1911. 
OTHER PEOPLE S MONEY. 
The frantic appeals that E. G. Lewis, 
of St. Louis, Mo., is now making to 
secure money from confiding and gulli¬ 
ble country people is beyond question 
the most impudent defiance of the law 
that the United States mails must not 
be used for fraudulent purposes that 
has ever been perpetrated by any resi¬ 
dent of this country. We bar none. 
I he whole scheme is peculiar to Lewis. 
The promises of future profits, benefits 
and wealth are in themselves repudia¬ 
tions of similar promises previously 
made the same people for money already 
sent him. His whole debenture scheme 
is an attempt to cover up past promises 
and present obligations to the people 
that he is now trying to. induce once 
more to send him more money. When 
he faked the women of the country into 
becoming subscription agents for his 
papers by organizing the American 
W Oman s League, he provided that 
membership could be secured only by 
sending subscriptions to his papers, or 
by purchasing subscription certificates 
for them. Membership, he said, could 
be secured in no other way. He based 
the whole success of the League scheme 
on the profits that would accrue to 
his monthly publications, which he said 
was the largest and most profitable pub¬ 
lishing business in the world, and which 
the women were to own through the 
League. _ Hence his pledge that mem¬ 
bership in the League could be secured 
in no other way than in the building 
up of the papers through membership 
purchased by subscriptions to them. If 
there was any benefit in the scheme ex¬ 
cept the privilege of sending Lewis 
money, it was in this feature of it. If 
there were any sincerity in the scheme, 
we would expect it to show itself in an 
honest and persistent effort to make 
good along this line. But without 
warning to the women he now stops the 
publication of these papers, which he 
told them were the largest and most 
profitable in the world, and admits that 
they were published at a loss. His only 
apology is the brazen admission that 
he did not know that they were losing 
money when he called them the largest 
and most profitable in the world. 
We will not enumerate the annuity 
for life or other benefits promised the 
women. He has now practically aban¬ 
doned them all, and memberships are 
for sale to anyone at $100 per. In ad¬ 
dition you can get a 10-year debenture 
or note for the full amount. But Lewis 
has yet failed to show that the note has 
a penny of value behind it; and the gen¬ 
eral opinion is that the money is going 
into an insolvent account. From what 
Lewis has himself said we would not 
expect his Builders’ Fund account to pay 
50 cents on the dollar if liquidated to¬ 
day, and it is into this that he asks 
women to put $3,000,000. He actually 
I HR RURAL, 
had the audacity to request that this 
large sum be sent him before New 
Year's. Of course he knew it would not 
come; but predicating all on that re¬ 
sult he went on to tell of the glorious 
results just as if it were an assured 
fact. 
Note the characteristic Lewis induce¬ 
ments. First those only who sent the 
money by December 3 could get the 
notes this year. Then December 17 
would do. After that date, all who sent 
the money by January 1, 1911, would 
get them. This shuffling of limits and 
inducements is an old trick of Lewis’s. 
Go over his literature for 10 years and 
you find_ many repetitions. But what is 
the use? We are not going into de¬ 
tail about his new promises for the de¬ 
bentures. There is neither business nor 
sincerity in it. To secure money under 
false pretenses is a swindle. To permit 
the continuous exploitation of the people 
through the mails would be a national 
scandal. We cannot believe that the 
Post Office Department would know¬ 
ingly stand for it. We invite the honest 
women of the country to help other 
poor women save their earnings, and 
help save the credit of the country by 
a vigorous protest to the Post Office 
Department against a reckless scheme 
of frenzied finance. If you get any 
letters or circulars from Lewis so¬ 
liciting money on these debentures, send 
them on to us just as you get them. 
We can make better use of them than 
you can. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Fire Marshal James Horan 
and 30 of his comrades of the Chicago 
Fire Department gave up their lives De¬ 
cember 22 in a disaster that the veteran 
fire fighter had feared for years. Twelve 
hours after the fire chief had, warned the 
Council Committee on Buildings that bet¬ 
ter fire fighting appliances were needed in 
the stock yards at once he had been 
trapped and two entire companies of fire¬ 
men had been wiped out in just such a 
fire as he had predicted. The flames de¬ 
stroyed the new beef house of the Morris 
& Co. plant at the yards, spread to sev¬ 
eral smaller structures and for hours 
threatened to sweep the yards. In addi¬ 
tion to the loss of life the flames destroyed 
property worth $1,000,000. It was due only 
to the stubborn fight waged by the fire¬ 
men from every section of Chicago rather 
than the fire appliances and water pres¬ 
sure at their command that they kept the 
flames from the Armour and Swift plants 
close about the site of the ruined beef 
house. The fire broke out again the fol¬ 
lowing day, and was finally subdued with 
difficulty. 
Thirteen firemen and one policeman met 
death when the walls of the Friedlander 
leather factory in North Bodine street, 
Philadelphia, Pa., collapsed December 21, 
after the building had been destroyed by 
fire. According to an official statement 
given out by the Department of Public 
Safety, in addition to those killed thirty- 
one firemen,_ seven policemen and one ci¬ 
vilian were injured, some of them danger¬ 
ously. One fireman, William Glazier of 
Engine Company G, was taken alive from 
the ruins after he had been imprisoned for 
14 hours. There is hope that he will live. 
The factory building was 58 years old. 
Edwin Clark, chief of the Bureau of 
Building Inspection, said the walls col¬ 
lapsed because of their age and the man¬ 
ner of their construction. The mortar, he 
NEW-YORKER 
said, was so old that a little beat eon- 
verted it practically into powder, so that 
It had no adhesive power. The girders and 
beams, instead of being iron and steel as 
in modern buildings, were of wood. These 
burned out quickly and took away the only 
support of the walls. 
December 21 fire in the Oriess-Pfleger 
plant at Cincinnati, O., killed three men, 
injured six others, and caused a property 
loss of $2,500,000. 
tor pretending to teach city boys how 
to become cowboys Carl Smith of San An¬ 
tonio, Tex., has been made the subject of 
a fraud order by the Postmaster-General. 
He is under arrest in Texas. It is ex¬ 
plained that when arraigned before the 
United States Commissioner and asked if 
he had been employing cowboys Smith ad¬ 
mitted that he had and pleaded guilty to 
the charge against him. When asked if 
he ever paid any of them as he promised in 
his advertisement, he said he had' not. 
Asked where “Rincon Ranch” was, to which 
he promised to send them, he said he had 
no idea, and when asked why he had ap¬ 
plicants send him $2 on account for a 
railroad ticket to the place when he did 
not intend to send a ticket he blandly an¬ 
swered : "Why, to get the money, I guess.” 
The Llewellyn Iron Works, Los Angeles, 
Cal., were partially destroyed by a dyna¬ 
mite explosion December 25. The firm had 
had trouble with the metal workers’ 
union for several months. So great was 
the force of the explosion that residents 
In the West Lake Park district, two miles 
away, were awakened by the shock. All 
the glass in neighboring buildings was 
smashed and some damage was done to the 
Lacy Manufacturing Company, the Johnson 
Machine Works and other plants. The ex¬ 
plosion tore a hole 18 inches deep and six 
feet in diameter in the ground just at the 
wagon entrance to the plant. A shed which 
contained stored iron near the entrance was 
totally wrecked. 
Joseph G. Robin, formerly Robinovitch, 
a New York banker, is in trouble. 
His bank, the Northern, at 215 West 125th 
street, New York, deposits $7,000,000, was 
closed by the Banking Department before 
business could open December 27. It has 
nine branches, which were closed simul¬ 
taneously. It was said that the depositors 
would get their money, but that the stock¬ 
holders were not likely to fare so well. 
The Insurance Department set things going 
against Robin through an inquiry into the 
financing of the Aetna Indemnity Company 
of Hartford by Robin, who, the department 
says, treated the assets of companies he 
controlled as his own personal property. 
Superintendent of Insurance Hotchkiss 
says that an examination of the Aetna In¬ 
demnity Company of Hartford by the New 
York and Connecticut Insurance depart¬ 
ments was begun December 1G. Joseph G. 
Robin was in March last the controlling 
stockholder of the Aetna Indemnity Com¬ 
pany and apparently of the Northern Bank 
of New York, located at 215 West 125th 
street. He also largely controlled the 
Bankers’ Realty and Security Company, a 
realty corporation heavily interested in 
Bronx lands; the Fidelity Development 
Company (the owners of the old Morris 
Fark racetrack), and the South Shore 
Traction Company and the Babylon Rail¬ 
road Company, two Long Island traction 
corporations. The Robin corporations, 
other than the banks and the insurance 
company, all office together on the eighth 
floor of the Times Building and seem to 
have the same employees. Save as to the 
Northern Bank, in which he is chairman 
of the Finance Committee, Robin, appears 
not to be an officer of any of these institu¬ 
tions, his control or influence being exer¬ 
cised through one or more confidential 
representatives. Such control seems, how¬ 
ever, to be absolute. 
Stanislao Pattenza and Maria Rappa, who 
were convicted in the County Court, Brook¬ 
lyn, of complicity in the kidnapping of 
Joseph Longa and Michael Rizzo on No¬ 
vember 19, were sentenced December 27 by 
Judge Fawcett each to not less than 25 
years imprisonment nor more than 49 years 
and 10 months. Pattenza goes to Sing 
13 
Sing and Maria Rappa to -Auburn prisoji. 
lhese two were leaders in a gang of Italian 
kidnappers who were implicated in numer¬ 
ous crimes. 
FARM AND GARDEN.-—-The annual con¬ 
vention and fruit show of the State Hor¬ 
ticultural Association of Pennsylvania will 
be held in Harrisburg, Januarv' 24, 25, 2G, 
in connection with the State Board of Agri¬ 
culture, Pennsylvania Live Stock Breeders’ 
Association, and the State Dairy Union ; 
Chester J. Tyson, Secretary, Flora Dale, 
Pa. 
D. W. Raymond, secretary of the State 
Board of Live Stock Commissioners, swore 
out a warrant December 2G for the arrest 
of S. W. Langhorne, Jr., assistant secretary 
of the board, charging forgery of check's 
made out to shippers of cattle from Mon¬ 
tana to the eastern markets. Langhorne. 
was arrested. He has returned $3,000, 
it is said, and admits taking $15,000 in 
this manner. The State examiners’ inspec¬ 
tion shows double this amount improperly 
accounted for. His plan, it was alleged, 
was to extract from letters checks cover¬ 
ing stray shipments, which usually 
amounted to $150,000 a year. 
The Massachusetts Creamery Association 
met at the Draper Hotel in Northampton, 
December 21 in their sixteenth annual 
business meeting. The following officers 
were elected for the ensuing year' Presi¬ 
dent. W. A. Harlow, Cumnnngton; vice- 
president, W. A. Pease, Hatfield; secre¬ 
tary and treasurer, Prof. W. P. B. Lock- 
wood, Amherst (AJassachusetts Agricul¬ 
tural College). After the election of offi¬ 
cers the regular business of the association 
was transacted. Those present, other than 
members, were: G. E. Hodgkins, president, 
Northampton Board of Trade; Dr. J. R. 
Lindsey and P. H. Smith, of the Agricul¬ 
tural Experiment Station: Prof. James A. 
Food and C. F. Robinson, dairy field agent 
of the Agricultural College. H. A. Par¬ 
sons of North Amherst represented the 
Massachusetts Dairy Bureau. The Cream¬ 
ery Association, instead of having a sepa¬ 
rate convention this year, will co-operate 
with the Agricultural College in making 
March 15, the Wednesday of Farmers’ 
Week, a big dairy day. Every phase of 
the dairy work will be handled by an ex¬ 
pert. There will be a competitive mar¬ 
ket milk, dairy butter and creamery but¬ 
ter exhibit. No pains is being spared to 
make this meeting the best possible. It is 
desired to get together those interested in 
all lines of dairy work and organize a 
dairymen’s association in Massachusetts. 
The annual meeting of the Brown Swiss 
Cattle Breeders’ Association was held at 
Owego, N. Y., December 8 , 1910, but they 
lacked one or having a quorum, and ad¬ 
journed to Saturday, January 25, 1911, at 
Chicago. The Brown Swiss cattle are on 
a higher plane and more sought after than 
even before. 
“Everything is lovely and the goose 
hangs high.” Conditions here in Wal¬ 
worth County, Wis., are as follows: We 
had a very dry Summer, no rain to speak 
of from May - 28 to August 15, but for 
all that crops and prices are a strong 
average, except corn, which is a little bet¬ 
ter than half a crop. Prices are about 
as follows: Hogs on foot, $7 per 100; 
oats, 32 cents per bushel; barley, 70 cents ; 
hay, $15 to $18 per ton ; corn, shelled, $20 
per ton; potatoes, 40 to 50 cents per 
bushel. Cattle on foot from four cents to 
five cents per pound. Land anywhere from 
$80 to $200 per acre; the latter figure 
was paid for 520 acres about one and a 
half miles from Delavan by a Chicago 
acker. The Bordens pay an average of 
1.86 2-3 per 100 for milk the six months 
of Winter. New milch cows are worth 
anywhere from $40 to $75 per head for 
common and for purebreds from $100 to 
$300, but those are not in the poor man’s 
class. Horses are also high, from $100 
to $300 for work horses r in short, all stuff 
brings Chicago prices with a little out for 
freight and commission. m. F. 
Elkhorn, Wis. 
Dibble’s Farm Seed Catalog 
- FOR 1911 - 
is now ready lor distribution. We expect to begin mailing the 1911 
edition to our regular customers January 10th, and all requests for 
catalogs will be promptly attended to. 
Dibble’s Farm Seed Catalog is the leading Farm Seed Book of the 
j ear, copiously illustrated with photographic reproductions, tells the 
exact truth about the Farm Seed situation, and gives brief, concise 
descriptions of the best Northern-grown Seed Potatoes, Corn, Oats 
Barley, Alfalfa, Clover and Grass Seeds. 
Are Headquarters For Farm Seeds. 
Have over 1600 Acres in our own Seed Farms and ship direct 
from our tarms to yours at the lowest possible prices consistent with 
highest possible quality. 
With each catalog, if you ask for them, we will send two book¬ 
lets written by Mr. Dibble, entitled “Dibble On The Potato” 
and “Dibble On Alfalfa,” absolutely without charge. 
ADDRESS- 
EDWARD F. DIBBLE, Seedgrower 
Box _ Honeoye Falls, N. Y. 
PETER COOPER’S PURE BONE DUST 
THE OLD RELIABLE SINCE 1827 
STERLING BRANDS OF 
COMPLETE FERTILIZERS 
SPECIAL BLENDS FOR SPECIAL CROPS 
: : Send for Booklet : : 
PETER COOPER'S FERTILIZER, "V.KftSST 
VISIT OUR 
EXHIBIT OF 
EASTERN GROWN APPLES 
UNTIL FEB. 
1st, 1911 
We have on exhibit during January at the Reading; Terminal Market, Philadelphia, car loads 
of Eastern grown apples—Winesap, Ben Davis, York Imperial, Stayman’s Winesap, Albemarle 
Pippin and others to show what can be grown in the East. George H. McKay, mgr. of exhibit. 
VV c also have a car load of fruit and ornamental trees showing we can grow trees. 
WE HAVE AT OUR NURSERIES: 
GRAPE VINES—Concord and Moore's Early 20,000 PLUM TREES—1 and 2 years 
PEACH ™EES-100 varieties 500,000 CALIFORNIA PRIVET—all urades 
APPLE TREES—100 varieties, I and 2 years 10,000,000 STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
PEAR TREES-1, 2 and 3 years 100,000 NORWAY MAPLES 
CHERRY TREES—1 and 2 years '100,000 NORWAY SPRUCE 
100,000 
200,000 
200,000 
50,000 
50,000 
and a large acreage of other shade and ornamental trees all of 
which are in fine condition and ready for Immediate shipment. 
Can we talk business? If you intend planting stock in the 
spring, won't you kindly All out the attached coupon and 
mail same to ns today? You do not place yourself under any 
obligations whatever by doing this, but I should be glad to 
have the opportunity of giving you our prices. 
New catalogue on how to grow fruit in the East FREE. 
HARRISON'S NURSERIES, Berlin, Md. 
HARRISON’S 
Name _ 
Town _ 
State_ 
NURSERIES, Berlin, Md. 
County 
1 am in- 
I 
terested in the following for spring planting: | 
J 
WILL ADD VALUE 
TO YOUR LAND 
ALFALFA 
A LFALFA is a wonderful yielder of hay and is equally valuable as a fP 
\ soil builder, restoring nitrogen and increasing fertility. We special- 
ize in alfalfa, particularly in those varieties which have proved hardiest $ 
and most valuable for all climates. 
Read About Alfalfa in Our 27th Annual 
Our Sterling Alfalfa is the purest, 
cleanest and best seed obtainable 
price. 
PRICES, including bags 
F. O. B. Minneapolis: 
Sterlino Montana Alfalfa, perbu., S14.20 
Dry Land Alfalfa, “ “ 15.10 
Turkestan Alfalfa, " “ 13.30 
Grim Alfalfa, '* " 18.10 
Catalogue 
TT tells the value of Alfalfa for feeding 
stock, its yield and how it improves 
the soil. Each variety is described at 
length. This beautiful 144 Page Cata¬ 
logue is full of valuable information on 
the best varieties of all kinds of seeds 
for field and garden. Write for it today. 
NORTHRUP, KING & CO., Seedsmen, 54 Bridge Sq., Minneapolis, Minn 
Burpee, Philadelphia, 
WP ^ h H 11 Kp nlpOCPrl fn can/I 'T tm T m mum * gg ED CATAL 
Burpee=Quality 
is sufficient for the front 
of a post card. If you will 
write your own address 
we shall be pleased to send The Leading American Seed Catalog. Pl ^ 1 elerantl5TOk e of S 174 
pages, it tells the plain truth, and should be read by K 74 
all who would have the best garden possible and 
who are willing to pay a fair price for seeds of the 
