On October 16th, James King went after David Broderick, the political boss of San Francisco, calling him David Catiline Broderick and charging him with the most ungodly efforts to get himself elected state senator for the purpose of accomplishing selfish ends. He accused Broderick of complicity in the Jenny Lind Theater swindle and said that he’d robbed the city in various ways, spread crime and rendered the voice of the people powerless at the polls. King continued the attack the next day, this time charging Broderick with election fraud and of selling offices to the highest bidders, stating that Broderick had been offered five thousand dollars for one office alone.
David C. Broderick
The following day King went after Palmer, Cook & Co., showing that they were on official bonds for over two million dollars, and announced that he intended to examine those who accepted such bonds and that soon his exposures would cause pain to many of them. King went on to say that he had every confidence that if the people continued to stand by him, and if he could escape Broderick’s hired bullies for a little while longer, he would expose the corruption and malfeasance of the officialdom of the whole city.
And so it went, day in and day out, King made new attacks and repeated old ones, charging fraud and corruption wherever he could imagine it. All manner of men were accused and called by their names and he did it without fear. Within the month he began to attack the other newspapers, accusing them of a lack of courage, honesty and decency, and in a very short time he had indeed turned the city inside out and succeeded in making the Bulletin what he called a ‘readable newspaper.’
Lovin this story!
Yeah, I’m really awed by the passion with which James King wrote.