1911. 
THE RURAL- NEW-YORKER 
006 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
Last month a St. Louis attorney re¬ 
ceived a claim of $71 against the Lewis 
American Woman’s League from a for¬ 
mer employe of the League, who was 
given a due bill for his salary instead 
of cash when he left the employment. 
The attorney made a demand for this 
salary, and in reply, on August 21, re¬ 
ceived a letter containing the following 
interesting admissions: 
Because of a series of circumstances with 
which you are probably more or less famil¬ 
iar. feeling among the members of the 
League has been very unsettled during the 
last few months, and, as a result, its in¬ 
come has been materially affected. 
Since April 11, when the reorganization 
went into effect, the income of the League 
has been brought to a point where it was in 
excess of expenses on two separate occa¬ 
sions, but in each case only again to fall off 
to nothing, becatise of an increased feeling 
of distrust brought about through articles in 
the public press. 
The chapter houses revert to the local 
chapters in the event of the League getting 
into trouble, and therefore the only asset 
which it has is its dues from members, of 
which there are about seven or eight hun¬ 
dred thousand dollars, a large part of which 
is now overdue. These dues cannot he col¬ 
lected at law because the individual 
amounts are too small, and because the 
League has not been able to fulfill all of 
the obligations on its part. On the other 
hand, if confidence can be re-established, 
past experience proves that there is no 
trouble in collecting these dues. 
Nothing can be gained by pressing mat¬ 
ters at this time, whereas any publicity of 
a character which will affect the confidence 
of the members will only postpone the re¬ 
habilitation of the League, and I sincerely 
trust that all of the creditors will be pa¬ 
tient and let matters stand as they are until 
the League can again get on its feet. . . . 
John H. wii.i-iams. Controller. 
This is Mr. Williams’ apology for not 
paying the salary of League employes. 
Note the admission that the League has 
no assets except the dues of members, 
and that these dues cannot be collected 
at law because the League has not ful¬ 
filled its obligations to the members. 
Also note the admission that only on 
two occasions since April 11 did the in¬ 
come of the League equal the expenses, 
and that otherwise it fell off to nothing. 
Thus is the League which was to have 
$26,000,000 of endowments and $3,800,- 
000 annual income brought to a state of 
acknowledged bankruptcy like all the 
other Lewis schemes. But the Williams 
letter is especially interesting in com¬ 
parison to the rosy stories told by 
Lewis in his National Weekly. In his 
appeals to collect money from the 
women Lewis paints the League as 
flourishing. In his attempt to put off 
collection of a salary by an employe, 
Mr. Williams paints it as without funds, 
and on its last legs financially. If Mr. 
Williams tells the truth in this letter, 
and all available information verifies 
his admissions, he accuses Lewis of 
knavery "of the deepest dye. It shows 
him attempting to collect money from 
women for membership in the League 
long after the League has become bank¬ 
rupt. The R. N.-Y., the postal officials 
and the grand jury have never made as 
strong an indictment against Lewis as 
this admission of his own minion. 
Other evidences of Lewis’ bad faith 
with the women is evident on every 
hand. He has made great ado because 
the Congressional committee which has 
been investigating his case requested the 
inspectors of the Postal Department to 
suspend their investigation of the Lewis 
schemes. But since that time the com¬ 
mittee heard some straight testimony 
from a former partner of Lewis by the 
name of Nichols and Inspector Stice; 
and the order was rescinded and the 
Department is free to continue its in¬ 
vestigations. It is evident that the mem¬ 
bers of the committee are beginning to 
get some side lights on the Lewis 
schemes, and the rescinding of the or¬ 
der is a virtual admission that the Pos¬ 
tal Department has sufficient reason for 
investigating them. But no word of 
this has appeared in the Lewis paper, 
and the women are left to believe that 
the original order stands. 
Lewis is always drawing conclusions 
favorable to himself from things dis¬ 
similar in themselves. The receiver, of 
course, simply takes over the assets of 
his concerns. Unfortunately he has no 
power to help the holders of worthless 
notes or stock. In effect he says so, and 
Lewis tries to turn this rebuke of his 
abuse of the confidence of his victims 
into a personal virtue for himself. Evi¬ 
dently taking the assets away from John 
H. Williams does not wipe out that man 
Friday, according to Lewis. He yet has 
the function of helping Lewis collect 
more money on more schemes. That 
was his function from the first, and 
Lewis now virtually admits it in this 
argument. He was one of the links 
used by Lewis in the chain of swindles. 
But at last Lewis has done The R. N.- 
Y. and its publisher one favor. In his 
vilification and abuse and trickery, he 
has made it clear to his victims and his 
dupes that his fake and fraudulent 
schemes cannot stand the steady light of 
publicity, and he is publishing to the 
world in the most forcible way that 
The R. N.-Y. is the one agent that has 
unmasked him. Now he is exhausting 
himself in impotent rage. Abuse and 
vilification is the only favor The R. 
N.-Y. can acknowledge or solicit from 
crooks. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The Hotel Frontenac, on 
Round Island. St. Lawrence River, was de¬ 
stroyed by fire August 23. compelling the 
guests to escape hastily. With its furnish¬ 
ings the Frontenac was valued at close to 
$500,000. It was owned by the Frontenac 
Hotel Company, of which C. G. Emory of 
New York is the principal stockholder. The 
hotel was the most elaborate on the river 
and had accommodations for 000 guests. 
Fire at Parkersburg, W. Va., August 23, 
destroyed the Chancellor Hotel, the finest 
in the State, costing $250,000. Two negroes 
were killed by falling walls and a negress 
and a white t>oy were hurt so they will die. 
The First National Bank and several shops 
were also burned. The guests of the hotel 
all managed to make their escape with most 
of their personal baggage. 
The barge Albatross, of Midland. Ontario, 
Captain Dean, foundered in Georgian Bay 
August 21. The tug C. C. Martin, of Mid¬ 
land. Captain Vent, was dragged down with 
the barge. The tug carried the captain and 
his wife and a crew of eight. Seven per¬ 
sons from the barge saved themselves. 
Speeding eastward behind time, Lehigh 
Valley passenger train No. 4 ran into a 
spread rail on a trestle near Manchester, 
N. Y., August 25. and two day coaches 
from the midsection of the train plunged 
downward 40 feet, striking the east em¬ 
bankment like a pair of projectiles. In the 
awful plunge and crash 37 persons were 
killed and more than 60 injured. The in¬ 
juries of several are so serious that it is 
feared they will die. The wreck was the 
worst in the history of the Lehigh Valley 
line in this State and one of the most dis¬ 
astrous ever recorded on the system. Crowd¬ 
ed with passengers, many of whom were 
war veterans and their relatives and friends 
from the Grand Army of the Republic En¬ 
campment at Rochester, train No. 4, made 
up of 14 cars', drawn by two big mogul en¬ 
gines, was 40 minutes late when it reached 
Rochester Junction, and from there sped 
eastward to make up time before reaching 
Geneva. 
Negroes and whites of Slidell. La., a lum¬ 
ber town directly across Lake Pontehurtrain 
from New Orleans, August 25 drew up and 
signed a formal treaty wherein it is agreed 
that there never shall be a race war in the 
town, but that all differences between the 
races shall be submitted to arbitration. The 
gist of the treaty is that it is the sense of 
the residents, both white and negro, “that 
all conflicts and acts of violence between 
blacks and whites are severely condemned, 
and that all friction arising between mem¬ 
bers of the two races shall be submitted to 
a committee for settlement.” Slidell has 
3,000 residents, about equally divided. Its 
chief industry is the creosoting of lumber. 
The 13 wholesale dealers in live poultry 
in New York who were recently convicted of 
conspiracy to monopolize the business and 
were sentenced to three months in the peni¬ 
tentiary and to pay a fine of $500, were re¬ 
leased on bail August 28. pending their ap¬ 
peal. after Justice Bischoff had signed a 
certificate of reasonable doubt. Justice 
Bischoff said, in granting the certificate, 
that it was not necessary that the justice 
before whom the application was made be 
satisfied that the conviction would be re¬ 
versed. It was enough that he be satisfied 
that a question of law was raised sufficient 
for the consideration of the Appellate Divis¬ 
ion. to which tribunal the case of the con¬ 
victed poultrymeu will go. 
Twenty-eight persons are known to be 
dead and as many more may die as the re¬ 
sult of a panic in the Morgan Opera House, 
Canonsburg. Pa., August 26, when some one 
cried out a false alarm of “Fire!” after the 
fuse in the moving picture machine had 
blown out. There was a momentary flash 
and hiss, but that was all. It was enough, 
however, to start the panic when some one 
in the gallery called out, and there was a 
mad rush for the only exit of the theatre 
by the thousand persons in the playhouse. 
As the first man out neared the foot of the 
stairs he tripped and fell. Those imme¬ 
diately following foil on top of him, and 
in a few moments the comparatively nar¬ 
row stairway was jammed with dead, dying 
and madly fighting men, women and chil¬ 
dren. Inside the theatre the rest of the 
audience screamed and fought in their mad 
effort to reach the exit. Those who could 
not reach the stairway were the most for¬ 
tunate, for there was no vestige of the fire 
after the flash following the blowing out of 
the fuse, and they who remained inside 
were saved. 
Widows of the twenty-four firemen killed 
in the Chicago stockyards fire of December 
22, 1910, have won a victory in their fight 
for the immediate distribution of the relief 
fund of $211,000 raised for their benefit and 
used to purchase income bearing securities. 
Under the court’s ruling the Citizens’ Relief 
Committee has 30 days to convert the se¬ 
curities into cash. Harlow N. Higinbotham, 
a former Mayor of Chicago, and philan¬ 
thropist, treasurer of the fund, received a 
number of threatening letters because of 
the relief committee’s action in investing 
the fund, for the purpose of furnishing an 
annual income to the beneficiaries, instead 
of dividing the principal at once among the 
widows. 
As the result of a storm which struck 
Summerville and Savannah August 28. and 
which reached hurricane proportions. 
Charleston, S. C., was virtually isolated for 
24 hours. Seven persons are known to have 
been killed and property losses, it is esti¬ 
mated, will reach $1,000,000. The wind 
velocity increased from 48 miles an hour at 
1.25 p. m. to 94 miles at 10.20 p. in., when 
the wind gauge was put out of adjustment. 
Much damage was done by the water in the 
low sections of Charleston, necessitating 
the removal of many persons from their 
homes. The waters have caused washouts 
on the approaches to the Union Station, pre¬ 
venting the operation of trains. The elec¬ 
tric light and power system was out of com¬ 
mission. Masses of wreckage cover the - 
streets and the business of the city was 
paralyzed. 
Trustees and officers of the organization 
of the Slocum Survivors have made a pro¬ 
test against the paroling of Captain William 
II. Van Schaick, who was in command of 
the General Slocum when that steamboat 
burned with a loss of 1,031 lives. They 
severely censured the recently created Fed¬ 
eral Board of 1’arole, which released Cap¬ 
tain Van Schaick, and a committee was ap¬ 
pointed to foiward a resolution to the board, 
setting forth their reasons why he should 
not be released. The trustees are of the 
opinion that no matter how many meetings 
they may hold Van Schaick will not be sent 
back to prison. They say they got no hear¬ 
ing before the board and feel they have been 
unfairly treated. 
As much of the battleship Maine as avail¬ 
able funds will permit will be removed or 
prepared for removal from Havana harbor, 
and then the cofferdam surrounding the 
wreck will be refilled with water to await 
an additional appropriation by Congress to 
finish the raising operations. Congress failed 
to act upon the President’s request for an 
additional $250,000. Owing to lack of 
funds, even funeral services over the re¬ 
covered bodies and the erection in Arlington 
National Cemetery of the mast of the ill- 
fated vessel as a monument must be post¬ 
poned. The bodies and the mast will be 
sent to the cemetery to be stored there until 
Congress acts. 
Placards denouncing men engaged in the 
liquor traffic as home wreckers, respon¬ 
sible for crime, insanity and higli taxes, 
greeted 500 delegates to the annual con¬ 
vention of the State Liquor Dealers' Asso¬ 
ciation who gathered at Binghamton, N. Y., 
August 30. 
Reeking safety from the forest fires, the 
inhabitants of the villages of Klliston and 
Joebatts, Newfoundland, took to boats Au¬ 
gust 29 and put out to sea. The towns of 
Catalina and Bonavista, on Trinity Bay, 
are also threatened. All bridges are burned 
and tile forest-fringed highways were ablaze 
for miles, suspending all traffic in the fire 
zone. Telegraphic communication was 
everywhere interrupted. The denizens of 
the forest, with domestic animals, were 
rushing madly toward the sea, as escape 
iu any other direction was cut off. Hun¬ 
dreds of men from the adjacent settlements 
hurried to the rescue in boats. The tim¬ 
ber areas destroyed are very extensive. The 
total loss will probably exceed $4,000,000. 
Four persons are dead and another Is 
perhaps fatally injured as a result of the 
storm sweeping over the vicinity of Brad¬ 
ford, Pa.. August 29. George llinman, a 
rural mail carrier from Great Valley, N. Y., 
went down with his rig when a bridge was 
washed away. John Bryan, a fireman on 
the Buffalo. Rochester and Pittsburg Rail¬ 
road, was killed under his locomotive when 
it went through a weakened trestle near 
Kilbuck, N. Y. Raymond Smith, aged seven, 
was drowned in Tuna Creek. East Bradford. 
At Great Valley and Kllicottville. on the 
line of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg 
Railroad, there are many washouts and 
water was pouring through houses at some 
places. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Arrangements 
for the financing of the cotton crop were 
perfected at Washington August 26 in a 
conference between representatives of the 
farmers’ union and financial interests of 
Now York and Liverpool. Emmett Ca- 
baniss, former State president of the union, 
and A. C. Davis of Arkansas, national sec¬ 
retary and treasurer, returned to Atlanta 
with news of arrangements. “We have ar¬ 
ranged with certain financial interests to. 
take care of distressed cotton through the 
advancement of $60,000,000, which will be 
loaned to the farmers through Southern 
banks.” said Mr. Cabaniss. “The money 
will be loaned at six per cent, interest and 
the loans will be secured by warehouse cer¬ 
tificates. ’Phis arrangement will enable the 
Southern farmers to market their cotton 
intelligently and we are confident that the 
crop will bring in at least 13 cents a 
pound. I do not believe that the South’s 
cotton crop this year will exceed 13,500.000 
bales. Government reports to the contrary 
notwithstanding,” continued Mr. Cabaniss. 
“Our advices from all sections of the 
South indicate that the Government esti¬ 
mate is too high. There will be a quantity 
of distress cotton this year, as in the past. 
It is this that the Farmers’ Union is inter¬ 
ested in. The financial arrangements we 
have completed will enable the Southern 
banks to advance money enough to keep 
this cotton off the market until the price is 
satisfactory to the farmers.” 
Thomas W. Lawson of Boston is nego¬ 
tiating for the purchase of 80,000 acres of 
ranch land 45 miles northeast of Greeley, 
Col. Mr. Lawson intends to develop the 
ranch to the breeding and raising of fancy 
cattle and horses for exhibition and racing. 
Frosts have struck Northern Manitoba 
and Saskatchewan and have done great 
damage to the wheat crop, especially around 
Regina. Cutting is so backward that a 
large percentage of the grain in Alberta 
must have suffered also. All vines and po¬ 
tatoes were cut down by the frosts August 
27 at Gilbert Plains. There were six de¬ 
grees of frost. Very little wheat has been 
cut in that section. At Grenfell, Sask., 
August 27, the mercury fell to 26. It is Im¬ 
possible to estimate the crop damage, but it 
will be heavy. There was frost August 28 
in Northern Nebraska and Ice formed on 
still water at Creighton. Sioux City re¬ 
ported 43 degrees. At Dresden, Kan., the 
thermometer stood at 45 at dawn; at 
Hays, 48; at Maryville, Mo., 53. In many 
places tomatoes and other tender plants 
were killed. 
Agents of the Canadian Western Farm¬ 
ers’ Alliance 4ire scouring Connecticut and 
Rhode Island for recruits to go to Mani¬ 
toba for the harvest. Transportation, board 
and high wages are offered. In all the mill 
towns where business is slack, idle mill 
hands are offering their services. Large 
squads of recruits will be sent West from 
Providence and Worcester. 
DIARY OF FARM WORK. 
Odds and Ends on a New York Farm. 
August 21.—This was a busy day at the 
Cook homestead. Aside from the regular 
farm work, as is usually the case, there 
seemed to be more or less choring or odd 
jobs that require attention about so often. 
First the hand occupying the tenant house 
continued the work of preparing for wheat 
a field where barley was harvested, using a 
Clark double action Cutaway harrow (a 
great tool that), with four horses attached, 
making the fourth time over after first 
rolling and dragging. I was reminded by 
the hand, Will, that we were doing much 
needless work, as “where his folks lived 
they raised just as good crops witli half 
the work.” I merely repin'd that they 
were fortunate in having such choice land, 
and that perhaps we were equally for¬ 
tunate in doing so well with so much ex¬ 
tra labor; though he need go but a short 
distance from where he was now working to 
notice the contrast in crop conditions where 
thorough and indifferent work had been 
practiced. 
.Toe, the other month hand, drew two 
loads of stove wood, already prepared, 
cultivated a strip of ground in the garden 
where a strawberry bed had been plowed 
up some time ago, and spent the remainder 
of the day ditching for tile drainage. 
Matheas, the Filipino, (a young man who is 
acquiring a college education with the in¬ 
tention of returning to his native land as 
an educator among his home people, and 
now spending his second vacation with us), 
also helped in the ditch, beside assisting 
around the house, filling the refrigerator 
with ice, pumping water into the reser¬ 
voir, etc. 
My son, the junior member of the firm, 
arranged the straw stack shed (an arrange¬ 
ment fully appreciated by stock during 
severe Winter weather) in the barnyard 
preparing for thrashing in a day or two; 
removed from the field designed for wheat 
two or three loads of stone, and other fast 
stone that hnd obstructed the plow: went 
to a neighboring farm with his two chil¬ 
dren. David and Dorothy, to pick elder¬ 
berries and have a little fun as well, I 
imagined, concluding his share of the day’s 
duties by mowing a patch of Hungarian 
grass, though before his ^upper he took 
about 200 pounds of salt and fed it to a 
patch of wild morning glory in our mea¬ 
dow, which we had attempted to kill with 
various methods, but always with tin' same 
result—failure. We hope this will settle 
the question. Regarding the matter of nox¬ 
ious weeds, what are we farmers here in 
western New York going to do to ('radi¬ 
cate the wild carrot that is increasing so 
alarmingly fast in so many localities? 
The writer lent a helping hand wherever 
and whenever opportunity presented. Of 
course he cared for the chickens, pigs, etc., 
finishing up the day by confining for a 
season 12 setting hens- a simple tiling to 
mention, perhaps; nevertheless, it really is 
an important matter too often neglected. 
While not of the same date, it was only 
the day before that Mrs. Cook and self had 
the pleasure of seeing Atwood and his flying 
machine, on his way to New York, pass 
apparently 200 or 300 feet above us. while 
seated in our carriage in a favorable loca¬ 
tion in our Alfalfa field a wonderful sight, 
not soon to be forgotten. 
Genesee Co., N. Y. iuving d. cook. 
A Vermont Hen and Vegetable Farm. 
August 22 was retail market day on our 
vegetable and poultry farm. The alarm 
clock gets me out of bed at 4 a. m. I feed 
the horses, milk and feed rour cows which 
are kept partly to furnish skim-milk for the 
poultry; feed a young calf and a pig. sepa¬ 
rate the milk and put the cream into the 
cooler; feed about 650 hens and chickens, 
and am ready for breakfast, which, being 
a very light meal with me, is soon disposed 
of. Then the cows are turned out to pas¬ 
ture, the market wagon Is loaded with po¬ 
tatoes, cream, eggs, vegetables, etc., and at 
seven o’clock I am in the village, two miles 
from home, ready to commence the day’s 
sales. Business is very dull now, owing to a 
recent strike of the Granite Cutters’ Union, 
but by hustling have my load practically 
cleaned out just as the whistles are blowing 
for noon. But on a load of feed and reach 
home about 12.30. After dinner make rec¬ 
ord of day’s sales ; then dig potatoes for 
next market day. Well cared for early po¬ 
tatoes yield fairly well in spite of the ter¬ 
rible drought. I look over the Spring set 
strawberries in search of white grubs, and 
then work a while sharpening posts for 1 : 
fence which will enable me to turn the 
cows onto a field which is soon to become 
part of a lake which the village is putting 
in to furnish power for their electric plant. 
This lake will cover from 200 to 250 acres 
and will take parts of 11 farms in this 
vicinity. Work on the cement dam which 
will cost around $20,000 has just begun. 
About 4.30 the regular round of chores be¬ 
gins again. While I eat supper I read the 
daily paper which was printed in Boston 
this morning and comes to us on the stage 
which delivers our mail twice daily. After 
supper I go through the houses and cull 
out hens for market. Then the houses and 
stables are locked and at eight o’clock, 16 
hours from the time I started, I bring to a 
close the day’s work of one “independent 
farmer.” s. s. chandler. 
Vermont. 
Potatoes are a practical failure in large 
parts of Cambria, Somerset and Indiana 
Counties, Pennsylvania. Many fields have 
been abandoned as not worth digging. 
Drought is assuming alarming propor¬ 
tions here; all vegetation suffering. Late 
potatoes in bad condition, pastures burned 
out. Trees of late fruits are losing all 
the fruit by premature wilting. We have 
Kieffer pear trees 35 years old that are 
shedding their foliage and fruit drying up. 
There are hundreds of acres of corn that 
will be cut for fodder; no grain worth nam¬ 
ing on it. Breaking ground for wheat is 
out of the question ; 1901 was a year long 
to be remembered, but this one promises 
to outdo it. Drought of 1901 was broken 
here on October 27 by a very heavy gen¬ 
eral rain over the entire West. Should 
this one continue as long the loss in all 
lines will be almost irreparable. J. H. H. 
Carroll Co., Ind. 
