1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
56i 
PUBLISHERS DESK. 
Postmaster-General Cortelyou has issued 
fraud orders against the People’s United 
States Bank, its officers and agents, and 
E. S. Lewis, of St. Louis, Mo. Mr. 
Lewis is the publisher of the Woman’s 
Magazine, and has been booming the bank 
through that paper. The bank has been 
in operation about seven months, and has 
a paid-up capital stock of $2,000,000. It 
was organized to do an exclusive mail 
order business, and all of the money was 
contributed by out-of-town people by mail. 
Lewis made false and fraudulent repre¬ 
sentations in his advertisements to the 
effect that he would subscribe for one- 
half the stock himself, that the board of 
directors should be independent men con¬ 
nected with St. Louis banks, and that 
none of the funds should be loaned to 
himself or other directors. He did not 
subscribe for a dollar’s worth of the stock, 
but helped himself liberally to the money 
subscribed by the public, having loaned to 
himself and his enterprises nearly one- 
half of the amount contributed by sub¬ 
scribers. It is said that he applied for and 
secured proxies for himself for the greater 
part of the stock held by the people. His 
scheme was to increase the capital stock 
to $5,000,000, and was asking remittances 
on that basis. * It is stated that from a half 
to two-thirds of the total amount con¬ 
tributed by the people forms an asset that 
the authorities can get at, and it is hoped 
that this can be returned to the contri¬ 
butors. By request of Secretary of State 
Swanger, of Missouri, Hon. Seldon P. 
Spencer was appointed receiver of the 
bank, and took immediate possession. It 
is said that there are 65,000 stockholders, 
all told, and that 8,655 of these reside in 
New York State. The receiver expects to 
pay depositors in full on demand, but the 
65,000 stockholders are not likely to get 
over 50 per cent of the money they paid in. 
The result of the Postmaster-General’s 
investigation simply confirms the suspi¬ 
cions we have entertained from the start 
about this enterprise. It was plain enough 
that Mr. Lewis wanted the use of other 
peopled money. The advertising showed 
that for itself. Six months or more ago 
we cautioned our readers against this en¬ 
terprise and advised them to keep their 
money in their pockets. We hope they 
did so. Needless to say the advertising 
never appeared in The R. N.-Y.; but 
pages of it appeared in many farm papers. 
Indeed, a large advertisement of one of 
these enterprises appears this month in 
one of them. 
Mr. A. S. Archer, of Pittsfield, Ill., re¬ 
ports that the Jackson county nurseries, 
Bosky Dell, Ill., filled his order with dried 
up strawberry plants, that they promised 
to refill the order, but sent another dried- 
up lot which he could not use and would 
not accept. The shipper refused to pay 
the transportation charges, and allowed the 
plants to perish, and refuses to make good 
to Mr. Archer. They refuse to make any 
reply to inquiries regarding the complaint 
and we simply give the facts for the in¬ 
formation of other growers. 
Another case is reported by Mr. Nelson 
W. Cheney, Eden, N. Y. Mr. Cheney 
ordered a brooder of J. A. Bennett & 
Sons, Gouverneur, N. Y., to be shipped by 
freight, sending draft for $6.50. The ship¬ 
ment was delayed, but the brooder finally 
came by express. The shippers wrote 
Mr. Cheney to pay the express charges, 
send them the receipt and they would 
promptly remit. This he did. but they do 
not remit, and refuse to answer his let¬ 
ters. He says they also guaranteed satis¬ 
faction with the brooder, but it was not 
satisfactory, and they pay no attention to 
his complaint. We also asked them for an 
explanation, and have received no reply. 
Neither of these parties has ever adver¬ 
tised in The R. N.-Y., and after such 
complaints they never can. It is not pleas¬ 
ant to have to report such petty annoy¬ 
ances ; but some of these people who have 
been dealing by mail with farmers have 
been having their own way about the 
transaction after they got their fingers on 
the money. The amount is small, the 
farmer cannot afford to go to law about 
it, and in many cases could not realize 
even if he got judgment from the court. 
Knowing this the seller sends what he 
happens to have, usually taking his time 
about it, and then simply refuses to an¬ 
swer letters of complaint. After a time 
the farmer gets tired of writing and lets 
it go. The seller goes on looking for 
more victims. We may not be able to 
stop this sort of thing altogether, but we 
give these people notice now that The 
R. N.-Y. subscribers at least are going to 
have a word of warning. Mistakes will 
often occur in business transactions, but 
these are easily corrected, and we advise 
patience and allowances in such cases 
where the parties show a ^disposition to do 
the right thing; but we confess to little 
patience ourselves with those concerns 
who pay no attention to a reasonable com¬ 
plaint. 
There are few houses, however, at the 
present time who would try to take ad¬ 
vantage of a customer. No house can 
afford to do it. It is only the poor ones 
that try it. 1 hese will often quote prices 
lower than a responsible house can make 
for honest goods, but you need never ex¬ 
pect more from them than you pay for 
and seldom get that. 
With a responsible house the condi¬ 
tions are different. They advertise to 
make their goods known, and want every 
piece of goods sent out to be a standing 
advertisement for them that they may sell 
more in the same locality. From such 
manufacturers and dealers one 'is pretty 
sure to get his money’s worth, at all times, 
and in the case of their “leaders” one 
often gets decided bargains. The house 
that sells by mail is in competition with 
the whole country in his line, and his prices 
must be right to get the trade. His treat¬ 
ment must be fair to hold it. We know 
from personal contact with these houses 
that they are exerting every effort to sell 
reliable goods at a fair price, and to merit 
the confidence and trade of the public. 
When we find houses that cannot be 
trusted we simply refuse their advertising, 
and when we can find proof of their trick¬ 
ery we like to expose it. There are, of 
course, many good and responsible houses 
who never advertise in The R. N.-Y. But 
all we feel called upon to do is to guar¬ 
antee the houses who do advertise with 
us. We take pains to see that they are 
reliable and responsible, and we guarantee 
them to be so. We are often able to assist 
our subscribers to adjust claims against 
others and we are always glad to do what 
we can at any time, but, of course, assume 
full responsibility only with our own ad¬ 
vertisers. 
PRODUCTS, PRICES AHD TRADE. 
Plenty op Whales. —Reports from Nome. 
Alaska, state that three whalers recently ar¬ 
rived there with the product of 10 whales, 
one ship having taken five. The total amount 
of whalebone realized was 19,100 pounds . 
Great Lemon Weather. —The heat in this 
city has been bearing on for about a week, 
making a great call for lemon drinks. Prices 
realized have been the highest for four years, 
fancy European lemons having wholesaled at 
more than $6 per box of 300, and 360s as 
high as $4.50. 
Glass Going Up. —As the glass trust evi¬ 
dently “needs the money” a 10 -per-cent ad¬ 
vance has been put on window glass, the rea¬ 
son given being that window glass “is 
scarce.” This will be cheerful information 
for those who have been paying the extrav¬ 
agant prices asked for this product during the 
last few years. 
Apples. —Old apples are practically out ot 
the market, though here and there a few 
Spies, Baldwins and Russets are seen. The 
new apples on hand run largely poor. Some 
may have been all right when shipped, but 
Astrachan apples go to pieces easily. The 
prices quoted cover a fair range of sales, but 
choice Astrachans. that is choice by the time 
they get here, would bring more. 
Pears. —Le Conte, from the South, make 
quite a showing here at present. Though the 
quality is not high, they come rather “be¬ 
tween hay and grass.” and go very well 
Wilder is a variety not often seen.' Those 
here at present from the Pacific coast run 
about the size of a small Bartlett. The color 
is too dull to be attractive, but the qualitv 
is a surprise, as the flesh is melting and well 
flavored. 
Peaches. —There is not much in the pres¬ 
ent situation to encourage either growers or 
consumers. The latter are looking in vain 
for fruit of fair size that is ripe but not rot¬ 
ten, and growers will think 75 cents, gross, 
per crate, a starvation price. There are some 
good peaches here, but considerable looking is 
needed to find them. The weather has been 
hard on all sorts of perishable fruits on ac¬ 
count of excessive heat and that peculiar 
state of the atmosphere well described as 
muggy. I have tried about all the varieties 
of peaches seen the past week. Ilale’s Early 
is easily the best, Waddell next, and Lady 
Ingold third. I have seen no Elberta or Car¬ 
man yet that even fairly represented those 
varieties. 
Cherries have been selling very well, 
choice black having brought as much as 
cents per pound: white, 10 , and sour, seven. 
These prices were only for those that had 
been carefully picked. No fruit shows bruises 
worse than the cherry, yet I have seen people 
claw them off the tree and drop them with a 
thud in the bottom of a deep tin pail, contin¬ 
uing to throw in until the pail was nearly 
full, afterward pouring them into something 
else. This week I have noticed cherries here 
that were evidently picked in just this way. 
covered with sticky juice, which catches dust 
and draws flies. All picking vessels for cher¬ 
ries should be shallow so as, to avoid having 
a crushing weight on the bottom ones. It 
does not take much longer to do a good job 
of picking than a poor one. With the bulk 
of eastern cherries it probably will not pay to 
take the extreme care that California hand¬ 
lers do, as the market for such high-priced 
cherries is limited, but it is easy to throw 
away any cherries that are crushed rather 
than put them in the basket: to grab a little 
less wildly at the bunches on the tree, and to 
break the connection with stem and twig in¬ 
stead of pulling the stem loose. Of course 
the stem should always be left on the cherry. 
One of the special advantages in handling 
perishable fruit carefully is that, in case of 
a glutted market, it may be held for a short 
time and perhaps sold to much better advan¬ 
tage. Whereas fruit that is already “going" 
when the receiver gets it must be disposed of 
at once or thrown away. 
Cotton. —The market continues wild. Bad 
weather in the South following the unfav¬ 
orable Government report, has kept things 
moving.. But there is no special reason to 
get excited over the ups or to mourn over 
the downs of the cotton brokers. A large 
number of them are mere parasites, living on 
the grower and mill man. The cotton goods 
dealers are in a state of uncertainty, not 
knowing what price level the raw product Is 
going to take, or how much advance the trade 
will.stand, but cotton cloth has gone up, and 
retail buyers will soon be able to figure out 
the size of their contributions to the fat in¬ 
comes of the middlemen. There can he no 
objection to an advance in the price of cot¬ 
ton goods caused by crop shortage, but to pay 
even a fraction of a cent per yard increase 
merely because some man sees fit to make a 
few millions in creating a shortage by corner¬ 
ing all the cotton he can get hold of. goes 
hard. I have been told that in the average 
horse trade, cow deal and business transac¬ 
tions of many small merchants there is as 
much sharp practice and crookedness as is 
ever found in the acts of the plunging spec¬ 
ulator. and it is looked upon only as “good 
business.” This is quite true. The princi¬ 
ple, or lack of It, In each case is the same. 
The big offender is no worse in intention, per¬ 
haps. but he can do more damage, as, for in¬ 
stance. when a man sticeeds in locking up a 
necessity of life affecting hundreds of thou¬ 
sands. From investigations now made public 
it would seem that some of the speculators 
have been, using Uncle Sam’s pre-publlshed 
crop statistics to fill their pocketbooks. But 
the disclosures of treachery on the part of 
Government employees are scarcely more sur¬ 
prising than the laxity of oversight which 
would permit such a thing to exist until 
^topped by a protesting howl from outsiders. 
The punishment of a scapegoat or two will 
be a weak-kneed remedy. It is to be hoped 
that the promised reorganization of the crop 
statistics department will at least so modify 
the plan of distributing these facts as to 
avoid furnishing special aid to wildcat spec¬ 
ulators with business methods totally at va¬ 
riance with correct conceptions of good gov¬ 
ernment. h 
A Little Gold Mine for Women 
The U.S.Cook-Stove Fruit-Drier 
Dries all kinds of Fruits,Berries.Chor- 
ries. Corn, Vegetables, etc. It takes no 
extra fire. Always ready for use, and 
will last a lifetime. It works while you 
cook. Write for circulars and special 
terms to agents. PRICE, $5. 
E, B. FAHRNEY,Boxi 2 o, Waynesboro, Pa. 
FOR SALE OR EXCHARGE FOR HEIFERS. 
A thoroughbred yearling GUERNSEY BULL: also 
(tuernsey Bull Calf; a two-year-old registered Ayr¬ 
shire Bull, and a yearling Ayrshire Bull. 
HILLTOP FARMS, Littleton, N. H. 
WHITE PEKIN DUCKS. 
Sixty-five fine breeders for sale, $1.50 each. What 
am I offered for lot ? 
DR. WEISS, Webb Hill, Stamford, Connecticut. 
DID IT EVER OCCUR 
to you that ANCHOR 
FENCE will safe guard 
your stock at all times 
as well as your pocket- 
book. Catalog free. 
ANCHOR FENCE & MFG. CO.. Cleveland, Ohio. 
HOMESEEKER’S GUIDE. 
DO YOU KNOW about the “Eastern 
Shore” of Maryland? We publish a 
Homeseeker’s Guide in the interest 
of those desiring to purchase good 
homes. Write for it, it is free to you. 
J. A. JONES & Co., 
SALISBURY. MARYLAND 
rriTi'Hrw-wtBduv 
to you in one year. You are not at the 
mercy of buyers’ weights. Weigh 
Weigh , 
I your own grain and live stock, then if there is I 
i shrinkage you can account for it. 
NO PIT TO DIG. 
I Sits on top of ground. Can be moved any¬ 
where. Saves $30.00 to $50.00 on first cost and 
always accurate and in order. Tested against 
I highest price standard scales and found O. K. 
1 1 1 costs nothing to investigate the Knodig, 
hut if you need scales it saves you a lot. 
Don't you want the Knodig catalog? 
NATIONAL PITLESS SCALE CO M 
2 1 02 Wyandotte St. ( Kansas City, Mo. 
The WAGON to BUY. 
labor, annoy¬ 
ance and expense of repairs. 
STEEL WHEELS wago a n l s l 
Your address on a postal will bring you freo catalog. 
The Geneva Metal Wheel Co., 
Box 17, Geneva, Ohio. 
i- PLEASURE WITH BEES -i 
A free booklet is yours—also a free copy of Glean¬ 
ings in Bee Culture. (6 months' trial 25c.) They 
tell how easily and safely bees are handled; how 
pleasurable, fascinating and profitable bee-keep¬ 
ing is. Write now. Don’t wait. Late copy free. 
A. I. BOOT COMPANY, MEDINA, OHIO 
SQUABS 
Good breeders raise good squabs. Good squabs 
bring good prices. A good plant (like ours) sup¬ 
plies only good breeders. Write us. 
BROAD VALLEY FARM, WOBURN, MASS. 
SQUABS 
bring big prices. Money 
makers tor poultrymen, 
farmers, women. 
Send for our Free Book and learn this 
rich industry. Correspondence invited ' 
" '’Plymouth Rock Squab Co., v . 
>335 Howard St., Melrose, Mass 
C HOICE Homer Pigeons for squab breeding and 
flying. JOHN M. HATHAWAY, Acushnet, Mass. 
ADVERTISER HAS FOR SALE 
ONE HUNDRED PAIRS OF FINE 
MATED AND ACCI IMATKD 
BREEDING 
uve 
which he must sell at once. Address, 
H. P., Box 1020, New York City. 
Var’s Poultry, Pigeons, Parrots, Dogs. Cats. 
Ferrets, etc. Eggs a specialty. (>U p. book. 10c. 
Rates free. J. A. BERGEY,Box 8,Telford.Pa, 
u. 
M II 
hilandale farm 
nniic LcunutiN* 
\ earlings 75 cents. 
” ‘ Brooklyn, Ohio, R. F. D. 2. 
S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 
Fonr promising young Cockerels for $5.00. Over 
1,000 to select from. Send for circular. 
WHITE & RICE, Yorktown, N. Y. 
C holceStochforSale.—Rocks,Wyandotte?,Legh' ms 
Mtnorcas, Turkeys, Ducks and Guineas. Also Lice 
Killing Nest Eggs, sample mailed. 5c.: dozen. 5Uc. 
Agents wanted. Pine Tree Farm, Jamesburg, N. J. 
ROSE COMB W. LEGHORNS 
Prize Winners at the Best Shows. Eggs 
for 15; $3 for r>0; $5 for 100. Hal f price after 
first. L. C. HILLS, Delaware, Ohio 
une 
EMPIRE STATE S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 
Won two first premiums at New York State Fair, 1904. 
1 rios, $5: Eggs, $1 per 15: $5 per 100. Catalogue free. 
ZIM5IER BROS. R. D, 41, Weedsport, N. Y. 
Orpingtons, Buff, Black, White, 
Why not have the very best obtainable? First cost 
may be a little more, but you get > he stock and blood 
from the grandest winning strain in America, and 
from the largest Orpington breeder. Send for forty 
page Illustrated Oroington catalogue, also Mating 
List describing thirty-two breeding yards and prices 
of eggs. The blood from the largest winners at New 
York the past three years ate in tuese yards. 
Box 78, WILLOW BROOK FARM, Berlin, Conn. 
Cyphers Incubator 
guaranteed to hatch more and healthier 
chicks than any other or your money back. 
Absolutely self regulating. Price $6.50 
,«nd up. Send for 212 p.go (8x11 Inches) catalogue 
and poultry puide. Free, if you tend us names of 
two friends interested in good poultry. Write to 
CYPHERS INCUBATOR CO 
STRICTLY 
l AUTOMATIC 
THROUGHOUT 
Buffalo. Boston, Chicago, Noe York, Kansas Cl”o7 SMlrMdsco. 
□ HU! 
rUUL ,111 Is&s&sj 
^POULTRY LINE— Fencing, Feed, Incu-j 
jbators. Live Stock, Brooders—anything-—J 
lit s our business. Call or let us send you! 
hour Illustrated Catalogue—it’s free for the! 
)asking—it's worth having. J 
iExcelsior Wire <c Poultry Supply Co.,< 
-J Dept. H.G. 26 & 28 Vesey Street. New York City, t 
OQQQQ&ZQQQQQOQQQQQQQQQQQcl 
N EGG FACTORY 
A I 
must be furnished the proper raw 
materials to keep going to its full 
capacity. HARVEY’S Electric 
Poultry Foot! will keep your hens busy in 
winter when eggsare’aigh—lots more money 
in winter eggs; you ought to feed for it. 
Write for our free catalogue — tells how. 
IlarTcy Seed Co., 88 Elllcott St., Buffalo.N. Y. 
