THK RURAL NEW-YORKER 
41 
1911 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
•‘The president of the Lewis Pub¬ 
lishing Company has promoted or 
exploited, through the medium of 
‘The Woman’s Magazine’ and ‘The 
Woman’s Farm Journal,’ more than 
one dozen of his private enterprises, 
one of which was the ‘People’s Uni¬ 
ted States Bank,’ against which a 
fraud order was issued by the Post¬ 
master General on July 6, 1905, for 
the reason that sales of its stock had 
been made and deposits induced up¬ 
on false representations and promises, 
and that the funds of the Institution 
were being misapplied.” 
We have felt a sense of delicacy about 
reporting a court proceeding in St. 
Louis last month, which grew out of 
the publication of the above paragraph, 
in a Postal Department pamphlet. The 
members of the American Woman's 
League and others who have contrib¬ 
uted to the fancy financial frolics of E. 
G. Lewis are, of course, most interested 
and we thought the “National Daily” 
was entitled to the “beat” in publishing 
the first news of the trial. We know 
Mr. Lewis has a most exalted appreci¬ 
ation of the intelligence of womanhood 
—at least of such women as do not ask 
for an accounting of their cash. We 
know he likes to take them into his con¬ 
fidence—when he needs money. In 
times past we have felt that he was a 
bit sensitive because we had been the 
first to publish accounts of suits brought 
against him for the collection of notes, 
taxes, premiums, etc. We have ob¬ 
served that he always gave prompt re¬ 
port and double heads to the account of 
libel suits filed by Mr. Lewis against 
publishers and others. Even when the 
courts granted him through technical 
legal pleadings, the preference of loca¬ 
tion for hearing his suits, he always 
found space for the news. Naturally 
we expected a report of the December 
trial in the following issue of the “Na¬ 
tional Daily.” We expected Mr. Lewis 
would want to confide his woes to the 
“sweet love” of “the noble unselfish wo¬ 
men,” who are sending him money, and 
asking no questions. But his forbear¬ 
ance has given us a new conception of 
greatness. We have all read and re¬ 
read his admiration of the courts that 
failed to order him a complimentary 
ticket to a Federal free board institu¬ 
tion when he was under trial on an in¬ 
dictment of fraud in the use of the 
mails. We conclude now that he still 
retains his reverence for the courts, and 
that he is accepting the new verdict in 
the silence of chastened humility. 
When the postmaster-general issued 
an order denying the second-class mail¬ 
ing privileges to the “Woman’s Maga¬ 
zine,” and “Woman’s Farm Journal,” 
both published by the Lewis Publishing 
Company, Mr. Lewis, through his pub¬ 
lications urged readers to write to the 
President, and Postmaster-General and 
members of Congress, protesting against 
the action of the department. These 
protests were referred to the Assistant 
Attorney-General and an inspector in 
charge. These officials issued a brief 
statement of the reasons for the action 
taken by the department. The state¬ 
ment contained the paragraph quoted 
above and because of its publication 
Lewis brought an action against the of¬ 
ficials in the name of the People’s 
United States Bank, charging that they 
had libeled the bank by stating “that 
the funds of the institution were being 
misapplied.” 
In the suit last month, after Lewis 
had presented his evidence the judge 
dismissed the camplaint on the ground 
that sufficient evidence had not been pro¬ 
duced to establish a cause of action. On 
payment of the necessary fee, Lewis was 
allowed a non-suit which gives him the 
privilege of appeal within a limited time. 
To give credit where due, we think Mr. 
Lewis was always modest about the 
proceeds of this suit. He has never as 
far as we have observed included the 
suit in any of his tables of assets; nor 
sold any certificates against it, which 
were to participate in the profits. We 
expect that Mr. Lewis will now explain 
to “noble and liberated womanhood” 
why he failed to report the last suit. 
We suggest the modesty and humility 
theory. But Mr. Lewis needs no ad¬ 
vice. He has a way of his own of 
making explanations. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—W. W. Spencer of the In¬ 
diana Legislature seeks a repeal of the di- 
x - ect primary law, claiming that results in 
that State are unsatisfactory. 
William Ogilvie, ex-Governor of the 
Yukon Territory, arrived at Ottawa, Can¬ 
ada, December 29, with an elaborate plan 
to reclaim 3,000,000 acres of ‘‘muskeg” 
lands in the Saskatchewan River territory, 
through which the new Hudson Bay Rail¬ 
way will be' constructed. He will present 
the plan to the Department of the Interior 
and it will be taken up by the Laurier Cab¬ 
inet soon after the reassembling of Parlia¬ 
ment. These lands are now useless and un¬ 
productive, but if drained, it is said, they 
would produce easily from thirty to forty 
bushels of wheat to the acre, and their set¬ 
tlement and cultivation would be of great 
assistance to the Hudson Bay Railway, 
which will be purely a grain carrying road. 
Mr. Ogilvie is conlident that the Govern¬ 
ment will adopt the plan. 
Fourteen men were instantly killed and 
two have since died from injuries received 
through the explosion of a tubular boiler 
in the engine house of the Morewood Lake 
Ice Company, the largest ice plant in Berk¬ 
shire County, a mile and a half southeast 
of Pittslield, Mass., December 29. More 
than 35 men were hurt. The police theory 
of the explosion is that a new steam gauge 
which had been installed recently was 
choked and that whereas the gauge was 
set for 40 pounds the boiler may have been 
carrying two hundred pounds when it blew 
up. The property loss to the ice company 
is $5,000. An official of the Morewood 
Lake Ice Company said that only two of 
the killed and injured were on its payroll. 
The others had gathered at the icehouse 
seeking employment, which was to begin 
with the hoisting of ice. No man lives to 
tell what happened inside the boiler room. 
Survivors outside say that suddenly they 
were lifted from their feet and hurled into 
space. The building, 20x40 feet, was com¬ 
pletely wrecked. Two side walls, the roof 
and the boiler and engine went into the air. 
l’ieces of iron were hurled 200 feet. 
The United States Government is not yet 
through with the sugar trust. Investiga¬ 
tions at New Orleans and Snu Francisco 
have uncovered trails that lead officials of 
the customs service to believe that it is 
possible for the Government to collect large 
sums from the trust. The investigation at 
New Orleans goes back more than a dozen 
years. The alleged frauds were committed 
in the sampling of the sugar and are not 
concerned with the weighing. The frauds 
on the coast said to have been committed 
by the trust were drawback frauds, like 
those brought to light recently in New 
York, where the Government expects to re¬ 
cover possibly three-quarters of a million 
dollars. In the San Francisco case it is al¬ 
leged that sugar imported from the Philip¬ 
pines and used in fruit exported afterward 
got a drawback as Java sugar. Those 
frauds too are said to have been extensive. 
Though the Government has not finally ac¬ 
cepted the offer of the American Sugar Re¬ 
fining Company to pay $700,000 in settle¬ 
ment of the drawback claims on imported 
sugar made into molasses, subsequently ex¬ 
ported, that amount of money in cash has 
been deposited by the trust in the Sub- 
Treasury in New York. United States At¬ 
torney Wise has the certificate of deposit in 
his possession. Mr. Wise made it clear that 
the deposit of the money did not mean 
that the Government had accepted the of¬ 
fer of the trust. The money had to be 
deposited before the Government could con¬ 
sider the proposition. If Mr. Wise does 
approve it the offer must then be submitted 
to the Secretary of the Treasury. 
Fire in the Flos Roller Company's fac¬ 
tory at Ogdensburg, N. Y., January 3, 
caused a loss estimated at $100,000. 
Two of the world’s foremost aviators. 
Arch Hoxsey and John B. Moisant, both 
Americans and both holders of notable 
flying records, were killed December 31. 
Hoxsey in a Wright biplane fell a dis¬ 
tance estimated at 530 feet at Los Angeles 
while doing what appeared to bo a spiral 
dip. Moisant in a Bleriot monoplane met 
death on the outskirts of New Orleans. He 
lost control of his machine at a .height of 
200 feet. At 100 feet elevation he fell out 
of his machine. Neither man was killed 
instantly. Hoxsey’s heart was still beat¬ 
ing when he was removed from the wreck 
of his machine. He died just before he 
was put on an operating table at the 
emergency hospital. He never was con¬ 
scious after he struck the ground. Moi¬ 
sant was unconscious when picked up, 
but died a few minutes later while being 
ijtaken on a special train to a New Orleans 
hospital. Both men were seeking to make 
new records. Hoxsey was trying to sur¬ 
pass his world’s record altitude flight of 
11,474 feet, which he made at Los Angeles 
December 26. Moisant was trying for the 
Michelin long distance prize, which Tabu- 
teau won December 30 at Buc, France. 
According to some aviation fatality 
records, Hoxsey was the fortieth aviator 
to be killed since the sport or science of 
flying in heavier than air machines began. 
Moisant was the thirty-ninth victim, hav¬ 
ing been killed almost exactly six hours 
before Hoxsey. Of these 40 deaths 30 in 
round numbers occured in 1910. Ralph 
Johnstone, another of the Wright fliers, 
who was Iloxsey’s greatest rival in alti¬ 
tude flights, was killed a few weeks ago in 
Denver. Cecil Grace, who had sought to 
outdo Moisant’s Channel flight by a trip 
from England to France and back, has 
never been heard from since he left Calais. 
The Southern Pacific train No. 1, the 
Overland Limited, westbound, was held 
un by two masked men January 3 at 
Reese, nine miles west of Ogden, Utah. 
William Ravis, a negro porter, was shot 
and instantly killed and A. W. Taylor, an¬ 
other porter, was mortally wounded. A 
passenger was slightly wounded. One hun¬ 
dred passengers on the train were relieved 
of their valuables. The robbers did not 
attempt to enter the express car, but de¬ 
voted their entire attention to the Pull¬ 
mans, where they made a rich haul among 
the California bound passengers, holding 
the train for more than an hour. 
With a blizzard in half a dozen States 
and freezing temperatures extending 'to 
the Gulf, the South January 3 experienced 
the coldest weather recorded this Winter. 
Texas reports two deaths from freezing. 
An aged man was found frozen to death 
in Mobile, Ala. Snow fell in Texas, 
Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, southern 
Ohio and the more northerly portions of 
Mississippi and Alabama. Loss to crops 
and cattle in Texas is estimated at $1,- 
000,000. The orange belt also suffered se¬ 
verely. With temperatures ranging from 
21 degrees below zero at Salina, Kan., to 
zero in northern Arkansas, the southwest 
also experienced the coldest weather of 
the Winter. Near Cripple Creek, Col., the 
record cold of 34 below zero was registered. 
Fire destroyed the buildings of the 
Knickerbocker Fireproof Storage Ware¬ 
house Company, No. 102 to 106 Arlington 
street, Newark, N. J., January 3. The fire 
was one of the most spectacular that has 
ever occurred in that city in daylight. It 
entailed a loss estimated to be not less than 
$300,000, of which about an equal share 
is upon buildings and contents. A defec¬ 
tive telephone wire crossing with a highly 
charged electric light wire is believed to 
have started the blaze. The destroyed 
buildings included a five story brick struc¬ 
ture occupying two city lots, and adjoining 
this, on the south, a fine buff brick, solidly 
constructed eight story building. 
Fire destroyed $1,000,000 worth of prop¬ 
erty in the heart of the business district 
of Little Rock, Ark., January 3. The fire 
started in the fifth story ot the building 
owned by Gov. Donaghy at Seventh and 
Main streets, occupied by the Hollenberg 
Music Company. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The forty- 
second annual meeting of the Nebraska 
State Horticultural Society is to be held 
at the University Farm, Lincoln, Neb., 
January 17 to 19, 1911. Tuesday especially 
the meeting will be one of considerable 
interest to growers and retailers, as such 
subjects as the following will be under 
discussion : Arranging Fruits and Cut 
Flowers, Chrysanthemums, the Retail Flor¬ 
ist, Advertising Bulbs, Prospects for Whole¬ 
saling in Nebraska, etc. The meeting on 
that day will be given over to the State 
Florists’ Society, with President Irwin Frey 
in the chair. 
The National Flower Show will be held 
in Horticultural Hall, Boston, Mass., March 
25 to April 1, in connection with the Spring 
Convention of the Society of American 
Florists, the American Rose Society, the 
American Carnation Society, the American 
Gladiolus Society and the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society. The general man¬ 
ager is Chester 1. Campbell. 
The meeting of the Connecticut Porno- 
logical Society will be held at Hartford 
February 1-2. Thei-e will be as usual an 
excellent programme, with the banquet 
which has become a fixture in these meet¬ 
ings. 
The various State Agricultural Associa¬ 
tions of IVest Virginia will hold their an¬ 
nual meetings in the rooms of the State 
Board of Agriculture, Charleston, during 
the week of January 23, 1911. The, best 
of speakers and some of the leading live 
stock authorities of the country will be 
present. A special feature will be the 
agricultural rally to be held in the House 
of Representatives the evening of January 
24. Some of the leading agricultural pro¬ 
moters of the land will be present and 
deliver addresses, among whom are Hon. 
Win. E. Glasscock, Governor of West Vir¬ 
ginia ; Hon. A. P. Sandies, Secretary of the 
Ohio State Board of Agriculture, and 
others. State Dairy Association will meet 
January 23 at 7.30 p. m.; State Live 
Stock Association, January 24, 9.30 p. in.: 
State Wool Growers’ and Sheep Breeders’ 
Association, January 24, 1.30 p. m.; State 
Horticultural Society, January 25 and 26; 
annual meeting of the State Grange, Janu¬ 
ary 26 and 27. 
Secretary of State Knox has opened 
negotiations with the German Government 
for the settlement of the potash dispute 
which has been pending for several months. 
A few days ago a diplomatic note was 
forwarded to the German Foreign Office 
through Dr. David Jayne Hill, American 
Ambassador at Berlin, expressing the de¬ 
sire of this Government to take up the 
question through diplomatic channels for 
the purpose of reaching an amicable adjust¬ 
ment of the question so as to avoid the 
possibility of a tariff war. All proposals 
of retaliatory action against Germany have 
therefore been postponed pending the con¬ 
clusions of the diplomatic negotiations. 
The New Jersey State Board of Agricul¬ 
ture will meet at the State House, Trenton, 
January 18, 19 and 20. 
The third annual meeting of the Illinois 
Horticultural Institute, fifty-fifth annual 
convention of the Illinois State Horticul¬ 
tural Society, and sixth annual meeting of 
the Illinois State Florists’ Association will 
be held in the Agricultural Building of the 
University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill., 
January 31 to February 10. R. O. Graham, 
President Illinois State Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, Bloomington ; W. B. Lloyd, Secretary 
Illinois State Horticultural Society, Ivin- 
mundy; C. L. Washburn, President Illinois 
State Florists’ Association, Chicago; J. F. 
Ammann, Secretary Illinois State Florists’ 
Association, Edwardsville; August Geweke. 
President Cook County Truck Growers’ 
Association, Des Plaines; E. Bollinger, 
President Horticultural Society of Lake 
Forest, Lake Forest; C. Geppert, Secretary 
Horticultural Society of Lake Forest, Lake 
Forest. 
GOV. DIX’S MESSAGE.—The first mes¬ 
sage sent by the new Governor of New York 
to the Legislature makes an urgent plea 
for economy, and declares that too much 
money Is being expended. There is an 
intimation of direct taxation. He comes 
out squarely in favor of parcels post, sug¬ 
gests the advisability of an income tax, and 
urges direct nominations and a constitu¬ 
tional amendment compelling the registra¬ 
tion of all voters. He also urged a con¬ 
stitutional amendment providing for the 
popular election of United States Senators. 
Among.other points covered the Governor 
said : “The State Fair is a worthy object 
of State assistance, but I question seriously 
the wisdom or necessity of the legislation 
of the last session, which established a 
commission of five members, at large sal¬ 
aries, to superintend the work in connec¬ 
tion therewith. In the Interests of econ¬ 
omy I recommend the repeal of such legis¬ 
lation.” Regarding increased expenditures, 
Gov. Dix says that the principle cause for 
the increasing cost of government are the 
added expenditures for boards and com¬ 
missions within the last seven years; ex¬ 
penditures for penal institutions have in¬ 
creased 127 per cent.; for educational pur¬ 
poses more than 53 per cent. Regarding 
the work of the Highway Commission, the 
Governor says that during the last fiscal 
year 564 miles of State roads have been 
built and the work of construction of 
513 miles begun. In addition to this 
work, 121 miles of road already constructed 
have been maintained and put in repair 
and plans are under way for construction 
of much additional work. When the peo¬ 
ple of the State passed upon the proposi¬ 
tion to expend $50,000,000 upon the roads 
of the State they expected in return there¬ 
for to receive a comprehensive system of 
roads connecting all the principle points 
in the State, and with branches extending 
laterally so as to make a complete network 
all over the State of modern, well con- 
constructed and lasting roads. An exam¬ 
ination of the records of the State disclose 
the fact that the appropriation for the 
maintenance and repair of State roads for 
the year 1909 was $1,500,000, and for the 
year 1910 the sum of $1,800,000, while the 
estimate for the year 1911 amounts to 
$1,500,000. 
‘‘The amount of money expended in one 
year upon the maintenance and repair of 
roads, but recently constructed, would seem 
to indicate that the people are likely to be 
disappointed in this regard, and I q'ucstiou 
whether or not more effective results in 
efficiency and economy would not be ob¬ 
tained by doing away with this costly com¬ 
mission, the only reasonable excuse for 
whose existence would be the ability to do 
the work of which it has had charge more 
efficiently or cheaply than the officers un¬ 
der whose supervision such work was for¬ 
merly done.” _ 
RHODE ISLAND FARMERS MEET. 
The Farmers’ Convention of Rhode Island 
met at the Rhode Island State College from 
Tuesday, December 27, to Friday, December 
30, with an attendance of about 120, a 
great increase in numbers over last year, 
there being only 56 then. The special 
course for the farmers during this time con¬ 
sists of a series of lectures by the heads of 
the different departments of agriculture in¬ 
terested, and by a few outside speakers. 
These lectures took up every phase of farm¬ 
ing under all kinds of conditions, and tried 
to show the farmer how he could better the 
products from his farm and get better 
prices for the produce. One of the most 
interesting and instructive lectures of the 
course was given on Thursday afternoon by 
H. W. Collingwood, on the subject of ‘ The 
Consumer s Dollar,” in which he showed 
that of the dollar the consumer paid for 
produce, about 35 cents went to the pro¬ 
ducer, and the rest to the railroads, and 
the commission merchants or ‘‘middlemen.” 
lie went on to show that this could be done 
away with by the farmer selling direct to 
the consumer, lie showed wherein the 
parcels post was the only law that Congress 
could pass that would benefit the farmer, 
since this would provide the means of the 
farmer getting bis produce on the market 
cheaply, or at least cheaper than he can 
under the present laws, where the express 
companies have practically no competition, 
and can therefore charge almost any price 
for transportation, whereas if we had the 
parcels post, the express companies would 
nave to reduce their rates in order to get 
any business. 
The fruit growers at the convention held 
a meeting on Thursday and organized a 
Rhode Island Fruit Growers’ Association to 
be affiliated with the Rhode Island Horti¬ 
cultural Society as a branch of that so¬ 
ciety, the purpose of which is to try to 
arouse more interest in fruit culture in 
Rhode Island. The meeting also passed a 
resolution as follows : 
‘•Resolved, That it is the sense of the 
fruit growers and agriculturists assembled 
at the Farmers’ Week at the Rhode Island 
State College that a law in regard to or¬ 
chard inspection is of great importance and 
a necessity to protect fruit growers of 
Rhode Island.” 
It is thought that this law will be a 
great benefit to fruit culture in the New 
England States and Rhode Island in partic¬ 
ular. The convention as a whole has been 
a great success and is calculated to help 
the college and the farmers of the State 
very much. The following is the programme 
of the lectures as given: Tuesday, Decem¬ 
ber 27, “Commercial l’each Culture,” A. E. 
Stene; “The Robber Cow,” II. Burdick; 
“Feeding of Winter Chicks,” B. L. Hart¬ 
well; “Corn,” G. E. Adams; “Strawberry 
Culture,” Wilfrid Wheeler. W’eduesday, 
“Propagation of Plants,” G. It. Cobb ; "Sil¬ 
age and Its Uses,” F. S. Putney; “Systems 
of Handling Poultry," D. J. Lambert; 
“Alfalfa,” H. J. Wheeler; “Farm Adminis¬ 
tration," J. W. Sanborn. Thursday, "Apple 
Culture,” A. E. Stene; “Swine,” F. S. Put¬ 
ney ; “Poultry Houses and Fixtures,” I). J. 
Lambert; “Potato Culture,” G. E. Adams; 
“The Consumer’s Dollar,” FI. W. Colling¬ 
wood. Friday, “Spray Mixtures,” G. R. 
Cobb ; “The Farm Barn,” F. S. Putney; 
“The Farmer’s Hen,” D. J. Lambert; “For¬ 
age Crops,” G. E. Adams; “Cost of Crop 
Production,” G. E. Adams. p. e. f. 
EASTERN FRUIT GROWERS’ MEET¬ 
ING.—At the meeting in Washington, D. C„ 
December 21, 1910, the title Eastern Fruit 
Growers’ Association was adopted as pre¬ 
ferable to the title Appalachian Fruit 
Growers’ Association, used in the call for 
the meeting. The first Washington meeting 
was successful, even beyond the expecta¬ 
tions of those issuing the call. Definite ac¬ 
tion was taken to support the Simmons bill 
giving the Secretary of Agriculture author¬ 
ity to quarantine against infested nursery 
stock; to secure better freight and express 
rates through the Interstate Commerce 
Commission; to obtain a satisfactory stand¬ 
ard package law; favoring an unlimited 
parcels post, and to watch for legislation 
that might prove to be inimical to the fruit 
growing industry in the East. 
Prepaid Express Charges. — I notice an 
inquiry from one of your readers asking 
how to avoid having his customers pay 
express charges on packages when he pre¬ 
pays the express. The proper method to 
avoid this is by putting on a sticker which 
reads: “All express charges on this pack¬ 
age prepaid.” No company is allowed to 
collect on a package if they accept it under 
these conditions—provided the company is 
able to waybill the package through from 
the receiving to the distributing point. 
This they are not always able to do, as 
they do not have connections of their own 
in every town and city. The chances are 
that in the latter case there will be an 
extra charge. geo. j. martix. 
Massachusetts. 
