Note 356 — Chapter XXIII · The Defense Becomes Arrogant.

When Calhoun returned to San Francisco demanding immediate trial, the Examiner announced that he “threw a bombshell into the camp of the prosecution.” The Call, however, dealt with the incident as follows:

“Patrick Calhoun has come back in a hurry, shouting for an immediate trial. He is certain that he has the prosecution on the hip. His men are in treaty with Ruef. His organs in the press, the Examiner, the Chronicle and the gutter weeklies, begin to see Ruef in a wholly new light. Three weeks ago Ruef was the vilest criminal. No immunity for him. Indeed, immunity, in the lexicon of the Calhoun press, was then a worse crime than bribery or graft. It is very different now that the new alliance between Ruef and the bribe givers is in process of negotiation. Ruef has at once become the persecuted sufferer, the victim of a heartless cabal, pushing one more unfortunate to his ruin and positively ‘rushing’ him to trial with indecent haste, with no lawyers but Henry Ach to hire. It is too bad.

“Why this astonishing and sudden change of front? It is simply that Calhoun has made up his mind that this is the time for grafters and boodlers and bribe givers to stand together. He has persuaded himself that the prosecution is dazed by the extraordinary decision of the Court of Appeals, and that the same has put Ruef in a receptive mood for a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, among all varieties of boodlers, franchise grabbers, bribe givers and bribe takers. Calhoun knows that Ruef on trial or before trial is a very different person from Ruef after conviction. He wants to keep Ruef in his present state of mind. Of course, he knows that he can not trust Ruef. No man who has had dealings with the shifty boss knows on what side he will turn up next. At present Ruef lends a responsive ear to Calhoun’s overtures. Consultations are held without disguise between Calhoun’s lawyers and Ruef. It is time for Ruef and Calhoun to stand together. The association is suggestive but natural.”