1911, 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
671 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
Things are at last happening in St. 
Louis. We have already reported a 
bankruptcy suit filed in the United States 
courts against the Lewis Publishing Co., 
and a foreclosure suit against the Uni¬ 
versity Heights Realty and Develop¬ 
ment Co. to enforce payment of mort¬ 
gage notes past due. On Thursday the 
motion for receiver was argued before 
Judge Dwyer. The newspaper reports 
say no disposition to spare Lewis was 
shown by either the contending attor¬ 
neys or the judge. All admitted that 
the creditors sadly need protection. 
John W. Williams, the alleged con¬ 
troller, seems to be making gooa use of 
his time and of the authority given him 
by Lewis. It seems now that he has 
sold and removed all the presses and 
machinery in both the Daily and the 
Magazine buildings. We have not heard 
that the creditors who deposited their 
claims with him got any of the pro¬ 
ceeds. But we do not believe that the 
courts will allow such sale of the assets 
of a bankrupt company to stand, and it 
will be the duty of Attorney Hall to 
find and restore the property to credi¬ 
tors. Otherwise it would be lost to 
them; and when Lewis was selling these 
securities to the people he represented 
that this property was worth hundreds 
of thousands of dollars. Perhaps you 
can now understand why Lewis wanted 
you to send your securities to himself or 
Mr. Williams. Read his depositor’s 
agreement as published in his own paper, 
and see what redress you would have if 
he sold everything in the possession of 
different companies, and paid out the 
proceeds to himself and others as sal¬ 
aries and expense. Mr. Williams is send¬ 
ing out a printed letter in which he says 
if you send him your claims, a friendly 
receiver may be appointed. Did you 
stop to consider what that means? It 
means a receiver friendly to him. But 
in such a suit you, as a creditor, are in 
a suit against him and his companions, 
so that a receiver friendly to him is a 
receiver against you. His argument, if 
rightly understood, is an argument for 
you to keep your securities away from 
him, and to use your influence to have a 
receiver appointed who would know no 
friends, but who would administer the 
affairs solely for the benefit of yourself 
and other creditors like you. This last 
appeal by Mr. Williams beats all the 
cunning but silly arguments that we 
have yet seen put forth in the whole 
Lewis fake game. In effect it says if a 
man owes you, and you have to sue him 
to get your money, you must ask the 
court to let the debtor decide whether 
pr not you are to get your money. Isn’t 
it an insult to anyone’s intelligence that 
such a proposition should be proposed to 
him? Anyway, it has not worked. The 
claims now filed against the Lewis con¬ 
cerns exceed $100,000. And neither 
Lewis nor Williams can get a single one 
of them in any way except by putting 
up the cash for them. Besides, new 
claims are coming in every day from 
subscribers and their friends. 
It is yet difficult to say what claims 
have prospect of payment in full or in 
part; but all claims of every kind ought 
to be put in now, and put in shape for 
proof of claim that the present interests 
of the holders may be protected. Claims 
sent to us or to Claud D. Hall, 705 
Olive street, St. Louis, Mo., will be 
properly filed and protected. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The main case of the gov¬ 
ernment against the Standard Oil Company 
on an indictment charging the acceptance 
or rebates will not be placed on trial before 
Fall, if then. After the close of the govern¬ 
ment’s argument on the question in issue 
under the “special plea in bar,” Judge 
Hazel adjourned the present term of United 
states Court and announced that he would 
take the question under advisement and 
hand down a decision in the course of the 
Summer. Whatever that decision may be, 
an appeal to the United States Supreme 
Court either by the government or the de¬ 
fendant oil company is probable, so that 
the trial of the main issue may be post¬ 
poned indefinitely. The question at issue 
under the “special plea in bar” is whether 
a man can twice be placed in jeopardy for 
the same offence, and is based upon the fifth 
amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States. It is a point in procedure 
that, so far as known, has never before 
been raised in the United States courts un¬ 
der the Interstate Commerce law. If the 
special plea is upheld, the plaintiff is barred 
from further prosecution of the action. 
Harry Davidoff, a young real estate spec¬ 
ulator, who used a “23” puzzle scheme in 
connection with the sale of nineteen hun¬ 
dred lots at Quogue, L. I., was convicted 
of using the mails to defraud investors in 
the Criminal Branch of the United States 
J.Jreu Court at New York and was fined 
?.j 00 May 26 by Judge Holt. Davidoff 
promised lots free to solvers of the “23” 
puzzle, and then charged the winners $9.30 
attorney’s fees for recording the lots. He 
Will pay the fine. 
President Taft denied May 24 the appli¬ 
cations for pardon of Charles W. Morse, 
cue former New York banker who is serving 
a fifteen year sentence in the Federal peni- 
tentiary at Atlanta, Ga., and John R. 
Walsh, the Chicago financier who is serving 
a five year sentence at Leavenworth, Kan. 
In deciding against Morse and Walsh the 
President has resisted the most powerful in¬ 
fluences that have been brought to bear 
upon him on any subject since he entered 
the White House. In his memorandum 
announcing his rejection of the applications 
he alludes to the influential and prominent 
persons who have petitioned in behalf of 
the prisoners and adds that they apparently 
fail to appreciate the high importance to 
society that such criminal breaches of trust 
as Morse and Walsh are guilty of should 
be severely punished. In the case of Morse 
the prisoners wife presented a petition bear¬ 
ing the names of about 10,000 persons, in¬ 
cluding many in political life. In Walsh’s 
case the requests for clemency also came 
from many well known in politics, society 
and business. The President, in his opinion, 
lays down certain principles concerning the 
violation of the national banking laws in 
considering the Walsh case and then applies 
these principles to the Morse appeal. The 
President holds that both men were guilty 
in proportion to the trust and confidence 
extended in them. He points out the neces¬ 
sity of the Government's emphasizing the 
difference between “honest business and dis¬ 
honest breaches of trust,” particularly be¬ 
cause the present “mad rush for wealth” 
has dimmed the lines between “profit from 
legitimate business and improper gain from 
undue use of trust control over other peo¬ 
ple's property and money.” 
Sixteen commission merchants and job¬ 
bers in live poultry were put on trial May 
24 before Judge Itosalsky in New York Gen¬ 
eral Sessions for conspiring to obtain con¬ 
trol of wholesale trade in live poultry to 
the detriment of trade and commerce. There 
were eighty-six indicted for the same of¬ 
fense. Those whose cases were called at 
this time are members of the New York 
Commission Merchants Live Poultry Protec¬ 
tive Association and of the Jobbers Asso¬ 
ciation. It is alleged that with a system 
of fines and pooling of profits they controlled 
90 per cent of the live poultry business. 
The sixteen defendants are Samuel Wer¬ 
ner, Solomon Frankel, E. Maury Posey, Jo¬ 
seph Cohen, Abraham Kassel, Pauline Ja¬ 
cobs, Louis J. Schwab, Ewing J. Dwyer, 
Charles Westerberg, William W. Smith, 
Charles L. Jewell, James N. Norris, William 
II. Norris, Charles Thatcher, Clemon 
Bishop and David A. Jewell. 
Fire at Coney Island in the morning of 
May 27 burned over 10 acres and caused a 
loss of $3,225,000. The fire started in 
Dreamland, this place alone suffering a loss 
of $2,225,000. In the ruins were the 
charred bodies of about 80 animals, lions, 
bears, monkeys, deer, leopards and various 
hybrids, which had been a part of Col. Fer- 
rari’s animal show; and out near the 
beach lay the body of a leopard which 
Policeman Jim Dooley had chased through 
the smoke and finally had killed with his 
revolver, and on Surf avenue lay Black 
Prince, a lion, which also had got out of 
the animal show and had been laid low 
by bullets from the revolvers of many po¬ 
licemen. Little Ilip, the elephant, which in 
its baby days used to proffer programs with 
its trunk in the lobby of the Hippodrome, 
cauld not be induced to move from the old 
Bostock arena and was burned to death. 
Col. Ferrari, Jack Bonavita and Dr. F. W. 
Hastings, veterinarian to the animal show, 
got five lionesses, six ponies, two llamas, 
a monkey, a Great Dane and four leopards 
out of the building. Then as there was 
no time to drive the eighty or more ani¬ 
mals still in cages into transfer boxes 
Capt. Bonavita ran from cage to cage shoot¬ 
ing the trained wild animals through the 
head until he could stand the heat and 
smoke no longer. 
Charges of attempts to bribe the United 
States District Attorney and one of the 
jurors were made May 29 in the United 
States Circuit Court at New York after 
Christopher Columbus Wilson, president of 
the United Wireless Telegraph Company, 
and four of his associates had been con¬ 
victed of conspiracy and of using the mails 
to defraud in selling wireless stock. District 
Attorney Wise told the court of the at¬ 
tempts at bribery, one of which he attrib¬ 
uted afterward to a well known lawyer, and 
lail sentences on all five defendants fol¬ 
lowed. They were sent to the Tombs with¬ 
out bail and a ten days stay of execution 
of sentence was granted them to prepare 
an appeal. The costs of the prosecution, 
estimated at $50,000, were entered against 
them separately and collectively. The men 
found guilty by the jury and sentenced by 
Judge Martin are : President Wilson, three 
years in Atlanta; Treasurer William A. 
Diboll, one year in the New York peniten¬ 
tiary ; Francis X. Butler, legal adviser, two 
years in Atlanta; William W. Tompkins, 
president of the New York stock selling 
agency for the wireless company, one year 
on Blackwell’s Island; George W. Parker, 
Western fiscal agent, two years in Atlanta. 
Samuel S. Bogart, first vice-president of 
the United Wireless Telegraph Company, 
who pleaded guilty a week after the trial of 
President Wilson and the other defendants 
got under way, escaped with a fine. Judge 
Martin, before whom the wireless cases 
have been on trial for three weeks, sen¬ 
tenced him to pay a fine of $2,500. Bogart 
is the only one of the six defendants to 
escape a jail sentence. 
Fire at the Chutes, an amusement park 
near San Francisco, Cal., May 29, caused 
four deaths and a loss of $250,000. 
The Supreme Court of the United States 
decided the action of the government 
against the American Tobacco Company 
and allied corporations, brought to dissolve 
the alleged "Tobacco Trust,” in favor of 
the government on the main points at 
issue in the case. The American Tobacco 
Company is held to be a combination in re¬ 
straint of trade and a monopoly in viola¬ 
tion of law. The United Cigar Stores 
Company, the • British-American Tobacco 
Company and the Imperial Tobacco Com¬ 
pany, the so-called British trust, the bills 
against which were dismissed by the Circuit 
Court, were found violative of the law. 
The decision affects 65 American corpora¬ 
tions, two English corporations and 29 in¬ 
dividual defendants. The case is sent back 
to the Circuit Court here to give an op¬ 
portunity to the company to disintegrate 
and recreate a condition of transacting 
business not repugnant to the law. If at 
the end of six or eight months the corpora¬ 
tions fail to bring themselves in harmony 
with the law, a receivership and dissolution 
will follow. The company is held to have 
been guilty of intimidation and to have 
shown a clear purpose to stifle competition. 
Chief Justice White announced the decision, 
which was unanimously against the com¬ 
pany, although Justice Harlan dissented on 
two points. As in the Standard Oil case. 
Justice Harlan resents the application of 
the “rule of reason” to the Sherman anti¬ 
trust law. The court having held the de¬ 
fendant corporations guilty of conscious 
wrongdoing, Justice Harlan “is not at all 
anxious” to perpetuate any new combination 
growing out of them. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The next annual 
meeting of the American Association of Far¬ 
mers’ Institute Workers will be held at 
Columbus, Ohio, November 13 to 15, 1911. 
At the same place and beginning November 
15 will be held the annual meeting of the 
Association of American Agricultural Col¬ 
leges and Experiment Stations. 
At a sale of Jersey cattle May 30 at 
T. S. Cooper’s Linden Grove farm, Coopers- 
burg. Pa., J. B. Haggin of Lexington bought 
the king of the herd, Noble of Oaklands, 
for $15,000, the record price for a Jersey 
bull. An hour later Mr. Haggin paid an¬ 
other record price, buying Lady Viola, the 
queen of the herd, for $7,000. This is said 
to be the highest price ever paid for a 
Jersey cow. Lady Viola is the mother of 
Noble of Oaklands, and the $22,000 paid for 
the pair exceeds by $6,000 any price here¬ 
tofore paid for a pair of Jersey cattle. Mr. 
Haggin bought 20 head of cattle for $36,- 
660. The second highest bidder at the 
sale was T. De Witt Cuyler of Taoli, Pa., 
who bought a bull for $6,700 and seven 
cows at $1,750 each. A total of 164 head 
were sold, including 18 bulls. 85 cows. 45 
heifers, nine bull calves and seven heifer 
calves for $125,515. A fine herd was pur¬ 
chased by P. A. B. Widener. Other heavy 
buyers were C. J. Hudson, of East Norwich, 
N. Y., and A. B. Clark, of Bryn Mawr. 
DIARY OF FARM WORK. 
After an Oregon Rain, 
May 19, last night, when the downpour 
of the last three or four days slacked up, 
it in some way made a person feel as if 
a change was at hand. I even turned the 
cows out in the pasture for the night, al¬ 
though Father objected, but the next 
morning the sun emphatically advised the 
few remaining clouds to move on. From 
all appearance our first growing, warm. 
Spring weather will soon be here. Our sil¬ 
age corn ground was partly plowed before 
the rain, but now it will not do to touch 
before the first of the week. One end of 
the corn ground is low and wet, but with 
the fine Spring that we have had we hoped 
to get through another season without 
ditching it, but this rain impressed on us 
our “penny-wise, pound-foolish” policy, so 
we spent the day at odd jobs, ordering tile, 
and getting ready to put the men to ditch¬ 
ing. We shall go ahead plowing for corn 
the first of the week, but will leave the 
low part for potatoes and other late garden 
fruits after the tile is in and the water off. 
May 20, weather fine. The early garden 
and berry batch need cultivation badly, but 
they were too wet to touch, so witli some 
misgivings we said “wait until Monday.” 
Many of the neighbors are finishing putting 
in grain, but admit that it is too wet. Our 
grain is all up and was in fine shape to 
secure the full benefit of that rain. That 
rain made lots of hay, too. We wanted to 
get at the corn ground and garden, but 
'Father said “too wet,” so we did rainy day 
and odd jobs in the sunshine. Put caps 
on the bee-hives; rather late, but up to 
now it has been too cool for the bees to 
work. Still feeding kale which is in full 
bloom, and the cows eat it up well. Pas¬ 
ture fine. CHAS. H. HAYS. 
Washington Co., Oregon. 
A Rush in Northern Vermont. 
Monday, May 22, found things rather 
complicated at Brigham Farm. Last Fall 
we seeded about 20 acres of land to rye, 
to act as a cover crop and to furnish green 
material to plow under this Spring. The 
rye grew very little in the cold weather 
of the early Spring, but during the hot 
wave of the past 10 days it had grown 
amazingly. Here we were with about 15 
acres of the rye yet to turn under, with 
some of the land too hard and dry to 
plow, and the thermometer Sunday regis¬ 
tered 90 in the shade, which showed what 
we might expect in the way of weather for 
Monday. There were also several bushels 
of potatoes spread out on the barn floor 
to sprout, which should be put in as soon 
as possible. The men were equal to the 
emergency, and at 4.30 a. m. two teams 
were plowing rye, while the rest of us 
milked and separated the cream. From 7 
until 8 the teams were laid off for bx - eak- 
fast, then put on the plow again and 
worked more slowly because of the heat 
until 11, when the land which had been 
plowed was harrowed to prevent farther 
drying out. One of the day men uncov¬ 
ered .and finished crating the seed potatoes 
which had been piled in the field 
last Fall and covered with alternate 
layers of straw and dirt. These pota¬ 
toes came out in tine shape, being hard 
and firm, with sprouts just beginning 
to show. Another man cut potatoes and 
changed the batches which were soaking 
in the formaldehyde solution. A single 
team went to town with the cream. In 
the afternoon plow teams were laid off 
until 4.30. The drivers worked on the 
corn planter. The witch grass was begin¬ 
ning to show in a field of potatoes which 
had been planted a week. I put in two 
disks in place of front teeth on riding cul¬ 
tivator and ran close to rows, cutting off 
much of the witch grass and burying the 
rest; millions of little weeds were also 
thrown up to the sun. Thermometer 90 
in shade, so could not work half the time 
for fear of heating the horses. Plow teams 
finished three acres of rye while rest 
milked. 
Tuesday, May 23.—Ed fed horses at 3.30. 
At 4 four big horses were on Cutaway 
harrow and had three acres of potato 
ground fitted at 7. Light team cultivated 
in potato field from 4.30 until 6.30. After 
breakfast one team smoothed some potato 
ground and then harrowed corn ground 
with the smoothing harrow. Another 
team went to planting potatoes, while sin¬ 
gle team carried cream. Two boys mixed 
a ton of chemicals for corn while I coated 
seed corn with tar. At noon weather 
turned slightly cooler. Kept on planting 
potatoes and at 3 had 1% acres done. No 
more seed cut. The other team finished 
harrowing four acres corn land and picked 
up the stone. At 3 p. m. was ready to 
plant corn, but weather so threatening that 
I did not want to put out fertilizer. Put 
light team on cultivator; laid off heavy 
teams. Men cut potatoes and milked. All 
through at 6. Little rain fell to break 
the drought, but the weather is cooler. 
This is not the usual routine at Brigham 
Farm, but during the extreme hot weather 
when we have heavy work to do we plan 
to work the teams during the cool of the 
day. I do not ask the men to do this, but 
they do it of their own volition, because 
they like their teams and are anxious to 
see the work go on as fast as possible and 
with the least possible injury to the horses. 
Such times make me long for a gasoline 
tractor which will pull plows and harrow 
and not suffer from the heat. To-morrow 
we shall keep two teams plowing under rye 
and another planting corn, while extra men 
cut potatoes. If dry weather holds we shall 
have to mow rye with the machine and let 
it lie on the ground until a rain wets the 
ground so we can plow. 
Vermont. E. s. brigha.w. 
Corn Planting in Ohio. 
May 26.—Got the horses up out of pas¬ 
ture and fed them. Repaired the corn 
planter, which I broke the evening before. 
The drive chain was stretched and would 
not run properly until the hooks on the 
links were bent closer by hammering, when 
it ran like a new chain. Next the gasoline 
engine was started and some shelled corn 
ground for the team. It does not take much 
time to grind enough for several days, and 
besides corn is now dry and hard. By hav¬ 
ing the corn ground the horses are able to 
eat their grain feed and have time for some 
hay during the noon hour. The important 
work of the day is the corn planting, which, 
barring a few stops to make needed adjust¬ 
ments and a few minor repairs, I work at 
from 7 to 12, and from 1 to 6 o’clock, 
making 10 hours in the field. The seed 
corn was ready shelled and graded, 
but the fertilizer boxes had to be 
filled once each round. I used a two- 
horse drill, and one must use some 
care in turning, besides the marker must 
be changed to the other side of the planter. 
These items take time, and I was not 
surprised that it took all day to finish an 
eight-acre field; 12 acres is a good day’s 
work with a planter, but one needs long 
rows and some one to handle the fertilizer. 
The fertilizer I used is a 2-10-2 mixture 
costing $24 per ton, and 50 to 80 pounds 
were used per acre, principally to give the 
corn an early start. For several days I had 
been working the field, but as it was plowed 
late, part too wet and part too dry, I did 
not get it in as good shape as I like. For 
one thing, the soil is not compact and set¬ 
tled down enough so that capillary moisture 
can rise. Another field plowed earlier is in 
much better shape, but even in that field 
the corn has not come up in places, owing 
to a lack of moisture. The field just planted 
was dragged soon after the plow, was rolled, 
harrowed and dragged again, yet by far 
this field is in worse shape than any field 
I ever planted. It would have to be seen 
to be appreciated. Most places the planter 
struck moisture under a dry surface, but in 
other places a lot of dry clods of a brick¬ 
like hardness were encountered. These will 
be waste places unless we should get copious 
rains soon, when such spots may be re¬ 
planted. The planter was not locked down, 
but was allowed to float with the surface, 
planting the corn at a quite uniform depth. 
The corn was covered two or three inches 
deep intentionally, because of the hot, dry 
weather. We have had no rain for four 
weeks, barring a few light showers which 
soon evaporated and night temperatures of 
70 degrees and day temperatures of 90 to 
97 degrees in the shade are common. To¬ 
day the thermometer registered 95 degrees 
for a considerable part of the day, and the 
ftir was noticeably dry with no indication 
of rain. After quitting for the day the 
horses were watered, fed and later turned 
out on pasture. After doing a few chores 
I tried to attend to some of my corre¬ 
spondence. Reading is almost out of the 
question, but I must make a few plans for 
to-morrow. 
May 27.—Planted over with one-horse 
drill parts of three rows skipped with the 
two-horse planter yesterday, caused by one 
of the shoes getting clogged. These 
mishaps are bound to happen at times, and 
hre very annoying. Later began rolling the 
field just planted, but the weather is too 
hot to push the work. Thermometer reg¬ 
istered 96 degrees in the shade at noon. 
The roller does good work excepting in the 
clay spots, where the clods are so hard 
that to crush them it would require a steam 
roller and it would have to be of the Taft 
variety. The present rolling makes six 
times this field has been worked, including 
planting, since plowing, and while most of 
It is well settled down and in good shape, 
several heavy showers would have done the 
work better. The trampling of the team 
is quite a factor in packing the soil and 
this is especially so in planting, as the 
horses walk just in front of the planter 
shoes. I have never planted corn so late 
before, and once I planted the same field on 
the 25th of April; nor is it any satisfaction 
that most of my neighbors are also late. 
The present drought is the most serious 
matter with us. The last weather map 
shows a “high” over the Gulf States and 
a “low” over Nebraska, just the right con¬ 
ditions to give us unusually hot, dry 
weather. This is much more serious than 
a Summer drought, for then only corn and 
pasture are affected, whereas now oats, 
wheat, meadoWs, pastures and even corn 
are suffering. I did not finish the rolling 
owing to the heat. The job can be finished 
Monday as there now seems to be no indi¬ 
cations of rain to stop work; besides the 
horses will be fresh after a day of rest. 
As all the stock are out on pasture I have 
practically no chores for Sunday, and my 
time will likely be divided between church, 
reading and taking pictures. 
Highland Co., O. w. e. duckwall. 
The crop of Winter apples in this county 
will be from one-third to one-half. Early 
apples a little better. Canker worm very 
baa in many orchards. e. 
Ingham Co., Mich. 
After a dry and backward Spring North 
Michigan has been blessed with plenty of 
rains during the past week (May 22), and 
as the weather continues warm things are 
growing finely. Prospects for early apples 
are good, but Winter varieties are not blos¬ 
soming very freely. D. u. 
Mancelina, Mich. 
For this time of the year we have the 
most severe drought for many years. No 
rain has fallen in this section since the 
middle of April. The ground is dry and 
hard as a brick. Hay will not be any¬ 
thing ; oats are suffering. Corn, what is 
up. is standing still. Potatoes will be a 
failure, bugs eating them as they come out 
of the ground. Wheat will be short in the 
straw, but seems pretty well headed con¬ 
sidering the dry weather. Streams are get¬ 
ting low and many wells have gone dry. 
Strawberries are almost an entire failure. 
Truck of all kinds have suffered. Fan¬ 
ners have not been able to set out their 
tomato plants. H. z. M. 
Baldwin, Md. 
