1911. 
THE RUKAE NEW-YORKER 
773 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
You may remember that E. G. Lewis had 
a number of League workers or regents, as 
he called them, meet at University City in 
January last. This was about the time 
that the Department of Justice and the 
Post Office Department determined in re¬ 
sponse to many complaints from country 
people to make an investigation of the 
Lewis affairs. It seems that an inspector 
for the Government called on Lewis during 
this convention with a view to getting his 
consent to the investigation so as to avoid 
the necessity of legal means and unneces¬ 
sary publicity during the investigation. 
Lewis was anxious to avoid the inquiry 
and it is said he told the inspector that 
such an investigation or an indictment by 
the Grand Jury would make a martyr of 
him again, as it did six years ago, and 
that the women would put up $2,000,000 to 
defend him. To prove his power over the 
women, he invited the inspector into the 
convention, and introduced him as a Mr. 
Jamison, a noted sociologist of New York, 
who was interested in the League. Then 
he proceeded to use his hypnotic powers 
on the women, and soon had them cheering 
himself and indorsing his schemes for the 
purpose of impressing the inspector with 
his power to control them. The trick was 
resented by some of the women who after¬ 
wards discovered the deception, and it 
would no doubt be resented by every one 
of them if they could have known the facts. 
The incident is characteristic of Lewis. He 
would stake the sentiment of these women, 
and make an exhibition of it for his own 
personal purposes. I mistake my fellow 
women if they would knowingly stand for 
it. EX-LEAGUER. 
Those who have read the Lewis paper 
for the past several weeks will observe 
that this bluff about the devotion of the 
women is his one last trump card, and 
he is trying to make a royal flush of 
it. It is true that he fooled the women 
•—and some men—six years ago, when 
the old bank was closed, and he posed 
as a martyr, and induced them to turn 
over their interest in the bank for 
worthless stock in his publishing com¬ 
pany and equally worthless trustee 
notes. He may think he can do it 
again. But he can’t. He did it then by 
making them believe the stock and notes 
were good, and by promising his pri¬ 
vate fortune and sacred honor to pay 
back dollar for dollar. That was six 
years ago. The promises have not been 
kept. They never will be kept. He 
never intended to keep them. 
Before that he fooled the people on 
the Fibre Stopper stock, and on nearly 
two dozen other fakes. Since then he 
fooled the women on the readers’ pool 
scheme and on the debentures. Since 
then he promised them millions of en¬ 
dowments for a League and now he 
scolds any of them who ask him what 
became of the millions he got on that 
scheme. He refuses to tell them that 
the League is overwhelmingly in debt, 
and that whatever it had in chattels has 
been mortgaged. Since then he bought 
land and mortgaged it to country peo¬ 
ple—largely women—for five times the 
purchase price. Not only that, but the 
mortgage was so drawn that the prop¬ 
erty could be sold without turning the 
proceeds over to the people who held 
the mortgage notes. In another case 
the notes were sold as first mortgage 
notes, and now it turns out that a first 
mortgage by a life insurance company 
stands ahead of them. In still another 
case, he sold secured notes, and when 
he got the money sent in their stead 
mere notes of hand. For 10 years he 
has been continually collecting money 
from country people. Little or none 
of it has been paid back. He has estab¬ 
lished no business. The money has 
either been invested in vain efforts to 
aggrandize himself or he has portions 
of it under cover. 
With such a record he yet has the 
effrontery to pretend that he expects the 
old dupes to come forward with money 
to defend him against the law which 
seeks to protect them against his 
trickery. He probably has some cham¬ 
pions yet on the sucker list; but the 
old victims are not likely to take the 
old bait again. For the past several 
weeks he has anticipated the action of 
the Federal Grand Jury, which has been 
looking into his records. Knowing these 
records, he must know the results. 
Hence he has labored industriously to 
make a new martyr of himself in ad¬ 
vance, and predicts a railroad journey 
for himself to the penitentiary. Ad¬ 
vices from St. Louis indicate that he is 
not likely to be disappointed. 
The hearing on the general creditors’ 
bill will be held this week. The court 
has asked for a detailed statement of 
the stock issued by the various Lewis 
corporations, the notes issued and out¬ 
standing against each company, and the 
total indebtedness of each, for what 
consideration the various stocks were 
issued, and such a statement as would 
show the actual indebtedness by stock 
or otherwise of the various companies. 
The defendants promised to furnish 
this information, but have so far failed 
to do so. Instead they have filed a weak 
affidavit from John W. Williams which 
practically admits the contentions of the 
complaint, that the concerns are all in¬ 
solvent, including the Trust Co.; that 
the various corporations were mere tools 
of Lewis, and that they were used for 
fraudulent purposes. The State Bank¬ 
ing Department now admits that bad 
investments have made it impossible for 
the stockholders of the Trust Company 
to recover their investment. They ad¬ 
vertised that it had a capital and sur¬ 
plus of $900,000, but now state under 
oath that it is only $645,126. This 
Trust Company has assumed obligations 
in definite contracts with holders of 
trustee notes, Publishing Company stock 
and other securities. It was one of the 
most alluring and powerful instruments 
used by Lewis to defraud the people, 
and the stockholders are to suffer a 
loss on the showing of the Missouri 
State Banking Department. 
In the original foreclosure suit the 
court has tied up the property and 
given such stringent directions for turn¬ 
ing everything over to the receiver that 
nothing more need be feared for what 
is left of that property. Claims of all 
kinds may be sent to Claud D. Hall, 
705 Olive street, St. Louis. Mo. Those 
who sent their claims to John W. Will¬ 
iams under misunderstanding of the 
situation may also send their claims to 
Mr. Hall. The court will protect such 
claims, when properly presented. 
LATER. 
E. G. Lewis Indicted for Fraud. 
On July 12 E. G. Lewis was indicted 
by a special Federal Grand Jury for 
fraudulent use of the mails. There were 
12 counts in the indictment, charging 
him with misrepresentation with intent 
to defraud in the sale of unsecured 
notes, and in the operation of the de¬ 
benture scheme, and in misrepresenting 
the conditions of the Lewis Publishing 
Company in selling stock in the con¬ 
cern. Lewis gave out a long statement 
in which he now admits that notes were 
unsecured. He is also reported as ad¬ 
mitting that the publishing company 
stock is worthless. Victims from prac¬ 
tically every State were witnesses before 
the Grand Jury, and related how they 
had been induced to part with their 
money, and of their unavailing attempts 
to get it returned. We thought we had 
heard the worst from stories told by 
Lewis victims, birt the most pitiable 
cases were not revealed until these wit¬ 
nesses told of the hardships and suffer¬ 
ings endured through giving to Lewis 
all they had. Of course, Lewis will 
now claim that he is being persecuted. 
Practically every crook rounded up by 
the government denounces his arrest as 
an outrage. Just remember Lewis’ 
advertisements and arguments when he 
was getting your money and compare 
them with what he will say now, and 
you will then get an impression of his 
original intent, if you are not already 
satisfied of his original purpose. It is 
not a question now of what the officials 
did to him, but of what he did to the 
people who sent him their money. 
DIARY OF FARM WORK. 
A Woman’s Connecticut Farm. 
Thursday, June 29.—Very hot and dry. 
I was up, as usual, at 4.30; milked sir 
cows and cared for the team. After break¬ 
fast was over I left the housework in 
charge of my 15-year-old daughter, and 
began the work of the day in the field, cul¬ 
tivating. One horse was lent to a neighbor, 
who, in return for the use of the animal 
this week, will plow our buckwheat land 
for us next week. One of my boys rode the 
horse that was home to cultivate. Father, 
who is 84 years old, spent part of the day 
in hoeing and the rest of the day in spok¬ 
ing a brokendown wagon wheel. We are 
putting in all the corn and millet possible 
this year, owing to the terrible drought 
since the first of June, and scarcely any 
rain fell during May. Hay is a very light 
crop; old hay sells at $25 per ton. Pros¬ 
pects are that cattle will be very low and 
all kinds of fodder very high this Fall. 
Pastures are very dry; cows shrinking in 
milk. Soon everyone will have to feed 
grain; some are already feeding the same 
as in the Winter, in order to keep up our 
contracts with the Boston Milk Company, 
who seem to think that farmers can afford 
to give them their milk, considering the 
low rating they are giving this season. 
This is a woman’s farm, on which I do all 
kinds of out-of-door work with fair suc¬ 
cess, and while doing so enjoy excellent 
health and a sense of independence which 
only comes through accomplishing things. 
Weary, but conscious of a profitable day 
spent in the cornfield, I prepared the even¬ 
ing meal, while the young boys brought 
home the cattle from the bushy hillside 
pastures and assisted me in the milking; 
then, when the milk cans had been placed 
in the tubs of cold water for the night to 
cool for the morning shipment, I spent a 
little time with the children, talking with 
them of the future and the farm. Thus 
ended the day of June 29, 1911. 
Connecticut. susan j. howb. 
A Day in Old Virginia. 
This is a large place, and it will be diffi¬ 
cult to give an account of a day’s doings 
without giving a few general statements. The 
farm consists of 2,000 acres, probably one- 
third under cultivation, the remainder in 
timber and mountain pasture. The farming 
land is a valley between two mountains. 
The 5,000 apple trees are planted on bench 
land, that is land between the meadows and 
the steep hillsides. A small stream runs 
through the valley and gives sufficient power 
to run a grist and sawmill as well as the 
air compressor for spraying. We have some 
trouble with the water supply when the sea¬ 
son is very dry. The greater part of the 
land is worked by tenants. There are 14 
families on the farm ; in four of these there 
are 41 children. The- total population is 
110. We have a chapel where we have 
preaching service every other Sunday and 
Sunday school every Sunday afternoon. Con¬ 
nected with the chapel is a school room 
where we have day school during the Winter 
months. We have 17 work horses and mules 
and three yoke of oxen. 
July 7, the day of which we write, started 
out beautifully clear and promised a fine day 
for work; it was certainly a hot one. Two 
men were half a day getting up the balance 
of the wheat; this is packed in a barn 
where it will be thrashed at a more conven¬ 
ient season. The remainder of the day these 
men were hoeing tobacco. One man mowing 
all day. It has; been a fine time for getting 
up hay, crop fairly good but cut short by 
dry season. The best of it will make two 
tons per acre by actual weight. We have 
up to this time put up 39 loads, and it will 
probably have a dozen more. We put it in 
with a fork, and it seems that the longer we 
use our rope the more it twists. One man 
half day working potatoes ; the crop is very 
poor, blighting badly, as well as being sucked 
by a small fly. This pest has been very 
bad this season ; almost all of the beans in 
the gardens have been ruined by it One 
man mowing with a blade around applo 
trees; where orchards are not cultivated 
every year we have trouble with the enor¬ 
mous growth of bushes, especially sassafras 
and locust. If some one would evolve a 
breed of cattle that would eat bushes and 
let the apple trees alone it would be a great 
blessing to the fruit business in this section. 
One man plowing peas all day; these 
cow peas are drilled in the orchards by 
using a single-row corn planter, the rows 
2 y 2 feet apart. This is the best way to 
plant them for seed, and they are plowed 
several times, and in this way the trees are 
cultivated. We also sow them thick in the 
orchards with an ordinary grain drill; these 
are sometimes cut for hay and at others 
hogged down. One man plowing corn and 
two others hoeing out corn and tobacco. 
One man mowing weeds on the edge of his 
cornfield for half a day and the balance of 
the day in the hayfield. One man getting 
out tan bark; we have some bark peeled 
every Spring and then at times when the 
men are not so busy they get it out of 
the mountain and haul it to the station 10 
miles away, where they get eight dollars per 
cord for it. The logs from which the bark 
has been peeled will be hauled to the mill 
and cut into fencing plank and other boards 
for general use on the farm. Two men 
spraying, this is an everlasting job, we have 
been over the trees twice with the lime and 
sulphur solution and now we are spraying 
with the Bordeaux mixture against the bitter 
rot; the Pippins are almost the only variety 
that have it, and it will begin the last 
of this month unless something is done ; we 
use the compressed air and find it satis¬ 
factory. 
Everyone has been accounted for except 
Uncle Giles. He is an old slave, but says 
that he “ain’t no nigger” but that he is 
four thirds Indian. His job is to feed the 
pigs and work the garden; he is always 
talking to himself, and, indeed, I hear him 
at this very moment, something after nine 
p. m. He is a fine weed fighter and keeps 
the garden nice and clean. On the Fourth 
everybody had a holiday and we had a Sun¬ 
day school picnic on the lawn. There are 
several acres in the lawn and there were 
more than 300 people on hand. A table had 
been put up under some large walnut trees, 
and this was well supplied with mutton, 
shote, fried chicken, besides cakes, pies and 
pickles. No one went away hungry. Under 
a large chestnut tree three men were kept 
busy making lemonade; it seemed impossible 
to fill up some of the boys. The Fourth is 
always a great day at Algoma. 
Franklin Co., Va. s. s. guerrant. 
A Day on a Michigan Farm. 
On July 6 the family of 11 were astir 
soon after 5 a. in. The breakfast, a hurried 
one, was principally coffee and cake, though 
as a rule breakfast is the heaviest meal. 
The father, a semi-invalid, looked after his 
turkeys, the oldest son, 19 years old, went 
to cultivating corn with one horse. Next 
son, aged 17, went to thin peaches (this is 
a fruit farm in the famous fruit belt of 
southwestern Michigan) on a neighbor’s 
farm at 17 % cents an hour. The next son, 
16 years of age, went to his regular work 
in a canning factory, where just now peas, 
raspberries and cherries are going into cans 
by the load. This boy receives 12% cents 
an hour, and is working overtime, too much, 
perhaps. The mother for the morning work 
started a large washing and picked string 
beans for dinner; the trained nurse daugh¬ 
ter, aged 23, who is at home, got the dinner. 
After dinner the mother and a daughter of 
12 went to a neighbor and picked 12 quarts 
of Eureka black raspberries, the same child 
having picked four quarts in the morning. 
While we were gone a son of 10, and the 
youngest two, weeded some stock beets and 
carrots. After a supper of new potatoes, 
another kind of string beans and some dew¬ 
berries, which one of the little girls picked, 
the mother went to the Spring-set straw¬ 
berry patch and weeded and hoed till too 
dark to do more. A daughter of 14 had done 
several jobs such as fall to women and 
girls that do not show and which have to 
be done every day. The nurse daughter had 
made a quantity of currant jelly, using light 
brown sugar, which was not satisfactory, 
making the jelly cloudy, a fact discovered 
by the 10-year-old beet weeder who had made 
some of granulated sugar—just to show a 
boy can do such things. The oldest boy 
cultivated the garden a little after dinner. 
The children have a convenient stream in 
which a dip in the extremely hot days is 
very pleasant, and a little puppy at the 
barn is more attractive than weeding beets 
or strawberries. 
Hartford, Mich. j. j. G. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Proceedings were started 
July 5 in the United States Court at Cin¬ 
cinnati, O., against the Big Four and the 
Chicago, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad 
Companies, who are alleged to have vio¬ 
lated the rule making 16 hours the maxi¬ 
mum day's work on any railroad and street 
car line. The suits are brought by Dis¬ 
trict Attorney Sherman McPherson of the 
Southern District of Ohio. The District 
Attorney says that 30 trainmen, engineers 
and conductors were worked longer than 
this period on the division of the Chicago, 
Cincinnati, Cleveland and St. Louis be¬ 
tween Springfield, 0„ and Moorefield, O. 
Inasmuch as the fine for infractions of the 
law is $500 for each man the Government 
brings suit against this road for $15,000. 
Local officials of the road say there must 
be some mistake and that they have never 
worked their men longer than the legal 
limit. Two sets of proceedings were 
brought against the Chicago, Hamilton and 
Dayton for almost the same offense. The 
penalty of $2,500 is asked from this road 
for working one of its freight crews of five 
men from 3.30 o’clock in the morning until 
9.30 the next night. Another brief is filed 
against this road for failure to observe the 
safety appliance law on its trains. 
An indictment was returned July 7 by 
the Federal Grand Jury at New York 
against Archie L. Wisner, Emmet S. Wis- 
ner, John J. Meyers, Charles F. Humphrey 
and A. L. Wisner & Co. The charge is 
conspiracy to use the mails to defraud in 
the sale of stock in the United Tonopah 
and Goldfield Mines, Limited. The Wisner 
firm and the Standard Securities Company 
have been engaged for a long time in invit¬ 
ing investment in such enterprises as the 
Empire Gold Mines, Limited ; Murchie Gold 
Mines Consolidated, California and New 
York Oil Company and the California Mon¬ 
arch Oil Company. The Wisners were ar¬ 
rested last March in their offices at 225 
Fifth avenue. The post office inspectors at 
that time seized what they characterized 
as the most valuable “sucker list” in exist¬ 
ence. This list is said to have contained 
100,000 names of persons who had bought 
or might be persuaded to buy stocks. The 
Wisners were sent to the Tombs until they 
could raise $7,000 bail for A. L. and $5,000 
for E. S. At that time A. L. Wisner at¬ 
tributed all his troubles to the 1907 panic. 
He said he had been unable to collect on 
stock sales and was unable, as a conse¬ 
quence, to raise money for development pur¬ 
poses or to complete payments in properties 
purchased. He said he had invested his 
commissions in the properties against which 
the Government was crying fraud and that 
his family had invested $60,000 more in 
them. The indictment returned July 7 con¬ 
tains eight counts and recites 73 overt acts. 
Fire July 9 destroyed the stables of the 
Arthur W. Dixon Transfer Company, Chi¬ 
cago, burned 263 horses to death and 
caused $500,000 damage. The cause of the 
fire is unknown. Three hundred and fifty 
draft horses, valued at $250 each, were 
quartered in the four-story stable when 
the fire broke out. Firemen rescued nearly 
one hundred of them before the roof and 
walls crashed to the basement. Scores of 
firemen narrowly escaped death when the 
roof caved in. The stables were within 
five blocks of the downtown business quar¬ 
ter. Fire the same day destroyed the fur¬ 
niture warehouse of W. C. Reebie & Broth¬ 
ers, at Chicago, causing $100,000 damage. 
Hot weather made the work of the fire¬ 
men doubly onerous. 
Charles G. Gardner, a clerk in the post- 
office at Bay Shore, L. I., and Lloyd Harned, 
employed by the Bailey Lumber Mills Com¬ 
pany, were held for the federal grand jury 
by Commissioner Mode, in Brooklyn, July 
5, on a charge of using the United States 
mails for fraudulent purposes. A few weeks 
ago, the detectives say, advertisements ap¬ 
peared in Western periodicals offering for 
sale a new motorcycle for $50, as the 
owner, George Bourne, of Bay Shore, Long 
Island, was about to sail for Europe. The 
inspectors found that Harned had received 
the replies to the advertisements, some of 
which contained money orders, and that 
Gardner had cashed the checks. They 
found also that there was no motorcycle for 
sale and that the European trip was a 
myth. The scheme, the inspectors say, 
realized the youthful promoters several 
hundred dollars. 
Denying the right of the Wells-Fargo 
Company to charge parcel rates on bulk 
packages, the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission .Inly 8 reaffirmed a principle previ¬ 
ously laid down and ordered that after 
September 1 carriers shall not make the 
ownership of property offered for trans¬ 
portation a condition of the application of 
particular rates. The decision affects every 
express company in the United States. The 
complainant was the California Commer¬ 
cial Association, which charged that the 
express company, in accepting boxes for 
transportation, asserted the right to charge 
parcel rates if the contents were destined 
for different persons, although the delivery 
was to be made in bulk. 
Fire which started in a woodyard at 
Biddeford, Me., July 8, destroyed 38 build¬ 
ings and caused a loss of $150,000. 
Five workmen were killed and two badly 
hurt when a crane on a steel viaduct in 
course of erection by the Connellsville and 
State Line Railroad, the new connecting 
line of the New York Central, collapsed 
July 10 at Meyersdale, Somerset county, 
Pa. The steel viaduct, intended to reach 
from one hill to another, a distance of 
about 2,000 feet, is being constructed over 
the Baltimore and Ohio tracks at Meyers¬ 
dale. The traveller on which the crane was 
carried was on the track and a 15-ton steel 
girder was being placed in position when a 
part of the machinery, known as the “stiff 
leg” broke and the crane with its heavy 
burden was precipitated into the gulch 90 
feet below. 
A swindler who registered at Port Jervis, 
N. Y„ as Robert Edward Smith Wood of 
New York City, after victimizing 20 per¬ 
sons, mostly farmers’ wives, in Montague. 
N. J., and Huguenot, N. Y., was arrested 
July 8 at Port Jervis and taken to Cudde- 
backville before Justice Jackson. He pleaded 
guilty, restored the money to the Huguenot 
people, paid the costs and was released. 
Wood offered to sell 200 bars of toilet 
soap for $10.50, with a premium of 40 
yards of Brussels carpet. He delivered 
two dozen small cakes of soap and was paid 
on his promise to send the rest in a few 
days. 
