Suicide at City Hall Jan. 29 1902

 One of the many stories this town's history holds, is a morbid tale of local politicians and their politics, that ended in suicide at City Hall.

From Nellie Bly's "The Wickedest Summer Resort"

Caleb Mitchell, who went by Cale, was a man of many trades. In 1880, he patented a liquor serving table. 

photo from US Patent Archive

Cale along with his brother, ran the Glen Mitchell Hotel, just north of North Broadway. I have photos of the ruins of that hotel, ruins that I remember from my old stomping grounds growing up on Rt. 9 near Loughberry Lake, and the ruins are still there, and I will post soon. 
 *(Side Note) The Glen Mitchell Hotel later became St. Clement's College, and a shrine was built in 1898, of "The Lady Of Lourds." The Lady is a statue depiction of one of the Marian apparitions, a story, from the mid 1800's where Mary appeared in a cave and basically provided a spring that had healing waters flowing from it. This statue is now on Lake Ave. in front of St. Clements. 
postcard 1934                                                          

 Cale was elected village president (mayor), in 1894. At the time, he was also the proprietor of Mitchell's Tavern, located opposite Division st. on Broadway. Like most other storefronts on Broadway, it featured a gambling room in the back. These gambling rooms catered to local residents, unlike Canfield's Casino, whom only catered to high stakes bettors from out of state.

Just prior to the turn of the century saw the Temperance Movement (religious and anti-alcohol) in the US gaining more and more traction. Also, at the time, a journalist named Elizabeth Cochran, pen name Nellie Bly, became a top journalist, after faking insanity to get an inside look on life in the asylums. She soon after garnered worldwide attention by traveling around the world in a record setting 72 days. 
Now at her peak in her career, she came to Saratoga, and saw man, woman, and child, participating in gambling and drinking, it was enough fodder to make her next article. 
 Mind you, this was a time when the Saratoga Racetrack was owned by a guy named "Dutch Fred" Walbaum, who made his money from a gambling/brothel house on the Bowery in NYC, and a racetrack in New Jersey. The NJ track was known for drugged horses, jockeys with battery stingers, and winter racing.

photo from Daily Racing Form

Saratoga was full bore, then, Nellie Bly released a bombshell hit piece called "Our Wickedest Summer Resort." In the article, she interviews Cale Mitchell, and, pertaining to Saratoga history, this interview is one some old West sounding stuff for sure. Anyway, this article put Saratoga Springs under the microscope. http://www.nellieblyonline.com/images/uploads/1894-08-19_Our_Wickedest_Summer_Resort.pdf

 NY Senator Edgar Brackett, from Wilton, who lived in Saratoga, shared City Hall with Cale Mitchell. But, that's about all they shared, for Brackett, now under fire from the press and public, again went after Caleb. Brackett had held office a few years before the gambler turned mayor. Brackett, prior to Cale Mitchell's election, tried to get Mitchell and gambling out of Saratoga. 

Now, Brackett, was determined as Senator, to clean up his town. Graft and vice, ballot stuffing and whatnot at the Democratic club Tammany Hall (another topic I write about soon) in NYC was recently highly publicized, and with that frame of mind, he passed a bill, making the town board of trustees the only ones eligible to vote for the mayor. Cale fought back, and lost. 

Senator Brackett, made it illegal to own a gambling establishment in Saratoga, except for Richard Canfield, and the Saratoga Club, for they catered to high society out of towners. Cale's Broadway spot was shut down, he opened a pool hall next to the racetrack, only to be shut down again. Caleb fought in court to disrupt the gambling and power monopoly Brackett had established with Canfield. 

Caleb Mitchell now without a store front/gambling establishment, no longer mayor, was at an all time low. On January 29th, 1902, Caleb Mitchell, got a gun, went to City Hall, and barged Sen. Edgar Brackett's office. Brackett was not there, Brackett was on a train to Albany, to present his anti-gambling bill. Caleb Mitchell then turned the gun on himself, and shot himself in the head, in the doorway of Brackett's office. He was the 5th in his family to take his own life. 

from the SF Call Jan.30 1902

NY Times article below

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A0DE7DA1F3CEF33A25753C3A9679C946397D6CF

I'll save it for another story post on Richard Canfield, but, this suicide, along with other events, made things harder for Canfield to operate his casino monopoly in Saratoga.