1911. 
73 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
Thrown into a Pool. 
Is E. G. Lewis a born genius? His 
success in separating so many inexperi¬ 
enced country people from their money 
would seem to indicate a form of talent; 
but somehow there is a monotonous 
sameness about his flights of genius that 
fails to inspire us with admiring enthu¬ 
siasm. Some forms of talent always 
have the annoying suggestive elements 
of the pickpocket and the counterfeiter. 
The “Readers’ Pool” mirage was one 
of the Lewis art creations which won 
the spontaneous approval of emancipated 
and co-operative womanhood in the 
early days of 1908. In order to induce 
women to become _ his subscription 
agents and pay their own expenses, 
sending him all the collections, he told 
them in the February and April 
Woman’s Magazine of the wonderful 
growth and prosperity of the papers— 
ail of which he now admits in National 
Daily of October 15, 1910, was a 
dream—and then developed the follow¬ 
ing clever creation of genius: 
Every person who sent him $5 for 
subscriptions to his papers became a 
member of the “Readers’ Pool.” A cer¬ 
tificate of membership was issued to 
her, and $2 was placed in a trust fund. 
As soon as this fund was large enough, 
the money would be invested in land. 
This land would be divided into build¬ 
ing lots, and sold for the benefit of the 
certificate holders. You could get as 
many certificates as you sent $5 bills; 
and each certificate was to be worth 
several times the $5. In National Daily, 
April 1, 1908, page 5, he says it makes 
no difference about number of members. 
The pool would close April 12, and land 
purchased would be in proportion to 
number of certificates. Later on a 50- 
acre lot was to be purchased. It was 
to cost $75,000, and with $25,000 im¬ 
provements would bring the members 
$600,000, to be paid them in regular 
semi-annual payments. All done just 
to show the results of pulling together. 
Then on April 15, page 7, comes the 
great hurrah. The remittance of April 
12th was so large, it could not be told 
for several days how much had been 
received, but surely enough for the 50 
acres. Lewis had taken the bull by the 
horns, and the 50 acres were already 
purchased. It was to be a square deal. 
Thousands of dollars were deposited in 
a special account to credit of the “pool” 
But the promise to close the “pool” on 
April 12th was forgotten, more certifi¬ 
cates were to be issued as fast as the 
$5 remittances came in; $20,000 had 
been received in 10 days. As soon as 
he had money enough to improve the 
lot the “pool” would again close, and 
Pool No. 2 would open. Sales would 
begin in the Fall of 1908, and every 
member would get her share of the prof¬ 
its until the last foot was sold. On May 
2 , National Daily, page 13, he had for¬ 
gotten all about the bull and the horns 
and the 50 acres, but after careful con¬ 
sideration he had concluded to buy 48J4 
acres worth $5,000 an acre, but bought 
for the “pool” under his wise option for 
$2,225 per acre. There would be 100,- 
000 certificates representing' $200,000. 
The cost of this land was $108,000; 
needed for improvements, $42,000. Ig¬ 
noring his previous pledges Lewis now 
demanded $50,000 extra as an alleged 
loan fund, which he said would double 
in five years. When one timid sister 
protested against the change and asked 
to have_the investing stopoed, and the 
flow of money reversed so that the in¬ 
vestors could get some of the promised 
profits on which they were depending for 
a living, she got a full page explanation 
and a reproof. The profits were now 
to be a million dollars. No officer 
could hold a certificate, or draw salary 
or profit in any way in the pool. It was 
all for members, the profits, as well as 
$200,000 principal. For the first time 
the plain people were to share in the 
unearned increment of land. Twice each 
year the profits would be divided until 
the last foot was sold, and the proceeds 
in the pockets of members. It was, he 
said, a business deal. The members of 
the pool by sending him the subscrip¬ 
tions had added millions to his pub¬ 
lishing profits. In exchange he gave 
them several millions of real estate prof¬ 
its. But they must keep on sending the 
fives. 
All this was nearly three years ago. 
Who knows what has become of the 
money, or the land, or the profits? The 
women don’t know, and those who have 
inquired have not been informed. A 
square deal forsooth. It may be a 
damaging admission to say we cannot 
appreciate such evident genius, or en¬ 
thuse over the success of practical tal¬ 
ent. It is no doubt our misfortune that 
we cannot rise to the appreciation of a 
fame which has established itself on that 
kind of skill. 
A similar scheme was worked on the 
“Endowment Certificates” and again on 
the “Builders’ Fund,” and in the League 
right down to date in the Debentures. 
Follow it and you will find genius run¬ 
ning in a very narrow rut and always 
crying the same monotonous song of 
cash for Lewis and promises for his 
dupes. 
If. talent for getting other people’s 
earnings and savings without giving 
them anything of value in return is a 
mark of genius then Lewis deserves a 
tablet in the Hall of Fame. We had 
always associated such characteristics 
with mental aberration and moral de¬ 
pravity. _ 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The Government has brought 
suit in equity in the United States Circuit 
Court at New York under the Sherman 
act, which is now more than 20 years old, 
to restrain British, German, Dutch, Russian 
and American passenger-carrying Atlantic 
liners, entering or clearing from the ports 
of the United States at all unless they 
abandon an agreement as to steerage rates 
alleged to have been entered into in Don- 
don in 1908 and described as monopolis¬ 
tic. The Sherman act declares that every 
contract, combination or conspiracy in re¬ 
straint of trade with foreign nations, as 
well as between States, is illegal, and that 
everybody who enters into it may be fined 
$5,000 or imprisoned a year, but the near¬ 
est practical way of enforcing the law in 
this case, against the British and Germans, 
for instance, Is deemed to be the closing 
of the ports of the United States to their 
ships by means of an equity proceeding 
for that relief. 
James J. Gallagher, whom a jury in the 
Hudson County Court of Oyer and Ter¬ 
miner in Jersey City declared to be sane, 
was convicted January 4 in the same 
court of assault on Street Cleaning Com¬ 
missioner William H. Edwards with intent 
to kill by plowing a furrow in his left 
arm with a bullet while the Commissioner 
was weighting him down on the deck of 
the North German Lloyd liner Kaiser Wil¬ 
helm der Grosse, in Hoboken, on August 9 
last, immediately after the old man had 
fired a shot into Mayor Gaynor’s neck. 
Supreme Court Justice Francis J. Swayze 
called Gallagher to the bar as some of the 
Jurors were still filing out and sentenced 
him to 12 years imprisonment at hard labor 
in the State prison at Trenton and thence 
until the costs of court are paid. This 
means that if Gallagher lives to serve out 
his term, which the numerous alienists 
who examined him say is very doubtful, he 
will remain in jail until such time as he 
pays in the neighborhood of $250. 
After an investigation by the Post Office 
authorities United States Deputy Marshals 
raided the office of the Intertrust Security 
Company, in the Winthrop Building, Bos¬ 
ton, Mass., January 6, seized all the books 
and papers in sight and arrested. Victor M. 
Weil, president of the concern, on a charge 
of using the mails to defraud. Weil is 
also manager of the Standard Amalga¬ 
mated Exploration Company, which has 
promoted about a hundred concerns of 
questionable value. He was taken to the 
lederal Building and released under $3,- 
000 bail. One of the several complaints 
on which the arrest of Weil is based w; , 
brought to the attention of the post officj 
authorities by Hattie Mitchell, of Malden. 
It is alleged that as a result of a letter 
addressed to her she was induced to pur¬ 
chase stock in the Old Glory Exploration 
Company, which was promoted by Weil. 
According to the post office inspectors, 
Weil's scheme caught many victims in 
New England, mostly through the sale of 
stock of practically no value. Inspector 
Claralian, in whose name the complaint is 
made out and who has been in charge of 
the preparation of the case, says that the 
plans were carried out in the following 
manner: In 1907 Weil secured six claims 
in California and Nevada which had been 
located by Jefferson F. Howell, a mining 
engineer, and early in that year there was 
organized the Iiowell and Little Mining 
Company, incorporated under the laws of 
Arizona for $200,000. The claims are said 
never to have been worked and are be¬ 
lieved to be worth nothing. One of these 
claims was pur-chased late in 1907 by a 
new corporation known as the United 
States Gold Mining Company, which Weil 
had organized meanwhile, and the money 
obtained by the Howell and Little Com¬ 
pany from the sale of one of its claims 
was used to pay a 4 per cent dividend on 
the stock. 
The United States Government will ac¬ 
cept the compromise offer of $700,000 in 
full settlement of the drawback cases in 
which the sugar trust at the port of New 
York defrauded the Treasury of large sums 
of money. The $700,000, which was first 
deposited in the United States Sub-Treas¬ 
ury in New York, is now in the vaults of 
the Treasury. In taking up the compro¬ 
mise offer the Government will assume the 
attitude that it has not sufficient grounds 
for prosecution. The sum of $700,000 in 
hard cash has been thought better by offi¬ 
cials than a suit which might not result 
favorably for the Government. The de¬ 
cision to accept the $700,000 was reached 
after a thorough investigation by United 
States District Attorney Wise at New 
York, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury 
J. F. Curtis and William F. Thompson, so¬ 
licitor for the Treasury Department. The 
sugar trust presented for the consideration 
of the officials a petition setting forth the 
reasons for the compromise offer. It was 
signed by James M. Beck and Wickham 
Smith, attorneys for the trust. It will not 
be made public. According to some officials 
of the Department, the trust was gradually 
forced up in its compromise figures. At 
first, according to a story told January 9, 
It made an offer of $250,000. This was not 
considered, and the sum was raised to 
$500,000, which at the time was said to be 
absolutely the limit. The Treasury Depart¬ 
ment still refused to accept this amount. 
Then the trust agreed to swell it to $700,- 
000. Consideration of the facts by experts 
ended in the conclusion to accept rather 
than try to fight. The acceptance of this 
sum for frauds at New York does not 
affect the frauds that may result in claims 
by the Government at New Orleans and 
San Francisco. 
Three coal barges, with crews aggregat¬ 
ing 14 men, were caught January 10 off 
Peaked Hill bars. Cape Cod, by a sudden 
twist of the gale from westerly to north 
and were wrecked in sight of the life sav¬ 
ing crews. Two bodies wearing life belts 
marked Treverton have been washed ashore, 
and others were seen with pieces of wreck¬ 
age floating further off shore. It is be¬ 
lieved that all the men perished. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The tariff board 
has formulated a schedule for the investi¬ 
gation of the sheep industry in the western 
part of the United States. This schedule 
differs considerably from the one used in 
the Eastern States. Up to this time the 
field force of the board has confined its 
raw wool investigation to centres east of 
the Mississippi River. With Ohio as a 
base, agents of the board have visited West 
Virginia, Vermont, western Pennsylvania, 
Michigan and other States where wool 
growing is an important industry. Reports 
indicate that instead of being opposed to 
the efforts of the tariff board to ascertain 
the facts regarding cost of wool produc¬ 
tion, the sheep raisers are pleased with 
the manner in which the board is ap¬ 
proaching the work and are cooperating m 
every possible way with its agents, who 
are in all cases men who have practical 
familiarity with the business. This atti¬ 
tude on the part of the growers has greatly 
facilitated the inquiry. 
The annual meeting of the New York 
State 'Fair Commission was held January 
4 at the office of the Commissioner of 
Agriculture, at Albany. The following 
officers were elected: Vice-President, Com¬ 
missioner A. A. Pearson; secretary, Stan¬ 
ton C. Shaver; treasurer, Albert E. Brown. 
The week of September 11-16 was selected 
for the next fair. It was decided to adopt 
a plan which has been under consideration 
for some time, to bring to the fair for the 
entire week 100 boys from all parts of the 
State. These boys will be selected by school 
authorities and Granges and each one will 
render assistance on the fair grounds one- 
half of each day. They will be given lec¬ 
tures daily and allowed to submit essays 
on what they have learned. As prizes for 
these essays the Commission will award 
purebred live stock and seed corn. 
The Supreme Court of the United States 
in an opinion by xYssociato Justice Harlan, 
January 9, upheld the constitutionality 
of the statutes of the State of Missouri 
making it a misdemeanor for a broker to 
deduct from the actual weight of grain, 
seed, hay or coal or other articles offered 
for sale for alleged loss in dirt and hand¬ 
ling. The statute was passed in 1909. 
The rules of the Kansas City Board of 
Trade permitted the deductions. The 
Missouri statute enacted that the deduc¬ 
tions invalidated the contract. It. J. House, 
a Kansas City broker, was arrested by the 
marshal of Jackson County, in which Kan¬ 
sas City is located, for violating the sta¬ 
tute. On conviction he appealed. The 
Missouri Supreme Court affirmed his cou- 
viction and upheld the constitutionality of 
the law by a vote of four to three. At 
the same time the court upheld the con¬ 
stitutionality of the Missouri law imposing 
a stamp tax on board of trade transactions 
and referring the keeping of books showing 
actual transactions and delivery. 
At a meeting of the Independent Asso¬ 
ciation of White Burley Tobacco Growers 
of Kentucky and Adjoining States, January 
5, it was decided by vote that no crop 
shall bo raised in 1911. This association 
is independent of the Burley Tobacco So¬ 
ciety, of which Clarence Lebus is president, 
and which has a large part of the 1909 
crop pooled. The Burley Society has as yet 
taken no action toward cutting out the 
1911 crop. It will control something like 
45 per cent of the white hurley raised, 
while the remainder will be pooled by the 
newer association. 
The first West Virginia State Corn Show 
was held January 5-7 in connection with 
the short course of the College of Agricul¬ 
ture, West Virginia University, Morgan¬ 
town. About 150 exhibitors participated 
and made an exceedingly creditable show¬ 
ing for the first show. The West Virginia 
Corn Growers’ Association was organized. 
The purpose is to further the development 
of the corn growing industry in the State 
and to promote a greater interest among 
the farmers. The following officers were 
chosen: President, J. W. Johnson, Alder- 
son ; vice-president, Dean Sanderson, of the 
University; secretary and treasurer, E. W. 
Sheets, Lost Creek. 
Anti-parcels Post Petition. 
A reader sends us the following clipping 
from the Malone (N. Y.) Telegram: 
“Canton, Dec. 30.—Canton merchants, 
opposed to the establishment of parcels 
post, are signing a petition to be presented 
to Congressman George R. Malby asking 
him to use his best efforts to defeat any 
legislation favorable to the establishment 
of such a service. By many business men 
here it is believed the parcels post would 
prove disastrous to the merchants of small 
villages and beneficial particularly to mail 
order houses and the department stores of 
large cities.” 
These “many business men” have a right 
to their own opinion, but so have the many 
more farmers who need parcels post. Let 
these business men keep on signing peti¬ 
tions. You sit right down and write a 
personal letter to Mr. Malby at Washing¬ 
ton telling him respectfully but firmly that 
you want parcels post. We will back the 
personal letter against the petition every 
time. 
The potato crop in the Greeley district 
has been variously estimated at from 50 
to 75 per cent, of normal. In this local¬ 
ity it was fully 90 per cent. I think 50 
per cent, or more of the crop was stored. 
Since harvest the price has been 75 cents 
per hundred most of the time. They have 
been moving quite rapidly of late. As to 
future prospects no man knoweth except 
perhaps the middleman, and he is not tell¬ 
ing the grower all he knows. c. L. a. 
Greeley, Col. 
The 
Tnd« Huk j 
I Not 
i In a 
I Trust i 
Century 
BOOT 
(Beacon Falls Brand) 
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It is made of the best 
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k an extra pure 
gum, no-crack 
ankle rein¬ 
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- IT IS THE CHEAPEST 
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and service. If you can’t secure Century Boots from 
your dealer, write us. Send his name. W e will see that 
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2080 Hudson-Terminal Bldg^ 50 Church St.. New York. 1212 Marquette Bldg., Chicago 
