OCR Text |
Show Prison Has Neither Ter- ror Nor Disgrace For the "Boss" San Francisco. March S. Abraham Ruef, former political "boss" of San Francisco, on hJs way to the state prison yesterday under a sentence af rourteen years, declared that his face was set to the future and his back "resolutely to the past." His statement state-ment follows- "The body may be put in Jail, but thero can be no Imprisonment, for tho soul. Though the heart be heavy laden, lad-en, mind will yet reign supreme. For me thero is neither terror nor disgrace dis-grace in that which I see before mo. Sorrow and grief, jes for the anguish an-guish and suffering of those 1 leave behind me. They are the uufortunato victims. "I do not, by any means, underestimate underesti-mate the horror and hardship beforo me. Yet I am confident that my spirit spir-it c&nrlso above any situation which mny confront me. Whatever I am set to do, I will do cheerfully and to the best of my ability. My face will ' be to the future, and my back resolute- ly to the pasL Whether the time be short or long, If I survive with health not entirely broken, when I am 1 through I will return to San Francisco. ' I will not run away from the past. I am cortaln that, at any rate, there will still be before m: a life of credit and of honor. "My conscience Is clear. I have been unfairly dealt with, nnd in the end this will be conclusively proved. "Though the citizen Is, temporarily dead, the man is yet alive, and trusts that ho may bo able to show that he is very much of a man, at that." |