1911. 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
709 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
More things happened at St. Louis, 
Mo., last week. The following come 
as newspaper dispatches: 
Two receivership suits were filed here 
to-day against E. G. Lewis and the con¬ 
cerns controlled by him; and it is an¬ 
nounced that a special session of the Fed¬ 
eral Grand Jury has been called for July 
7 with Lewis in California, close to the 
Mexican border. One suit is a general 
creditors’ bill against all the Lewis cor¬ 
porations, asking for a receiver to wind 
up their affairs. The other is a fore¬ 
closure action against the University 
Heights Realty Company, l’eople’s Savings 
Trust Company, Metropolitan Insurance 
Company and Nathan Frank, as trustee. 
There are 233 petitioners in the general 
creditors’ suit, headed by Mrs. Wilbur R. 
Force, of New York. St. Louis business 
men foi’ecast the disintegration of the 
league and the Lewis Chapter House 
scheme. 
It is charged in the suits that Lewis 
and his associates advertised $600,000 of 
six per cent real estate notes to be se¬ 
cured by first lien on real estate when as 
a matter of fact there already existed a 
first deed of trust against the property for 
$400,000. It is also charged that lots to 
the value of $200,000 were released without 
knowledge or consent of the mortgage 
holders. 
It is alleged Lewis paid all his corpora¬ 
tion debts in paper or certificates of in¬ 
debtedness in new corporations, that all are 
insolvent and that the total indebtedness 
is more than $5,000,000. It further is de¬ 
clared Lewis’ personal expenses as repre¬ 
sentative of the American Woman’s League 
averaged $6,000 a week. 
These two suits are in addition to the 
bankruptcy proceedings of the Publish¬ 
ing Company, and the foreclosure suit 
of the Realty Co., for which a receiver 
had already been appointed and an in¬ 
junction issued. The suit on creditors’ 
bill is against all the Lewis concerns, 
and everyone who claims any interest 
in the properties of the companies. It 
contains a thorough expose of the many 
schemes of E. G. Lewis from the time 
he began his fake endless chain Pro¬ 
gressive Watch Company at the begin¬ 
ning of his St. Louis career down to the 
present time. It shows that his cor¬ 
porations are mere pretenses and sub¬ 
terfuges by means of which he has 
been robbing the people by first one 
endless chain and then another, and 
that his business has been simply the 
selling of worthless securities, and that 
money once entrusted to him or most 
of it, is never returned. 
On the promise of their attorneys in 
open court to hold the properties in¬ 
tact in the meantime, the court allowed 
until July first to show cause why a 
receiver should not be appointed. This 
is the usual course; but the same rea¬ 
sons exist in this case as in the other 
suit in which receiver was appointed 
last week. 
Creditors will now appreciate the ex¬ 
tent of the scheme put up by Lewis to 
get possession of the evidences of debt 
and crimination through his agent Will¬ 
iams, self - styled controller. It all 
proves as we have before stated that 
Williams had no legal standing, and 
was in no position to protect the prop¬ 
erty or the creditors, and that his only 
mission was to get the papers for 
Lewis. Last week, after the receiver 
was appointed in the first foreclosure 
suit, he told the mortgage note holders 
that the property if forced to a sale will 
sell for only a small part of the $537,788 
against it. This property was mort¬ 
gaged for nearly five times its cost 
to Lewis, and it is not strange if it does 
not sell for the face of the mortgage. 
When he was getting the money, Lewis 
said it was the best security in the 
world. In effect Williams now says he 
lied. We would not dispute him in this 
inference. Good mortgages can be sold 
any time when due at face value. But 
Williams knows that there is no danger 
of the property being sold through the 
court at a sacrifice. The court must au¬ 
thorize and sanction every sale; and 
the court will not sanction a sale for 
less than a fair price for the property. 
It is simply a choice between Lewis and 
the court and note holders, after their 
experience with Lewis, prefer to trust 
the court. Williams also urges that he 
will be obliged to buy in the property 
for the benefit of those who deposit their 
notes with him. It was a silly bluff, and 
it is no wonder that no one fell for it. 
If he did that every one of our people 
would get their money in full with in¬ 
terest and those who sent him their 
claims would still have the Lewis prom¬ 
ises. To meet the new suits now Mr. 
Williams would have to pay every claim 
of every kind that has been filed with us 
or with Claud D. Hall. For our part 
we would ask nothing more. The suits 
could stop any time the claims are paid 
in full. But there is no danger of Mr. 
Williams paying anything. The notes 
on this last foreclosure suit were sold 
as a first lien on real estate. A $400,000 
mortgage was on record against it at 
the time, and remains now. Taxes have 
not been paid in years, and interest on 
the notes was defaulted from the first. 
Evidently there is not much ground to 
hope that either Williams or Lewis will 
redeem anything. Williams has shown 
where he belongs through his willing¬ 
ness to be an associate of Lewis. The 
publishers and educators and politicians 
who have permitted themselves to be 
used by Lewis to rob poor people, may 
now evince enough decency to feel 
ashamed of themselves, and at least 
apologize for their support of his 
crooked schemes. 
Anyway, things are in shape now to 
clean up the unwholesome mess. The 
courts will protect whatever property is 
left, and the creditors will get their 
share of anything that Williams and 
Lewis have left. The claims may be 
filed through your own attorney or 
Claud D. Hall, 705 Olive st., St. Louis, 
Mo., or through us. In the meantime we 
look for something definite from that 
special Grand Jury. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—President Taft has pre¬ 
sented medals of honor to six members of 
the fireroom crew of the battleship North 
Dakota for extraordinary heroism dis¬ 
played during the fire on that battleship on 
September 8 last, when her oil fuel ap¬ 
paratus ignited as she whs entering Hamp¬ 
ton Roads. The ceremony will take place 
at the White House. The men who re¬ 
ceived medals of honor are Thomas Stan¬ 
ton, of Newport, R. I., chief machinist’s 
mate; Karl Westa, of Mattapan, Mass., 
chief machinist’s mate; Patrick Reid, of 
Brooklyn, chief water tender; August 
Iloltz, of Glencoe. Mo., chief water tender ; 
Charles C. Roberts, of Newton, Mass., ma¬ 
chinist’s mate, and Harry Lipscomb, of 
the District of Columbia, water tender. 
June 10 fire destroyed the Sigma Alpha 
Upsilon fraternity house at Cornell Uni¬ 
versity, Ithaca, N. Y. Loss is estimated at 
$33,000. Many students lost practically all 
their clothes. This is the fourth serious 
fraternity house fire at Cornell in four 
years. The magnificent Chi Psi house was 
destroyed in 1907, the Alpha Tau Omega 
house in 1908 and the Delta Upsilon house 
in the Winter of 1909. 
Violent electrical storms, accompanied by 
torrential rains, did much damage in the 
vicinity of New York, June 10-11, but aided 
the city’s depleted water supply. June 10 
the storm was accompanied by a 70-mile 
gale, which did much damage at Paterson, 
N. J. The wind tore off the roofs of mills 
and dwelling houses. At the Johnson, 
Cowdin & Co. mill a section of the roof 200 
feet long and 25 feet wide was carried 200 
feet to a vacant lot. Beams falling through 
the upper floor set off the sprinkling sys¬ 
tem used in case of fire on each of the four 
floors, and every piece of silk finished and 
in process of manufacture was ruined. The 
damage is estimated at $75,000. The roof 
of the Empire Silk Mill also was blown off, 
with the same results to the sprinkling sys¬ 
tem as in the Johnson, Cowdin & Co. mill. 
The damage here is estimated at $40,000. 
The roof of the Samuel Aronsofin mill, on 
East 18th street, was torn off and the rain 
pouring in on the stock of silk on the 
upper floor caused $10,000 damages. Trees 
were uprooted and electric lighting and 
transportation crippled. Wind and lightning 
caused damage in New York State at Mid¬ 
dletown, Mount Hope, Howells, Interlaken 
and adjacent territory. A terrific storm at 
Allentown, Pa., did much damage, and 
caused three deaths, June 12. Electric wires 
torn down by the gale, rendered traffic 
dangerous until the current was cut off. A 
falling tree carried electric wires on to a 
house partly of iron construction, charging 
the whole house with electricity, three 
deaths resulting. Two children were killed 
by lightning at Wilkesbarre. Much dam¬ 
age was also done by storm the same date 
at and around Binghamton, N. Y., and four 
persons were killed by accidents due to the 
storm. Terrific storms June 12 west and 
south of New York cut this city off from 
communication with almost every large city 
to the south and west. According to the 
telegraph and telephone people they haven’t 
had as much trouble with crippled wires 
since the memorable snow and ice storm 
that swept the Middle Atlantic States when 
President Taft was inaugurated, 011 March 
4, 1909. 
Passengers numbering about 150 aboard 
the Prince Arthur, the Dominion Atlantic 
Line steamer, which arrived in Boston from 
Yarmouth, N. S., June 11, were aroused 
from their sleep and thrown into a panic 
when the steamer hit a huge whale broad¬ 
side the previous night. The sudden col¬ 
lision jarred the whole ship, throwing some 
of the passengers out of their berths. The 
steamer was going at a rapid rate in a 
chonpy sea, and the sudden impact with the 
whale reduced the speed to less than one- 
half. The sharp prow of the steamer al¬ 
most cut the whale in halves, having wedged 
itself into the monster’s side. 
The greater part of Whitewright, Tex., 
was burned down June 12. Forty-three 
business houses and 27 residences were 
wiped out, and a large number of others 
were badly damaged. No one was killed, 
but two persons were injured. The loss will 
be more than $300,000. The population of 
the town is about 2,000. 
Nine passengers, three of them women, 
fought for their lives through flames that 
consumed an Atlantic avenue trolley car 
in Yentnor City, near Atlantic City, N. J., 
June 13, when the car was fired by two 
bolts of lightning. Clarke Oslar, the con¬ 
ductor, is severely injured. The passengers 
were bruised and they suffered from the 
shock, but all escaped serious hurt through 
the efforts of Charles Gibbs, the motorman, 
and A. I’. Iioopes, of West Chester, a pas¬ 
senger. In the noise made by the storm 
Gibbs was unaware that the car had been 
struck until told by the passengers. The 
conductor was missing and the back of the 
trolley was ablaze. Before Gibbs could 
bring the car to a stop a second bolt shat¬ 
tered the roof. Everybody in the car was 
stunned and thrown to the floor. The car 
began burning on all sides and was filled 
with smoke. With the aid of Iioopes, 
Gibbs brought it to a standstill, and to¬ 
gether they saved the passengers, who were 
fighting to get out. The car was burned 
to the trucks. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The first bale 
of new cotton of the season was shipped 
from Riviera, Tex., June 9. It will make 
the rounds of the cotton exchanges of 
Houston, Galveston and Now Orleans, and 
reach New York about 10 days later. This 
bale was harvested two weeks earlier than 
the first bale last season. 
The next meeting of the Society for Hor¬ 
ticultural Science will be held in Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., on Friday, December 29, 
1911, in connection with the meetings of 
the American Association for the Advance¬ 
ment of Science. 
Horse breeders and farmers throughout 
the country are interested in the horse 
feeding experiments now being conducted 
at Ft. Riley, Kan., under the supervision of 
C. W. McCampbell, of the Experiment Sta¬ 
tion of the Kansas State Agricultural Col¬ 
lege. The experiments, which are sanctioned 
by the War Department, commenced Janu¬ 
ary 15 and will cover a period of five 
months, ending June 15. They wore made 
possible by Professor R. J. Kinzer, of the 
agricultural college, and Colonel Eli D. 
Hoyle, of the Sixth Field Artillery. Nine 
hundred and thirty-seven horses of the 
Sixth Field Artillery are being used in con¬ 
ducting the feeding tests. Eighteen differ¬ 
ent combinations of feeds, or forage ra¬ 
tions, are being used. 
DIRECT VOTE FOR SENATORS.—The 
Senate June 12 passed the resolution pro¬ 
posing an amendment to the Federal Con¬ 
stitution providing for the election of Sen¬ 
ators by direct vote. The action of the 
Senate marked the successful culmination 
of an effort that has extended over more 
than a quarter of a century to bring this 
question before the State Legislatures. 
The resolution was passed by the Senate 
by a vote of 64 to 24, two-thirds of those 
present, or 59, being necessary to carry 
the proposition. The resolution as adopted, 
however, carried with it the so-called Bris¬ 
tow amendment, which will necessitate its 
return to the House of Representatives, 
which has already passed it. If the 
House acts favorably on the resolution in 
its amended form, which seems likely, it 
will go to the States for ratification as an 
amendment to the Constitution. The Bris¬ 
tow amendment retains to the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment power over the manner, time and 
place of holding elections for United States 
Senators. The Southerners opposed the 
amendment on the ground that it would 
give the Federal Government power to in¬ 
terfere with the so-called grandfather’s 
clauses of the constitutions of the South¬ 
ern States. The vote on the Bristow amend¬ 
ment was a tie, 44 to 44, and Vice-Presi¬ 
dent Sherman cast the vote which tacked 
the amendment to the resolution. Upon 
the Vice-President may eventually rest the 
responsibility for the failure of the resolu¬ 
tion. for Southern Senators declared that it 
would never be accepted in its present form 
by the Legislatures of Southern States. 
These are the Senators who voted against 
the resolution on final passage: Bacon, 
Bankhead, Braudegee, Burnham, Crane, 
Dillingham, Fletcher, Foster, Gallinger, 
Ileyburn, Johnston, Lippitt, Lodge, Lori- 
mer, Oliver, Page, Penrose, Percy, Richard¬ 
son, Root, Smoot, Terrell, Williams and 
Wetmore. 
DIARY OF FARM WORK. 
A “BACK TO THE LAND" FARMER. 
Wednesday, June 7.—I think the reports 
of work could be improved if each on# 
would give a brief statement of his farm, 
stating what crops are raised, amount of 
labor used, etc. In our case we left the 
city (in Ohio) and came “back to the 
farm.” In November, 1909, I bought an 
80-acre farm, 15 miles south of the Phila¬ 
delphia ferry. It is my intention to make 
a fruit farm of it. In December, 1909, I 
set 1,000 one-year-old apple trees, 40 feet 
apart each way, every fifth row being a 
different variety, with peaches between the 
apples, making trees 20x20 feet. So about 
24 acres of our farm is in orchard. I ex¬ 
pect to make a living and expenses by rais¬ 
ing truck until the orchards are bearing, 
then drop trucking and set about 25 acres 
more of the farm to fruit. This year I 
have, or will have, 16 acres of white po¬ 
tatoes, 30.000 sweet potatoes. 20.000 
Charleston Wakefield cabbage, 5.000 Earl- 
iana tomatoes, 2,000 second early tomatoes, 
five acres late tomatoes for the canning 
factory, one acre canteloupes, eight acres 
corn, four acres hay and about seven acres 
in pasture. Some three acres of the pas¬ 
ture is fenced off into three lots for hog 
pastures, remainder for our one cow and a 
heifer we are raising, and horses. We have 
two sows, 14 shotes and seven pigs on the 
pasture. We keep five horses and have 
three men, and have plenty of work 
to keep us all four busy. Charlie works by 
the month and boards with us. Wesley 
works by the month and boards himself, 
John works by the day and boards him¬ 
self, being an extra man, but we use him 
every day that weather is nice, from April 
to September. Weather was nice in early 
Spring, except Spring was late, with two 
inches of rain iu March’ and April. No 
rain from April 20 to June 2. Meadows 
are very poor, and truck crops are not 
what they would be if we had had rain, 
but look well for such dry weather. 
On the 7th, Charlie and I got up at four 
o’clock, Charlie fed, cleaned and harnessed 
the horses. 1 fed hogs, pigs, cow and chick¬ 
ens. Had breakfast at 5.30 and went to 
work at six, whe 1 the other men came. All 
four of us worked at setting sweet potato 
sprouts in the forenoon, as we had a show¬ 
er last night. Many set their sweets last 
week and the week before, hauling water 
and watering each plant. In the afternoon 
Charlie farmed the cabbage with one horse 
and the hoe harrow. Cabbage is growing 
well for dry weather and is beginning to 
head. Wesley farmed the early tomatoes 
with one horse and hoe harrow. It was 
so dry on May 11th and 12th, when the 
tomatoes were set out, that they did not 
start readily and we had to water them; 
dug a hole near each plant, poured in’one 
to two quarts of water and after water 
had soaked in filled hole with dry dirt; 
took 35 barrels of water, which we hauled 
from nearby pond. It was a big job, but 
paid well. Now we have quite a few toma¬ 
toes as big as a silver dollar. John 
farmed part of the white potatoes with 
two horses and an iron Age sulky cultiva¬ 
tor. I spent the afternoon trying to find 
some one who had spread lime in a 
manure spreader, to learn what their ex¬ 
perience was, and see if I could rent their 
spreader. Found three men who had done it. 
Thursday, June 8.—I got up at three 
o clock and went for the manure spreader. 
Charlie did the morning chores. We work 
from 6.00 to 11.30 a. m. and 12.30 to 6.00 
p. m., except yours truly, who works any¬ 
where from 12 to 18 hours a day. About 
10 o'clock Wesley finished farming the early 
tomatoes and helped Charlie finish farming 
the cabbage, getting it done by noon. John 
farmed white potatoes in the forenoon. I 
sprayed white potatoes with a horse spray¬ 
er. Used four pounds of Paris green to 
the barrel of water, on part of the pota¬ 
toes I am also using three pounds of blue, 
vitriol and two pails of lime water in each 
barrel. On part I use the lime water with¬ 
out the blue vitriol and on part just Paris 
green. This is an experiment for future 
guidance. In the afternoon John farmed 
white potatoes. 
In the afternoon the other two men to¬ 
gether tried spreading the lime in the ma¬ 
nure spreader. When we unloaded the car of 
lime we put it iu piles at the end of each 
tree row. As ground is full of little stones 
we would have to seleen the lime onto a 
platform before we could use it in a drill. 
We got the manure spreader to avoid the 
work of screening it; used three horses on 
spreader, had a slow feed attachment on 
spreader and regulated quantity of lime by 
the amount we put in the bed. It worked 
quite well and spread the lime evenly, ex¬ 
cept that handfuls of the lime would oc¬ 
casionally drop off the end of the spreader 
between the bed aud the drum. This could 
avoided by putting about three inches 
ot chaff in the bottom of bed under lime, 
so as to raise lime up to about the level 
of the drum. But it did fair work; we 
did not have the chaff and will use spreader 
for the rest of the lime. I also did several 
odd jobs about the farm, one of them- an 
especially interesting one. This was to ex¬ 
amine a bed where I tested some seed corn 
and other things. The dry weather caught 
us with four acres of corn not planted and 
the ground got so hard we had to wait for 
rain to plow. I usually plant corn here 
May 1 to 10. Being so late I got early 
maturing corn from two neighbors, and to 
be sure to have a good stand I made a 
seed bed, stretching string both ways, mak¬ 
ing squares, in which I put five grains of 
corn from each ear I expected to use for 
seed. Of one variety of corn only nine 
grains failed to germinate of 475 planted. 
Of another lot 14 grains of 450 failed to 
germinate ; of another lot 72 grains of 190 
did not come up. Of a lot of soup beans 
that I intended to plant among missing 
sweet potatoes only two of 25 came up. It 
paid to make the test, to avoid planting the 
beans and the ears of corn that were not 
good seed. I am working longer hours and 
harder than I did in the city, but hope to 
have it easier in a few years; we have bet¬ 
ter health than we did in city and would 
not go back to city life. 
Gloucester Co., N. J. w. w. winchell. 
Three Days in Western New York. 
Thursday, June 8.—Got up about five 
o’clock, did the chores and ate breakfast. 
Iliched on to the roller and finished rolling 
the corn ground. Mr. Lucas came and 
drilled in our corn, four acres Pride of the 
North and one acre sweet corn. There is 
some corn around here up and cultivated, but 
a number are still plowing for corn. Mr. 
Schelieno came and got a load of hay. Hay 
brings $13 in the barn and $16 delivered. 
Father finished dragging the sweet corn 
land with the oxen, while I rolled with 
the horses. At the present price of horses 
many are beginning to appreciate the value 
of a good yoke of oxen on the farm. We 
have a pair of four-year-old oxen, weight 
about 2,500 pounds, that we bought a 
short time ago for $140, loss than the price 
of one good horse. If the weather is not 
too hot they will do nearly as much work 
as a team of horses, and it costs less than 
one-third as much to keep them as it does 
horses. At present they are working every 
day and have not had any grain or hay in 
a month, yet they are keeping in good 
rig. After the corn was in, I rolled part 
of the_ land, which was very lumpy, after 
the drill; will follow with the spike-tooth 
drag in a few days before the corn comes 
up. Towards night we loaded up a load 
of hay aud while father delivered it with 
the horses I dragged the early potatoes, 
which are just coming up, with the spike- 
tooth drag and plowed a little with the 
oxen. Turned the oxen out to grass and 
did the chores at night. 
Friday, June 9.—Father cultivated all 
day for Mr. Lucas with the horses and the 
sulky cultivator. I picked up some stones 
and drew out some well-rotted manure 
with the oxen. I made about 200 hills 
and planted melons, squash, and cucum¬ 
bers. Made some morn garden and hoed 
part of what was already in and up. 
Nothing gives bigger returns for the labor 
spent than a good garden on the farm. 
Saturday, June 10.—Father went to 
town to get a horse shod and the tires 
on the spring wagon set. I yoked up the 
oxen and plowed till he got back ; weeded 
garden while the oxen stopped to breathe. 
Fixed fence about an hour after dinner, 
and plowed for buckwheat the rest of the 
afternoon and floated it down. It is very 
dry here, too dry to plow advantageously. 
Timothy looks the worst in years, not 
over one-third crop of hay will be cut any 
where around here. Oats look pretty good, 
but need rain. I increased acreage of 
corn due to shortage in the hay crop. 
Fruit looks pretty good, lots of' grapes 
and cherries, some apples, plums and 
peaches. c. c. clement. 
Chautauqua Co., N. Y. 
