1911. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
967 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
E. G. Lewis shows the sort of mau he 
is when he says he feels so happy and care 
free now. I suppose he does, but a true 
man would feel worse than death to think 
of the misery and anguish lie has caused 
by his deception of the thousands of vic¬ 
tims. many of whom, like myself, are ac¬ 
tually suffering for the need of their money 
which they let him have. If there is no 
way to punish that man then there is no 
use having laws. He has boldly printed 
enough to show what he is, if one will but 
follow his story through the files of his 
paper during the past seven years. 
What induced me specially to invest in 
his Publishing Company after his bank 
was closed up, was the enormous dividends 
and extra surplus he promised us, and his 
promise to give up all the many different 
businesses he was connected with, except 
his real estate holdings in University City 
and his publishing business, and he said 
he should henceforth devote- his entire 
time and energy to these two alone, and 
he would make the Publishing Company 
the greatest dividend payer in the country, 
etc. At that time I believed in him and 
trusted to him to keep his word. 
A VICTIM. 
People who know how Lewis swin¬ 
dled the old stockholders of the defunct 
bank by shunting the stock into worth¬ 
less other stocks and notes, read with 
humor the reports of Lewis’ experts 
and the sworn testimony of Lewis him¬ 
self that the stockholders were paid in 
full. But the actual victims, like the 
above writer, read such statements and 
testimony with sickening disgust. There 
is no humor in it for them. The truth 
is the great majority of these stockhold¬ 
ers never got a cent except the little 
two per cent, evidently paid in the hope 
of influencing more sales of stock. While 
he had promised that no one concerned 
could borrow from the bank, before the 
bank was six months in business, he had 
borrowed from it for himself and his 
concerns, nearly a million dollars, for 
which the bank held notes. He was 
without means to liquidate these notes, 
and if forced to a sale by the receiver, 
it is doubtful if anything could be real¬ 
ized on them. But Lewis persuaded the 
bank stockholders to turn their stock 
over to him in exchange for $500,000 
of worthless trustee notes and for 
$1,200,000 of equally worthless Publish¬ 
ing Company stock, the stock of the 
Publishing Company being increased by 
$2,300,000 for the purpose—watered. 
This swap of watered stock and worth¬ 
less notes to the amount of $1,700,000 
for bank stock, which had been paid for 
in cash at par, and which yet had some 
cash value, is what they now call paying 
in full. And Lewis actually goes 
before a Congressional committee and 
tells of the trick as if it were a 
virtuous transaction. He says: “They 
were 21 years of age,” intimating 
that it was a mere business transaction 
in which he dealt with business people. 
He lied, as usual. Some of these vic¬ 
tims were not 21 years of age. They 
were mere children, and many of them 
had no experience to guide them in such 
transactions. Many, like this woman, 
trusted confidingly in him, and put him 
on his honor for all that she had in the 
world. Now he cynically tells her she 
was 21 years of age, and ought to know 
enough to keep out of fake schemes. 
This woman says she was led to be¬ 
lieve in Lewis because of the stories he 
printed about his love for his wife (a 
reason to us for being suspicious of 
him). So she wrote him and stated 
her condition. She had $600 left. She 
was an invalid herself. Her husband 
and child were also invalids, and this 
was all she had. She must invest it, 
she told him, where she could at once 
begin to draw dividends from it. Lewis 
wrote her in his reply to invest every cent 
she had with him, and promised such 
profits that it would “burn her hands.” 
That was nearly eight years ago, Since 
then two per cent, is all she has ever 
seen in the way of the promised profits. 
Later, when new misfortunes overtook 
her, she wrote again in pitiful appeals 
not for herself, but for the life of her 
invalid child, but Lewis refused even 
to acknowledge her letters. The story 
is one to soften the heart of the most 
hardened wretch. Few people could 
read it with dry eyes. Yet a woman of 
culture and refinement, she shrinks from 
publicity, and hesitates to make a public 
complaint. This sentiment has sup¬ 
pressed many a distressing tale that has 
resulted from the Lewis schemes. But 
in her distress and suffering one can 
well sympathize with her feelings when 
she reads the Lewis braggadocio about 
happiness and comfort. 
Yet with such records in remote coun¬ 
try places, Lewis has had the effrontery 
to go before a Congressional committee 
and say under oath that stockholders 
of the bank were paid in full, and again 
that he paid those who were in distress. 
We have never read a more pitiable or 
dignified tale of distress than is told by 
this good woman, who exhausted every 
means of appeal on Lewis for the sake 
of her invalid child. She appealed in 
vain. 
NEWS FROM ALBANY, N. Y. 
The Deadly Guai>e Crossing. —Accord¬ 
ing to tables prepared by the Up-State Pub¬ 
lic Service Commission New York State has 
expended since 1897 for the elimination of 
railroad grade crossings a total of $2,850,- 
10<5. Considering the great railroad mile¬ 
age in the State this expenditure is ridicu¬ 
lously small in comparison with the amount 
expended by Massachusetts in a period 
just half again as long—$8,809,021. There 
still remain, outside the city of New York, 
8,032 places where the public highways 
cross steam railroad tracks at grade, of 
which 0,503 are absolutely unprotected by 
gates, flagmen or electric bells. 
Detection of Forest Fires.— All 
through the Adirondack forest preserve ob¬ 
servatories are being erected to aid in the 
detection of lires which might in the future 
break out in vicinity forests. The observa¬ 
tories will be equipped with powerful 
glasses, which will enable those in charge 
to ascertain in short order the location of 
incipient blazes; also, where possible, with 
telephones, thus affording an opportunity to 
fight them before they become of great 
magnitude. The observatories will be in¬ 
habited by a watcher for the entire 24 
hours of the day, and the period of obser¬ 
vation will be maintained from June until 
November, the principal fire season. 
Recent State Publications.— The De¬ 
partment of Agriculture has issued as Bul¬ 
letin No. 27 the agricultural law of the 
State, complete up to September. It is a 
pamphlet of 108 pages, and may be had 
upon application to the department. The 
Conservation Commission is sending out a 
large half-sheet poster of fish and game 
seasons, which gives complete information 
to the hunter and fisherman as to what 
they may and may not legally do. So 
many requests for information were re¬ 
ceived from those desiring to start skunk 
farms that this paragraph was included: 
“Propagation of skunks is permitted under 
the authority of a license issued by the 
Conservation Commission, provided, how¬ 
ever, that such skunks shall not be taken 
wild during the close season (March 15- 
November 1), and that such skunks shall 
not be disposed of in any way during such 
close season.” 
Another Railroad Across New York 
State.— The eastern capitalists, who for 
more than two years past have been striv¬ 
ing to obtain the consent of the Up-State 
Public Service Commission to construct a 
railroad from Buffalo to Troy, to be 
known as the Buffalo, Rochester and East¬ 
ern, state that they will not be deterred by 
the refusal of the commission to grant the 
necessary certificates, but will push the 
matter in the courts. They claim that pub¬ 
lic convenience and necessity require an¬ 
other railroad across the State. It is in¬ 
teresting to note that farmers of the west¬ 
ern section assert that while the hearings 
were in progress during the past two or 
three years, and while the New York Cen¬ 
tral and other roads were vigorously op¬ 
posing the application of the B. If. & E., 
there was never a time that freight cars 
for the shipment of peaches and other 
fruits could not be had in abundance, but 
that now. in the same sections, since it is 
thought the proposed new road to be killed 
forever, there is an exceeding great scarcity 
of cars and they are so difficult to obtain 
that fruit growers are experiencing great 
difficulty in marketing their products. 
Farm for Women Delinquents.— Many 
years ago the Women’s Prison Association 
of New York began an agitation for a farm 
to which unfortunate women might be sent 
—the class which is now being sent for 
vagrancy and drunkenness to Blackwell's 
Island and to county jails on short sen¬ 
tences. It was believed that these women, 
not girls, many of them if given a chance 
away from their evil surroundings, and an 
opportunity of rehabilitating their self- 
respect might become decent members of 
society. Finally the ladies interested in 
the problem prevailed, and an appropriation 
was obtained from the Legislature; a farm 
purchasinl in Columbia County, plans drawn 
by the State architect and approved, and 
before another month passes it is expected 
that building operations will begin. There 
will be but two cottages built this Fall, 
though the complete plan shows an admin¬ 
istration building, a hospital, shop building, 
chapel, 18 cottages with a capacity of 25 
inmates and a reception cottage to accom¬ 
modate 50 persons. The inmates are actu¬ 
ally to work the farm, and it is hoped that 
the c*lony will be practically self-support¬ 
ing. 
Army Post for Albany.— It is an inter¬ 
esting fact that Albany is the only capital 
of any of those of the original 13- States 
that was never in the possession of a for¬ 
eign enemy, and doubtless its position at 
the head of navigation on the Hudson 
River and its being the natural gateway 
for the Mohawk and other smaller valleys 
lead the authorities at Washington to af¬ 
firm that it is the most important strategic 
point on the Atlantic seaboard. The mem¬ 
bers of this State in Congress are being 
urged by the Legislature to advocate a 
post of the United States array here, and 
the movement is likely to succeed, as the 
War Department at Washington is under¬ 
stood to be in favor of such location. 
The Producer’s Dollar.— There is con¬ 
firmatory evidence that the producer’s dol¬ 
lar is still attractive in the fact that since 
the first of the present month the Secretary 
of State has filed incorporation papers of 
dealers in farm produce with an aggregate 
capital stock of more than a quarter mil¬ 
lion of dollars, most of whom will operate 
in Greater New Y’ork. 
The Longest Session.— The Legislature 
of 1911 is still in session, and no Legisla¬ 
ture of this State has ever had so lengthy a 
session as this, not even in Colonial times, 
which were supposed to be slow. There is, 
however, a slight hope that the end is in 
sight. Tammany desires a new charter for 
the greater city of New York, but this may 
not be enacted unless certain modifications 
are made from the form in which the meas¬ 
ure was presented last week. If the char¬ 
ter be not passed, then it is feared that all 
hope of a direct primary bill must be given 
up. The friends of Governor Dix assert 
that he is steadfast in his demands for 
such a measure, and will not permit the 
Legislature to get away without taking ac¬ 
tion of some sort upon the question whether 
the people may select their own candidates 
for office, or be compelled to put up with 
those named by political bosses. 
Chestnut Tree Blight Conference.— 
It is now planned to have a conference be¬ 
tween the representatives of the forestry 
and allied, departments of the Federal gov¬ 
ernment and of those States now affected 
by the chestnut tree disease, together with 
experts from the principal agricultural ex¬ 
periment stations to consider what may be 
done to check the blight, to be held in 
Albany on or about the 20th of October. 
It is asserted that up to this time no rem¬ 
edy for the blight has been discovered, and 
that the sole hope of saving the chestnut 
trees in the western portions of the State 
lies in quarantining them. j. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The Grand Jury at Butler, 
Fa., which investigated dynamiting out¬ 
rages and other acts of violence along the 
line of the I’ittsburg, Harmony, Butler and 
New Castle Railway Company, indicted, 
September 13, 20 labor leaders and former 
employees of the company. Among those 
named by the Grand Jury are J. J. Thorpe, 
of Pittsburg, international vice-president of 
the Amalgamated Association of Street and 
Electric Railway Employees, and C. A. 
Betts, president of the Harmony local union 
of the association. Sixteen of the men are 
charged with conspiracy to dynamite cars, 
and several arc charged with conspiracy to 
soap or grease the tracks. 
A storm that ripped off the roof of the 
State House, smashed plate glass windows 
right and left, rocked homes and terror¬ 
ized people throughout the city, uprooted 
many trees and snatched the limbs off hun¬ 
dreds of others, struck Springfield. Ill., Sep¬ 
tember 13, causing a loss variously esti¬ 
mated at from $200,000 to $400,000. The 
principal loss was in trees along the bou- 
levarded streets and avenues of the south¬ 
west part of the city. It will take $50,000 
to replace the State House roof. The cop¬ 
per sheeting was rolled up by the wind and 
tossed to the lawn below. The glass door 
of the Dome Building at the fair grounds 
was shattered and the roof was blown off 
the Slattley plow works. 
The entire force of New Orleans street 
cleaners, one fire company with all its ap¬ 
paratus, and three gangs from the parish 
prison spent September 13 killing flies. The 
flies were in the molasses that flooded the 
streets September 11 when the reservoir of 
the Sugar Planters Storage and Distribut¬ 
ing Company burst, letting 600.000 gallons 
escape. Flies were not the only trouble. 
Great swarms of ants installed themselves 
in stores, and homes. Several other bugs, 
genus unknown to local experts, also put 
in an appearance and varied a molasses 
diet with anything else edible in the vicin¬ 
ity. The official scavengers started by using 
chloride of lime as a disinfectant, but 
ended with anything that would smell bad 
and have a tendency to discourage the 
aggressions of flies, ants and bugs. Crude 
kerosene blended its perfume with carbolic 
acid and creosote provided a welcome relief 
to nostrils satiated with the stench of 
spoilt cane juice. Dead shrimp by the mil¬ 
lion and thousands of fishes are floating on 
the surface of Lake Pontchartrain as a re¬ 
sult of their feeding on molasses which 
came from the sewers. 
Twenty-one persons, men, women and 
children, who were saved from death in 
the tropics by the crew of a United Fruit 
Company vessel, were brought to New Or¬ 
leans September 14. The 21 are what is 
left of a party that went some time ago 
from Polk County. Fla., to form a colony 
at Arminion, 18 miles from Ceiha, on the 
coast of Honduras. They fared badly from 
the start and finally an epidemic broke out 
among them. Five of their number died 
and the living had given up hope of deliv¬ 
erance when they were found by the crew 
of the vessel. The 21 were victims of fever 
and were without medicine, food or friends. 
The refugees were removed to the Charity 
Hospital. Mayor Behrman has completed 
arrangements for free transportation to 
Tampa. 
A plan to beat the so-called beef trust 
at its own game has been adopted by the 
Consumers’ and Producers’ Congress ex¬ 
ecutive committee at Fort Worth, Tex. The 
new organization, supported by the Texas 
Cattle. Raisers’ Association, will organize 
and incorporate a selling company or 
bureau with a capital of $3,000,000. The 
company will have branch offices in New 
York, Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. 
The corporation will handle the entire 
marketing of livestock for the Southwest 
and will force the packing houses, as far 
as possible, to buy through its bureau in¬ 
stead of direct from the rancher. With 
large yard facilities, the central bureau 
expects to be able to hold shipments and 
thereby compel the packing houses to meet 
the producers’ terms. The headquarters of 
the new company will be at Fort Worth, 
TeX. 
The local board of health at South Nor¬ 
walk, Conn., Septemlier 15 decided to make 
the picking of mushrooms and toadstools 
a misdemeanor, subject to a fine or jail 
penalty. This section of the country near 
the salt water abounds in mushrooms, and 
the poor people during August and Sep¬ 
tember obtain a good portion of their food 
from them. The poisonous toadstool also 
abounds, and few can tell the difference. 
A city ordinance prohibiting the gathering 
of the fungi is to be offered. Several fa¬ 
talities have occurred from toadstools. 
After two months spent in the Rockies 
Dr. W. Collie and A. I.. Mumun. of Lon¬ 
don, returned to Edmonton. Alberta, Sep¬ 
tember 18. Their explorations led them 
into hitherto untravelled regions north¬ 
west of Mount Robson. They had two 
pack horses. In some places the forests 
were so hard to penetrate that the way 
had to be cut through. They made several 
discoveries. In one place they came across 
two great glaciers, perhaps larger than any 
known to exist in the Rockies, and sighted 
a towering peak that had the appearance 
of being even higher than Mount Robson. 
One of the glaciers was 40 to 50 miles in 
length and seven or eight miles in width 
and of striking formation. 
Sheriff De Mott, of Nassau County, New 
York, received an order September 18 from 
the Bureau of Agriculture instructing him 
to establish a dog quarantine in Oyster 
Bay Township. According to the orders of 
the bureau, no dogs may be taken from 
the township without a special permit, nor 
any dogs admitted until further instruc¬ 
tions. Last Spring dogs supposed to have 
rabies bit several horses and cows. The 
township appealed to the bureau for aid, 
and so urgent became the appeals that the 
bureau decided to act. Much surprise was 
expressed with it was learned that the 
County of. Nassau would have to bear the 
expense of the quarantine, which will in¬ 
clude putting up posters and the employ¬ 
ment of deputies to see that the orders of 
the bureau are carried out strictly. 
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley’s inspection force 
of the Pure Food Department made public 
September 19 the results of an investiga- 
tion of a New Jersey “rendering plant,” 
which has lately combined the business of 
preparing “pickled horse moat” for Euro¬ 
pean consumption with that of manufac¬ 
turing fertilizer and other products from 
the carcasses of animals. Eugene J. Schwarz, 
of the Schwarz Brothers Company, of 
Kearny, N. J., which is the concern named 
by the Federal investigators, stated that 
no diseased horses or horses dead by other 
moans than slaughter, were converted into 
pickled . meat for human consumption, 
though m this he is not supported by the 
reports of the V ilcy men. The Federal in- 
soectors turned the case over to the New 
Jersey State Board of Health at the last 
minute, however, because an interstate and 
international shipment which would have 
brought the matter into the jurisdiction of 
*' s mon ." as ^Hd U P an <! delayed. 
Mr Schwarz said that the main business 
of his firm had been the rendering of dead 
animals into fertilizer and other products. 
In the course of that business thev are 
often called upon, he said, to remove ani¬ 
mals which had been in prime condition, 
but which were killed because of a broken 
leg or some injury not affecting the health 
of tno HTiimHl. As this kind of roent was 
considered proper food in some European 
countries the firm took up the business of 
pickling and exporting horse moat, and to 
that end endeavored to secure United 
States inspection and tagging of their pro¬ 
duct. Solicitor McCabe, of the Department 
of Agriculture, however, said Mr. Schwarz, 
ruled that the meat inspection law did not 
take cognizance of horse meat, and under 
that ruling inspection was denied them. 
That got them into trouble with the gov¬ 
ernment of Holland, but the trouble was 
later smoothed out by an agreement of the 
Schwarz firm to have their product in¬ 
spected and certified by a veterinarian. 
COMING FARMERS’ MEETINGS. 
Apple Carnival, Martinsburg, W. Va„ Sep¬ 
tember 27-29. 
«^ I I linois state Fair > Springfield. September 
20-October 7. 
og New Jersey Fair, Trenton, September 25- 
^Connecticut state Fair, Berlin, September 
Connecticut Pomological Society, Berlin, 
September 26. 
Good Roads Convention, Roanoke, Va„ 
October 4-5. 
National Nut Association, Mobile, Ala., 
October 5-7. 
Virginia State Fair, Richmond, October 
9-14. 
Massachusetts Poultry Association, Am¬ 
herst. October 11-12. 
New England Fruit Show, Boston, Mass.. 
October 23-28. 
National Dairy Show, Chicago, Ill.. Oc¬ 
tober 26-Novomber 4. 
National Creamery Butter Makers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, Chicago, November 1-3. 
Indiana Apple Show, Indianapolis, No¬ 
vember 6-11. 
Maine Corn and Fruit Show, Portland, 
November 6-11. 
Massachusetts Corn Show, Springfield, 
Mass., November 11-18. 
Boston Chamber of Commerce Agricul¬ 
tural Exhibit, October 2-31. 
American Road Congress, Richmond, Va., 
November 20-23. 
Maine Seed Improvement Association, 
Waterville, November 21-23. 
National Apple Show, Spokane, Wash., 
November 27-30. 
Conventions Pennsylvania Live Stock and 
Horticultural Associations, Duquesnc Gar¬ 
den, Pittsburg, January 15-20. 
Livingston County, N. Y., Poultry Show, 
January 16-19, 1912. 
The Maine State Granges and Direct Pri¬ 
maries. 
I would like to reply briefly to the criti¬ 
cism of “A Maine Farmer” on page 904. 
This is more particularly desirable, as The 
R. N.-Y r . is the only paper I know of that 
circulates among the farmers of the State 
that has taken a stand in favor of direct 
primaries, or to which they could look for 
a fair and unbiased statement of the ques¬ 
tions at issue. 
“A Maine Farmer” speaks slurritigly of 
the work of the Grange and says: “Just 
think of it! The State Grange ait the field 
meetings held all over the State, this month, 
has had speakers on ‘good roads,’ ‘parcels 
post’ and ‘prohibition,’ hut not a cent has 
been spent to talk direct primaries.” Now, 
what are the facts? Let us see. The 
State Grange held 18 field meetings in 
August, one in every county and two in 
Aroostook and Oxford counties. At 15 of 
these meetings the best speaker upon direct 
primaries to be obtained, was present, and 
had a fair amount of time allotted to him. 
The only reason there was no speaker at 
the other three meetings was because none 
could be obtained. 
Nor is this all. At every field meeting 
last year direct primaries had a prominent 
place on the programme, and the 12,000 
petitioners, who initiated the bill were ob¬ 
tained largely through the Granges or peti¬ 
tions sent from the State Grange. Now 
that the bill has become a law by a vote 
of three to one majority, the people of the 
State may thank the Grange for its efforts, 
and rest assured that without them this at¬ 
tempt at self government would have sig¬ 
nally failed, and the first attempt to enact 
a law by the people would have gone for 
naught, and their last condition of political 
bossism would have been worse than the 
first. B. WALKER M’KEEN. 
Maine. 
