191^. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
061 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
Myself and wife are E. G. Lewis's dupes, 
hut I can blame myself, as my wife thought 
it a fraud. When he started his U. S. 
Hank we took 10 shares apiece. When his 
hank closed we assigned our stock and took 
his trustee note.. We kept it quite a while. 
When again we wanted our money, he called 
for the notes and we sent them and received 
his interim receipt, and some time ago he 
wanted more, but I “got onto him.” I am 
an old bricklayer, 60 years old, and a few 
years ago lost the sight of one eye; I 
can ill afford to lose the money. Do you 
think it cafi be collected? Surely God in 
His infinite mercy won't let him go unpun¬ 
ished if the people do. I glory in your 
fearlessness; hammer at the frauds. 
Pennsylvania. w - <*. n. 
1 have one and 1/100 share of preferred 
stock in the Lewis Publishing Co. with diyi- 
dends due, issued to me November 28, 1905. 
All the dividends I have received is $5.78. 
What can you do with it? Can you sell it or 
collect it?* I would like to get something 
out of it. The money belonged to my wife ; 
that is what makes me so sore over it. I 
put the money in the People’s U. S. Bank 
at first and then transferred it to the Lewis 
Publishing Co. I ought to have taken the 
85 cents on the dollar. F. B. 
Massachusetts. 
The above two letters will serve to 
show the way E. G. Lewis served the 
people who trusted to his promises six 
years ago, when the old bank was closed. 
These people might have had what 
cash the receiver could pay on their 
claims, but Lewis promised to pay them 
in full if they would turn over their 
bank claims to him. He pledged his 
“private fortune” and his “sacred honor” 
to pay them dollar for dollar. These 
correspondents and thousands of others 
relied on his pledges, and sent him their 
certificates. To some he gave the three- 
year trustee notes referred to by W. S. 
R. Others he induced to take the stock 
of the Publishing Company under ex¬ 
travagant promises and misrepresenta¬ 
tions. He declared an 18 per cent divi¬ 
dend on the stock later, and actually 
paid 2per cent of it, promising to pay 
the balance in installments. He sold 
more of the stock for cash on the 
strength of this dividend. The dividend 
was not earned, and the balance of it 
was not paid, and never will be. The 
people who accepted his pledges to pay 
dollar for dollar, are not able to get a 
cent of either interest or principle. We 
could fill this paper week after week 
with letters like the above, many of 
them showing greater distress than 
these. 
Lewis is now trying to work the 
same trick on these and other creditors. 
He has published a depositor’s agree¬ 
ment and gone through the form of ap¬ 
pointing John W. Williams controller. 
This title “controller” sounds big, but 
clerk or office boy would serve as well. 
He wants you now to send him all of 
your papers and evidence of indebted¬ 
ness of every kind, just as these people 
sent their bank stock six years ago. But 
with this difference: He made them 
definite promises to pay them in full. 
He makes no such promise now. 
Worthless as his promises have proved 
to be, he does not now promise that he 
will pay these claims. You are to sur¬ 
render everything, and get nothing for 
at least five years, and no assurance of 
anything then. The alleged agreement 
gives him full authority to do as he 
pleases, to incur such expenses as he 
pleases, to collect such salaries as he 
pleases, and to pay his attorneys as 
much as he pleases. Certainly if you 
send your securities to him under this 
agreement you will have no cause to 
complain of his failure to return you 
anything. He makes it brutally plain 
that you need not expect it. You have 
no redress, and no hold on him for a 
single penny or promise. Some credi¬ 
tors who first sent their claims to him 
now see that they acted too hastily, and 
they are applying to their attorneys to 
get them back, alleging misrepresenta¬ 
tion and fraud in inducing them to send 
them. 
All creditors should demand the re¬ 
turn of their papers. The Lewis con¬ 
cerns are sure to be closed out through 
court proceedings now that action has 
been begun for the protection of their 
interests, and left as they are now by 
those who deposited their claims with 
him, he will be in position to collect 
the money on them, if any is coming on 
the claims, just as he did with the 
$1,300,000 claims he took out of the 
old bank on similar assignments. 
If you have any doubt about our ad¬ 
vice, just take your papers, including 
his “Depositor’s Agreement,’f to any 
reliable attorney, tell him just what has 
happened in the past, and get his ad¬ 
vice. See if he does not tell you that 
the whole thing has been a swindle 
from the first. We are getting claims 
every day from people whjo consult 
their attorneys and then send on the 
claims direct on the advice or through 
the attorneys. Claud D. Hall, 705 
Olive St., St. Louis, Mo., the attorney 
in charge of the bankruptcy and fore¬ 
closure suits, is receiving similar claims 
daily. 
Mr. Lewis and his agent, Mr. John 
W. Williams, are making desperate ef¬ 
forts to get possession of the claims 
on which the suits are brought. They 
claim that they will be put to the 
hardship of paying them unless the suits 
are withdrawn. The people holding 
the claims can stand such a calamity— 
to Mr. Lewis. It is about time that he 
did pay something. But we can tell 
him now that nothing short of payment 
will put these claims into his hands. 
He can have them any time he pays 
over the cash promised six or seven 
years ago, with interest to date. Even 
as I write news comes that Mr. Lewis 
and his wife are having a gala time in 
the hotels and entertainment halls of 
California. He has money enough for 
everything except the payment of his 
debts. Many of his poor victims are 
unable to secure even the necessities of 
life. Some of them are actually de¬ 
pendent on charity and many of them 
are suffering for the use of the money, 
which belongs to them and which Mr. 
Lewis is spending in high-class hotels. 
Later we received this by wire: 
By public announcement Lewis was to 
meet creditors at Los Angeles Chapter 
house on Monday. M-any attended. Lewis 
failed to appear, but sent word that ho was 
suffering from gall stones. Addressed suf¬ 
fragette meeting. Times published editor¬ 
ial criticism. 
We always did feel that Lewis had a 
surplus of gall. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Fire in Kansas City stock 
yards May 18 destroyed sheep pens, covering 
a block, burned 1,000 sheep and destroyed 
two mule barns. A new fire station was 
partly destroyed. Many sheep were guided 
into lanes and driven to safety. One goat 
was seen leading seventy-five sheep to safety 
through an open gate. Thirty goats, which 
were used to load sheep to the packing 
houses, perished. Several thousand mules 
were saved. The damage is $50,000. 
Assessor Henry Dalton of Oakland, Cal., 
one of the best known politicians in the 
State, was arrested May 18 charged with 
taking a bribe from the Spring Valley Water 
Co. for reducing that corporation's assess¬ 
ment. Dalton's income was recently reduced 
by the Legislature from $25,000 in fees 
to $7,500 in salary. Recently, it is charged, 
he sent for a representative of the Spring 
Valley Company and said that he proposed 
to increase the corporation's assessment in 
Alameda county about $2,500,000. A few 
days later, it is charged, he again sent for 
the representative and made a proposition 
to reduce this assessment if the company 
would give him half of what was saved. 
He received an installment of $5,000, and 
was arrested while the money was still in 
his possession. 
Fire started in .Tolinsburg, Warren coun¬ 
ty, N. Y., May 18, was blown across the 
Sacandaga River, and destroyed more than 
20,000 acres of heavy standing timber. Help 
was summoned by telephone, and many 
State road builders responded, fighting the 
spreading fire with water from the river. 
The flames were threatening the destruction 
of the hamlet of Bakers Mills when a heavy 
raip set in and put the fire out. 
Fire which started in the rear of the 
Lucas building at Shetucket and Little 
Water Streets, Norwich, Conn., May 19, de¬ 
stroyed half of that building, the livery 
stables of O. H. Reynolds, and the stables 
connected with the American House, doing 
damage estimated at $50,000. 
Thomas Riggs, chief of tb/e Alaskan 
Boundary Survey, and fifty men, who will 
mark the Alaska boundary between the 
Porcupine River and the Arctic Ocean, sailed 
May 23 for Skagway. Their undertaking 
involves great hardship and many dangers. 
The surveyors will descend the Yukon on 
the first steamer and make their way on 
horseback up the Porcupine. The boundary 
follows the 41st meridian. The line will 
be established by triangulation, then a strip 
of timber ten feet wide on each side of the 
line is to be cleared. This done, monuments 
of aluminum bronze will be placed at dis¬ 
tances of four miles. Each monument is set 
in <a ton of concrete. 
Interstate commerce unreasonably re¬ 
strained and competition unreasonably pre¬ 
vented are the two most prominent bases 
of the suit which the Government filed May 
19 against a number of associations and 
individuals engaged in the traffic in lumber. 
Ten trade organizations and upward of 150 
individuals are named in this action. It is 
charged that by a system of blacklisting 
private persons and corporations have been 
kept from having direct relations with the 
wholesalers, and that by unlawful agree¬ 
ment all competition for trade has been 
thrown into the hands of the defendants to 
the exclusion of contractors, builders, manu¬ 
facturers of finished lumber and the con¬ 
sumer. The defendants are the Eastern 
States Retail Lumber Dealers’ Association, 
a corporation of this State, and its officers, 
Richard S. White, president; William C. 
McBride, vice-president and director; Louis 
A. Mansfield, secretary and treasurer, and 
its directors and members. The New York 
Lumber Trade Association, also of this 
State; the Building Material Men’s Asso¬ 
ciation of Westchester County, the Lumber 
Dealers’ Association of Connecticut, the 
Massachusetts Retail Lumber Dealers’ As¬ 
sociation, the Lumber Dealers’ Association 
of Rhode Island and the; Retail Lumber¬ 
men's Association of Baltimore. 
The heroism of Joseph Howard, a convict 
from Howard county, Iowa, who was doing 
time at Anamosa for forgery, has secured 
for him a pardon from Gov. Carroll. When 
the boiler in the Anamosa Reformatory got 
beyond control and an explosion was threat¬ 
ened, Howard rushed through clouds of 
escaping steam to the machinery and shut 
it off. 
The steamer Homer Ramsdell of the Cen¬ 
tral Hudson Steamboat Company Line, ply¬ 
ing between Newburgh and New York, was 
burned to the water's edge May 21, entailing 
a loss of at least $250,000. Four men were 
on the boat at the time the fire started, 
but three escaped, the fourth being drowned. 
The cause of the fire is not known. 
With only two votes in opposition the 
New York Senate May 23 passed Assembly- 
man Brennan’s bill regulating the product 
of cold storage warehouses. Amendments 
offered by Senator Bill'd which would have 
changed the time limit for storage of certain 
commodities, were voted down on the ground 
that any changes now would endanger the 
bill, which as it stood was the carefully 
worded product of the Committee on Public 
Health. The bill places the State Health 
Commissioner in charge of cold storage ware¬ 
houses, gives him power to inspect them at 
least once in each quarter, and to seize and 
destroy foodstuffs in storage deemed unfit 
for use. It provides that most foodstuffs 
may be kept in cold storage only six months, 
and in no case may any be kept for more 
than a year. 
Information as to what steps had been 
taken for the criminal prosecution of the 
officers of the Standard Oil Company under 
the recent decision of the Supreme Court 
was asked from the Attorney General May 
23 by the Senate at Washington, which 
adopted without discussion a resolution of 
inquiry offered by Senator Pomerene. The 
resolution names specifically John D. Rocke¬ 
feller, William Rockefeller, Henry H. 
Rogers, Henry M. Flagler, John D. Archbold, 
Oliver II. Payne and Charles M. Pratt. It 
says that the Supreme Court held the corpo¬ 
ration illegal, and in effect its officers guilty 
of forming a combination in restraint of 
trade. Therefore, the resolution continues, 
the seven men named are amenable to crim¬ 
inal prosecution, and “the Attorney General 
of the United States be and is hereby di¬ 
rected to inform the Senate of the United 
States what, if any, prosecutions have been 
begun or are now pending against the said 
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, or the 
said constituent companies or individual de¬ 
fendants above named, or any of them, for 
violations of said sections 1 or 2 of said 
Sherman anti-trust law.” Henry H. Rogers, 
named in the resolution as one of the direc¬ 
tors, is dead. 
The orchard grass seed crop in Clark 
county, Ind., promises to be good this year 
and is expected to bring as high as $2 a 
bushel. The output of the members of the 
Orchard Grass Seed Association alone last 
year was valued at $50,000. This year it 
will be larger. 
DIARY OF FARM WORK. 
What Farmers Have Done. 
May 15.-—Mr. Hand, farmer at the'Lewis 
Farm, awoke at 4 a. m. Mr. Hand pro- 
leeded to feed and milk the eows. His man 
feeds horses and cares for them, and cleans 
up stables, then breakfast, after which he 
proceeds to creamery to deliver the milk of 
the day. Then with one hired man devoted 
the day to repairs of fences. 
May 16.—Early part of the day as yes¬ 
terday ; two of our men devoted the day to 
finishing repairs to fences practically for 
the season. Mr. Hand worked with the cul¬ 
tivator and weeder in the potatoes, which 
now can be seen in the row; this cultiva¬ 
tion during the dry .weather helps to de¬ 
stroy the weeds and helps to retain the 
moisture. Our corn is about all up to be 
seen in the row; has been worked in until 
the ground is in fine order. Potato bugs 
are bountiful owing to the few days of 
warm weather, and it bids fair for them to 
be troublesome. D. c. L. 
Middlesex Co., N. J. 
Mr. King has a big farm, keeps lots of 
men and does things on a big scale. I 
only have 28 acres all told, and only about 
one-half of that plowed land, and work out 
a good deal, besides doing my own work, 
but if what I do will be of any help 1 am 
willing to send in a report almost any time. 
May 15 I commenced at six o’clock to 
plant corn; my boy helped me to drop it 
and I did all the covering. ' We finished at 
three in the afternoon, and call it a day’s 
work; there was one acre. I took a potato 
planter, took off the disks and then fur¬ 
rowed it out, running in at the same time 
835 pounds fertilizer, 4-8-10 goods. The 
ground was prepared and fertilizer run in 
before we planted the corn. w. L. H. 
Maine. 
Two Days on an Illinois Farm. 
May 17.—The chief business on this farm 
is growing small fruits, the strawberry being 
our specialty, but we do some general farm¬ 
ing also,* and it happens that the work on 
these two days was in connection with the 
farm duties rather more than those related 
to the fruit. The weather throughout April 
was very unfavorable for working the soil, 
frequent rains putting farmers behind ; hence 
much work has been crowded into the past 
three or four weeks that should have been 
distributed over at least six weeks. On the 
morning of May 17 we hustled out of bed 
as we found the daylight appearing, and 
the kitchen clock told us it was 3.40 a. m. 
We are not accustomed to rising quite this 
early throughout the working season, but 
the strawberry harvest will commence about 
June 1, and with 75 to 100 pickers on hand 
promptly every morning at five o’clock, the 
boss must be up at 3.30 to 4 o’clock, as 
there is much to do in preparation for the 
day’s work. We like to become thoroughly 
broken in before that time comes. The 
kitchen fire is started, and then we head for 
the barn. The moon hangs low in the 
southern sky, showing half her face. In 
the east there is evidence of a greater lumi¬ 
nary appearing, though it is yet too dark 
for the wondering chickens to do more than 
stretch out their necks and peer about for 
the first evidence of an early breakfast. 
The horses greet us with a good-natured 
whinny, and we give them their breakfast 
of corn, oats and hay. Then we give them 
a good grooming, and throw on the harness. 
Going to the well, we fill a watering can 
and give a bed of plants a good drenching, 
as we had forgotten to do this the evening 
before, and the weather is so hot and dry 
that it is not safe to delay longer. By this 
time breakfast is ready, and how good it 
tastes after the exercise in the fresh morn¬ 
ing air! Those who sleep till seven or eight 
o’clock don’t know how much that is really 
enjoyable they are missing. We are in the 
field at 5.30. harrowing a piece of ground 
that had been broken the evening before. 
It wouldn't do to wait till wind and sun had 
made the clods as hard as cobblestones. 
Now they fall to pieces as they touch the 
harrow teeth, and we have a smooth, mellow 
seed-bed. One man had been instruct'd the 
evening before to hitch to the manure 
spreader. Here he comes with a big load 
of “high-grade” fertilizer from the village. 
Our land runs up to the corporate limits, 
and we can get all the manure for the 
hauling that we want. While just a little 
behind with the work, we decided to put in. 
a day and a half spreading manure on a thin 
spot on a field we intend for corn. An¬ 
other man finished the job of cutting bloom 
from the newly-set strawberry bed. This is 
done with a spud, and can be accomplished 
quite rapidly. Finished harrowing by 9.30, 
and then hitched to a two-horse cultivator 
and put in the remainder of the day culti¬ 
vating the strawberries. Finished a little 
before 6 p. m., and the horses were turned 
out in the lot and allowed to roll and shake 
themselves a short time before being fed. 
I forgot to mention that they were given a 
drink at 9.30 a. m. and 3.30 p. m. How 
they enjoy these two occasions, and how 
they turn off the work for the next two 
hours ! Supper is over, the evening paper 
is taken up, and between the accounts of 
the doings of the Illinois Legislature, the 
debates in Congress, and the conflicting ru¬ 
mors of peace and renewed hostilities in 
Mexico, we listen to the wife's details of her 
day's work. She has set the last hen for 
this season—14 have hatched and the in¬ 
cubator is to turn out its brood next week. 
The breeding pen of White Orpingtons has 
been given free range, and the early chicks 
are well feathered. The Ladies’ Aid are 
making up another car of old newspapers 
and magazines. The Epwortli girls were 
out soliciting “eatables” for their exchange. 
The housecleaning is done, and life once 
more looks pleasant. 
f 
May 18.—The clock strikes the half hour 
between 3 and 4 as we build the fire in the 
range. Out to the barn, and we say "good 
morning” as the expectant faces of our 
equine friends are turned to us. They are 
glad to see us, and we are glad to see them. 
We pass many pleasant hours together dur¬ 
ing the day, and we are friends. We take 
pleasure in first offering each a bucket of 
water, and then giving them a good break¬ 
fast—not too much, but just enough, prin¬ 
cipally grain. After breakfast we hitch 
to the disk, and cut a field of stalks, which 
we intend again to put in corn. It is on a 
part of this field that we are spreading ma¬ 
nure. We decide to keep the spreader going 
all day. In the morning two teams will 
start to plowing, and we will make quick 
work of getting in the remainder of our 
corn crop. The man who finished cutting 
the strawberry bloom yesterday, to-day cut 
dock out of the bearing beds. We got this 
disreputable weed from the straw that we 
use in mulching. With the spuds we cut 
them about an inch below the surface of the 
ground, and toss them on the ground be¬ 
tween the rows. Our bods this year are 
remarkably clean. Usually we have some 
trouble with wheat coming up from seed left 
in the straw, but this season there is none; 
and when the dock is cut out, the 18 acres 
will be the smoothest and cleanest beds we 
have ever had. The promise this year is for 
a heavy crop.. The raspberries and black¬ 
berries need cultivating, and this will be 
done as soon as the corn is all in. Both 
give evidence of bountiful yields, and if we 
have rain within the next week the pros¬ 
pects for a great crop of small fruit will 
be very bright indeed. From 3.30 to 8.30 
is not paying much attention to the eight- 
hour system. But we once put in even 
longer hours in a railroad office, and didn't 
enjoy life half so much when we put in 
less. Oh, yes, there are long hours and 
much hard work on the farm, but the free¬ 
dom, the fresh air, the keen appetite at meal 
time, with the abundance of good things to 
satisfy it, the sound sleep—these are ample 
compensations. And what pleasure there is 
in striving after better results; seeking 
more knowledge with reference to our busi¬ 
ness, aiming higher and higher, working 
in harmony with the forces of nature to 
attain greater success ! What a great and 
inspiring field for study the farmer has 
spread before him! All the elements are 
at his hand to produce magnificent crops 
if he will but make intelligent use of them 
with enough drawbacks and setbacks to keep 
him on his mettle, and to call forth the 
best that is in him. j. c. nicholls. 
Macon Co., Ill. 
THE MILLET CROP. 
The picture at Fig. 227, page 643, shows 
a field of millet grown by C. I. Hunt, Liv¬ 
ingston Co., N. Y. Many farmers find millet 
a very valuable crop, especially for use on 
a dairy farm. It makes excellent green 
fodder, grows rapidly and will come in be¬ 
tween two crops so as to keep the land 
occupied. We prefer the Japanese Barnyard 
millet for most purposes. For lighter soils 
the Hungarian grass or German millet gives 
good satisfaction. The Japanese millet 
seems to require a heavier soil or heavier 
feeding. The soil for millet should be well 
prepared and thoroughly fined, as the seed 
is small and must be put in properly, if a 
crop is to be expected. For green fodder 
for all kinds of stock this millet is very 
satisfactory, and is of great help to a 
dairyman in getting through a dry season. 
We would much rather use it green than to 
cure it as hay. It makes a coarse, heavy 
hay fairly good for cattle feeding, but not 
suited to horses. In fact we would not 
advise the use of millet hay in horse feed¬ 
ing particularly after the seed forms. Ex¬ 
periments have been made in the West with 
millet hay when fed to horses and in prac¬ 
tically every case the result was disastrous, 
so that the general advice is given to feed 
millet hay to the cattle and keep it away 
from the horses. We have also found Jap¬ 
anese millet when seeded late in the season, 
say in early August, a very good material 
for mulching strawberries. A piece of early 
potato ground can be cleared in time for 
millet seeding, and with a reasonable amount 
of moisture there will be large growth be¬ 
fore frost. If this is cut before the heads 
form and fairly well cured it will make a 
good Winter covering for the berries, and in 
cases where such mulch is expensive the 
millet crop will pay. This millet is also 
useful in cases where a large amount of 
vegetable matter is to be plowed under. A 
crop of oats and peas can be put under in 
early July, then a crop of millet can be 
grown to be plowed under in kite August, 
and this followed by rye and vetch. 
We are preparing to plant potatoes now, 
May 17; a very few have planted. Some 
corn is in and more will be planted soon. 
Oats are up fine and wheat doing better 
since the freeze. No peach blossoms near 
us this year. Pears are full of bloom and 
apples fairly good. J. s. p. 
Orleans County, N. Y. 
