he hoped he would not be compelled to take any further steps, but that evidence had been and was being gathered and that if the games continued to run that prosecutions would result.
P. H. QUINN MAKES STATEMENT.
P.H. Quinn of the Occidental Hotel was interviewed in connection with the games. He declared in the most emphatic trms that he had nothing personally to do with the operations of the games. Mr. Quinn said: "I do not believe in gambling. I think the games do no good, and the only reason that we tolerated them in the house because it was represented to us that somebody in authority had given permission for the games to be run during this week. At any other time we do not permit anything of the kind on the premises. We permitted certain parties to use the hotel only this week and if the authorities want the games closed they will have our co-operation. It seems that those who subscribed the money to bring the races here felt that in the operation of the games that they would find a way to get their money back."
- Santa Rosa Republican, August 16, 1905
THREE ARRESTS MADE FOR CONDUCTING GAMBLING GAMES
Warning Issued by Deputy District Attorney Rolfe Thompson Closes up Most of Places
Walter Farley, Lous Guesa and Deputy Sheriff Bob Garner were arrested this morning on complaints sworn to charging them with gambling, running a percentage and banking game known as klondike.
Despite the warnings given the men yesterday by Chief of Police Severson these men saw fit to violate the law and conducted a gambling game last night at the Oberon Saloon. Each of the men was found conducting a game, and warrants were sworn to this morning on which they were arrested. They were notified to be at Justice Atchinson's court room this afternoon at 2 o'clock.
There was no attempt to disguise the fact that gambling was being carried on in the saloon last evening. Dozens of persons were about the gaming tables.
The crowd surrounding the table included sons of some prominent families of the City of Roses, who were being given a rudimentary education in the seductive pastime of gambling.
Under orders from Chief of Police Severson his officers went into all the saloons last evening and inspected them for games.
So far as is known the Oberon was the only place which did not comply with the order of the District Attorney. The Occidental Hotel, true to the statement made by P.H. Quinn, closed up the games.
This afternoon the three men against whom complaints were issued appeared before Justice A. J. Atchinson through their attorney, Joseph P. Berry. They took advantage of the statutes, which provides that they may have two days in which to be arraigned and enter their pleas.
District Attorney Thompson has announced that these men will be arrested again if caught conducting games tonight or at any other time, and that any others caught gambling will also be dealt with according to the law.
ATTEMPTED BOYCOTT.
This afternoon the Republican learned that a petition was being circulated among the merchants of the community asking that those who are advertisers with the Republican agree to discontinue their patronage, because of the stand that this paper has taken in the matter of printing the facts about the gambling games.
- Santa Rosa Republican, August 17, 1905
"CUSTOM" HAS BEEN VIOLATED.
The gamblers, the backers of the illegal games and some others who feel their business and political interests are involved with the men who own the "layouts" are exceedingly wroth with the Republican because it has had the unparalleled audacity to publish the facts, to point out the very stringent provisions of the law against gaming and in doing so, to disturb the "custom" of twenty or more years' standing and place the responsibility where it belongs. In their heat at the stand this paper has taken, those who feel injured have proclaimed that the Republican is opposed to saloons, that they have more money than the publishers of the Republican, that they will "put the paper out of business" and that all kinds of "discipline" will be administered in copious doses.
In discussing the statements thus made to obscure the real issue, the Republican wishes to say that it does not for one instant believe that the community sentiment of Santa Rosa is for gambling - open or secret - nor that its residents acquiesce in the "custom" prevailing in previous years. It believes that had the matter been brought to an issue at any time in the past, public sentiment would have been unmistakable. It is so now. The great majority of people in this city are glad that the "custom" of "taking off the lid" during racing meets or other gatherings has been fractured and that in future illegal gaming will not be "winked at."
The assertion that The Republican is opposed to race meets is puerile and untrue. This paper has given freely of its space to encourage the present meet and will do so again. It is, however, opposed to the proposition that a successful meet can only be had by throwing open the town to the gamblers and ignoring the plain provisions of a most stringent law...
The Republican has no quarrel with saloon men as a class. Under the law, a man has as much right to deal in wet goods as in dry goods. But because the law gives a man license to conduct a saloon and protects him in that right is all the more reason why he should endeavor to abide by the law, which forbids in the strongest terms the countenancing of gambling, even though it has been the "custom" for time out of mind.
As to the other remarks or threats, The Republican will blushingly admit that the parties who feel they have a right to be aggrieved possess "more money" than its publishers. It congratulates them on their opulence, merely suggesting that with so much of the world's goods it woould seem unnecessary that their store of gold should be added to by the adoption of questionable methods.
As to the threat made to "put the paper out of business," The Republican inclines to the belief that the persons responsible for the statement will think better of it.
- Santa Rosa Republican editorial, August 17, 1905
THE LID WAS OFF, BUT NOT FOR LONG
PART OF USUAL RACE WEEK PROGRAM CUT OUT BY ORDER OF DISTRICT ATTORNEY
Vistiting Jockeys and Race Attendants Will Not Indulge in Their Favorite Pastime This Week to Any Great Extent
The "lid" was off Tuesday night and in several places the gambling that usually forms a regular part of the race week program was indulged in. But on Wednesday notice was sent out from the District Attorney's office to the effect that no further indulgence in games of chance would be permitted, and last night the lid was back in its accustomed place, and the visiting jockeys, race attendants, etc., found small opportunity for indulging in their favorite pastime. At one Fourth street resort no attention was paid to the notification, and late last night a Press Democrat representative was informed by authorities that a charge would be filed against its proprietors this morning for failing to comply with the law against conducting games of chance.
- Press Democrat, August 17, 1905
Boycott Against the Republican Gains One Admitted Convert
They boycott against the Republican instituted by Mr. Frank Brown and his friends because this paper printed the facts about the existence of gambling games here apparently does not make the headway immediately that Mr. Brown hoped it would.
During the past twenty-four hours just one man stopped his paper and he was in the saloon business and probably listened to Brown's specious arguments that the Republican was a "temperance" paper...in certain quarters it was reported with great glee that over two hundred subscribers of the paper had shown their very great displeasure by stopping the paper...
- Santa Rosa Republican, August 19, 1905
THE OPEN VS. THE CLOSED TOWN
The small coterie of gambers and their friends who are opposing the efforts of the District Attorney to enforce the law of the state and are also attempting to boycott the Republican for printing the facts concerning the illegal games are resorting to the argument that the closing down of the games will be a detriment to the city's business interests...
...What the banker and the merchant and the real estate man all seek is new families who will make their homes in the community and spend their earnings among the store-keepers, put savings in the banks, and buy property to improve.
Touts, gamblers and sure-thing men do not do this. In fact they are a menace to the large property owner, who, least of all, wants anything to happen that will depreciate values... it is just as much to the interests of the ordinary saloonkeeper to keep out gamblers as it is to the interests of the grocer, the hardware man, or the butcher.
- Santa Rosa Republican editorial, August 19, 1905
WHAT THE THUNDERER THINKS ABOUT GAMBLING IN SANTA ROSA
(Editorial in Sacramento Bee, August 21.)
Because the Santa Rosa Republican has had the courage to take a firm stand against gambling in that town, and to publish the facts regarding violations of the laws against gambling, a number of saloon men and other persons have undertaken to boycott the paper by withdrawing their advertisements. The Republican is by no means cowed by this contemptible effort to prevent it from doing its duty, but, on the contrary, is making a plucky fight, not only against the gamblers but also against those who are aiding and abetting them in their impudent defiance of the law.
[..]
The same sort of talk has often been heard in Sacramento - that the majority of the residents favored gambling, at least during the State Fair and at all other times when efforts were made to draw crowds to the city. But the truth is that by far the great majority of the residents of Sacramento, and doubtless of Santa Rosa also, are strongly opposed to gambling, and rightly believe it to be one of the worst of evils. No community can afford to stand for open disregard and defiance of laws against gambling.
The Republican should profit by this nasty boycott. If Santa Rosa deserves a fearless and honest newspaper, the great majority of her business men and other residents will stand by this exponent of law and order, and show by liberal use of its advertising columns that they are in sympathy with the firm stand it has taken for the right.
- Santa Rosa Republican, August 23, 1905
HARDLY PROFESSIONAL
The Sacramento Bee, which usually "fights fair," prints a paragraph from these columns in an effort to make it appear that the increased attendance noted at last week's race meeting was due to the suppression of gambling, carefully cutting out all reference to what we advanced as the probable reasons for the said increase, namely the improved hotel accommodations, which now makes a visit to Santa Rosa a pleasure, and the recent completion of the new electric road, which puts a large territory naturally tributary to this city in close touch with Santa Rosa and its social life. As a matter of fact, the suppression of gambling here during race week, no matter how salutary otherwise, had no effect upon the attendance at the meeting one way or the other. Nothing was done towards the suppression until after all who intended coming here for the week had arrived and taken up their quarters...
- Press Democrat editorial, August 25, 1905
IS IT IGNORANCE, OR WHAT?
The determined efforts that have apparently been put forth by the Evening Republican during the past few months to force the price of hops downward has occasioned considerable comment among hop growers, who have heretofore been in the habit of seeing the local papers stand up and endeavor to protect the county's crop interests instead of injuring them. Whether the Republican's course has been prompted by any motive which do not appear upon the surface, or whether it has simply been the result of ignorance, as was the case in its recent attempt to introduce the codlin moth here "for the benefit of the fruit growers," we are unable to say. The fact remains, however, that in constantly circulating erroneous reports regarding short crops and low prices in other places its publishers have been injuring rather than benefiting one of the principal interests of the county. And the public generally is fully appreciative of the fact. When the astute gentlemen now presiding over the destinies of our esteemed contemporary have been longer in authority, they may be both wiser and more appreciative of the responsibility that attaches to such positions. In the meanwhile they will find out, if they do not know it already, that interested parties are always ready to supply all the "bear hop copy," that anybody will print gratuiously; also that some of these people are occasionally willing to pay liberally for having such matter printed., if necessary; and also, again, that we farmers are not always as great fools as we may look.
- Press Democrat editorial, August 25, 1905
Santa Rosa should have a big street fair or something of the kind this year. Who will take the contract to get out and raise the necessary funds?
- Press Democrat editorial, August 25, 1905
IS THE PEE-DEE FOR A WIDE-OPEN TOWN, OR WHAT?
It is really amusing to note the twistings and turnings of the Pee-Dee, the gamblers' friend and apologist, in its efforts to avoid discussing the question of illegal gambling in Santa Rosa. Those who have watched the progress of matters, have not, however, been surprised at its attempts to belittle the movement for a clean town and to minimize the flagrant infraction of the laws. The reply of the gamblers' friend this morning to The Republican's editorial of yesterday leaves no matter just where it was. The Pee-Dee makes much of the hop question, which it precipitated in order to get away from the gambling matter. But the people of Santa Rosa, who are interested a great deal more in having gambling suppressed than in newspaper bickerings, would be both pleased and astonished to hear from the Pee-Dee on whether it believes in a wide-open town or in one known to be opposed to law-breaking...the Pee-Dee's dead silence is that it is either a believer in a wide-open town, regardless of the laws and the welfare of the community, or that it dares not criticize those who are responsible for the breaking of those laws.
- Santa Rosa Republican editorial, August 26, 1905
The feeble efforts of the Pee-Dee. the gambler's friend, to make it appear that the Republican's hop reports are published in the interests of the "bears," have greated much wonderment, for when it is all simmered down the Pee-Dee really has said nothing but what has been completely disproved by the actual market conditions....Sputtering and fuming and misrepresentations on the part of the Pee-Dee, which is anxious not to admit that the real issue before the people is one of whether or not Santa Rosa shall be an open town, will not help the gamblers any, nor the Pee-Dee either, for that matter.
- Santa Rosa Republican editorial, August 26, 1905
THE REPUBLICAN AND THE HOP SITUATION
The Republican of Friday evening devotes two full columns to an attempt to answer the Press Democrat's charges regarding the manner in which it has been handling hop reports lately, but its efforts remind one of a fourth-rate juggler trying to keep three balls in the air at the same time. Between its very evident desire to keep itself and its affairs before the public, its attempt to create political capitalout of a matter that has no connection with the case whatever and its effort to divert attention as far as possible from the freal issue, the exhibition is anything but a success.
As a matter of fact, the Republican for some time has been publishing hop news furnished by dealers whose interests lie in seeing this year's crop sell for a low price...in view of the amusing spectacle the paper has made of itself in other ways since coming under its present management and trying to pose as the only real friend of the farming element that ever happened, the former is perhaps the case. Only a few months ago the Republican published a most entertaining article telling how it had been planned to introduce codlin moths into Sonoma county "for the benefit of the fruit growers," and other breaks almost as bad have been of frequent occurrence since.
[..]
- Press Democrat editorial, August 26, 1905
THE PEE-DEE MUST HAVE BEEN "DOZING"
[Excerpt of an Aug. 31 Press Democrat item on hop prices in Portland]
Wow. Great Caesar. The Pee-Dee is bearing [i.e. not being bullish -J.E.] the hop market. Just look at the above, published in this morning's issue of that great family journal. Take notice, growers, for the Pee-Dee is either ignorant or is purposely bearing the market to the harm of the growers. Of course, it may be that to print such matter on the hop situation this week in the Pee-Dee is not as bad as publishing the same kind of information the week previous in the Republican, bit it is rather amusing, just the same, to note how the Pee-Dee, the gamblers' friend, acknowledges the facts...
- Santa Rosa Republican editorial, September 1, 1905
An Example of How Boycotts Oftentimes Act as Boomerangs
It is not often that the Republican has occasion to parade its business before the public. But once in a while there arises a case where it seems necessary. Such a occasion has come now in connection with the visit to Santa Rosa last week of the Southern Carnival Company.
It will be remembered that some time before the company came to town Mr. Frank Brown of the Oberon Saloon appeared before the Council in the guise of a friend only who had no personal interest in the shows, secured from the Council permission for the carnival to use some of the main business streets of the city for the payment of a $50 license for the entire week.
Subsequently it transpired that the carnival company and Mr. Brown had a deal under which Mr. Brown was to handle the advertising of the carnival and also share in some manner in the profits of the affair while it was here. At least this is the story told by two of Mr. Reiss' representatives.
So far so good. Mr. Brown harbors a grudge against the Republican and, accordingly, when it came around to the matter of placing newspaper advertising, did not put any in the Republican thinking that he was having a splendid time playing even for the expose made by this paper of the gambling games he operated during race week.
Things ran along till the Monday of the week that the carnival was to open. Mr. Reis arrived here from Woodland and discovered that he had had no advertising in the Republican. He naturally made a few inquiries and learned that in order to vent a petty spite of his own Mr. Brown had deprived the carnival company of considerably [sic] publicity it stood in need of in order to reach the many residents of Sonoma County who do not take Mr. Brown's favorite sheet, the Morning Screamer.
It was then that Mr. Reis made his way to the Republican office and asked what arrangements he could make to advertise the carnival for the remainder of the week. He was informed of the rates and closed a contract for a certain number of lines of reading notices at so much a line.
It may be interesting for the Morning Screamer to know that Mr. Reis declared he would attend to his own advertising next time, for he admitted that the attendance had been materially lessened by Mr. Brown's trick. And should Mr. Brown wish to see a duplicate of the contract made by Mr. Reis that document may be inspected at the Republican office.
If this situation affords the Screamer any comfort in its silly campaign against the members of the Good Government League the Republican is satisfied.
- Santa Rosa Republican, September 27, 1905
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