lull. 
1169V 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
Woman’s League Sued for $436. 
The Woman’s League, organized by E. 
G. Lewis, was sued yesterday by the R. 
Wallace and Sons Manufacturing Company 
for $436.77, which is alleged to be due for 
souvenir spoons. Five hundred solid silver 
spoons were bought at $591.67 and 912 
silver-plated spoons at $295.10. About 
$450 has been paid on the bill.—St. Louis 
Republic. 
The humor of this League farce can 
probably be appreciated by everyone ex¬ 
cept the victims; and they at last begin 
to realize the deception played on them 
by Lewis. When this League was or¬ 
ganized Lewis told the women that it 
would have no debts. He admits now 
under oath that the object was to induce 
the women to become subscription 
agents for his papers. But they were 
told that a membership costing them 
$52 each would be worth $1,000, and 
that the first 100,000 members would 
receive an income of $20 to $30 an¬ 
nually for life from a special endow¬ 
ment which he would personally do¬ 
nate to the League. He told them that 
the League would have a permanent en¬ 
dowment of $26,000,000, with a yearly 
income of $3,800,000, and that the ben¬ 
efits to each member would be the same 
no matter whether the total membership 
should reach the limit or not. 
Under the representation by Lewis 
that he was effecting a great organiza¬ 
tion for women with millions of endow¬ 
ments, and untold benefits, these women 
were induced to put up nearly $2,000,000 
for membership, paying $52 each. Later 
on the membership was increased to 
$100, but in the meantime Lewis had 
promised the first 100,000 members an 
endowment which would pay them $20 
to $30 annually for life. Then when 
he had won their confidence through 
some correspondence lessons, and other 
feeble attempts to make a showing of 
filling his promises to them, he sprung 
his gigantic debenture scheme, and not 
only got possession of papers showing 
his obligations and possibly criminal 
records, but also collected more new 
money on them besides. One of the 
counts in his indictment was based on 
the alleged misuse of these funds. 
The women at last begin to see that 
Mr. Lewis does not take them into his 
confidence, and that they have been 
misled not only in regard to financial 
affairs, but also in regard to the Gov¬ 
ernment officials and others who have 
sought to protect them from imposition 
and fraud. It has been repeatedly stated 
that Lewis sold worthless stocks and 
bonds and certificates to poor old men, 
widows, old ministers, washerwomen, 
and working people generally. This re¬ 
ferred in no way to members of the 
League, except that such individual vic¬ 
tims of his greed may be members. Yet 
Mr. Lewis tells them that they are all 
called widows and washerwomen, and 
dupes and imbeciles. Now they begin 
to see that the appellation was applied 
to them by Lewis himself and by no one 
else. The terms were never used, ex¬ 
cept by Lewis, as a reproach to anyone. 
It is no discredit to be old, or a widow, 
or a retired minister. It is a credit to 
be an honest washerwoman. The only 
discredit comes from enticing the earn¬ 
ings of such people from them under 
promises of big profits, and then giving 
them nothing of value in return for it. 
We knew how the women of the country 
would feel about these matters when 
they once understood them, and we 
have some notion of their embarrassment 
in finding that the League with which 
their names are connected is unable or 
unwilling to meet its obligations. 
A DAY ON A SO. FLORIDA TRUCK FARM. 
Saturday. November 11.—At 4.20—cen¬ 
tral time—the quick rattle of the clock an¬ 
nounces the approach of another busy day. 
November is planting time for the 'South 
Florida trucker, and calls for such activitie* 
as are demanded of the Northern trucker in 
April or May. In response to the summons 
I rise and dress, go to the kitchen, get the 
oil-stove going and put the kettle on. By 
this time the Madam appears and takes 
charge. I mount my bicycle as usual, run 
down the smooth rock road a quarter of a 
mile to the farm to feed .Tack and Tom. the 
mules. They have not yet come in, so I am 
obliged to go out into the pasture and in¬ 
vite them to breakfast. They are given 
grain and tied up, so they will be at hand 
when wanted for work. I return to the 
house by five o’clock, find breakfast readv 
and myself ready for breakfast. Bv the 
time breakfast is finished, it lacks but a 
few minutes of 5.30, the time to begin work. 
I mount my wheel and those few minutes 
are ample again to reach the farm. As I 
ride I note that the sun is just appearing 
above the horizon in its usual gorgeous 
setting of clouds that hover over the Gulf 
Stream. Arrived at the packing-house I 
find Ross, Joe, Octavius. Victor and Samuel 
on hand as usual. These are all colored 
men, and with the exception of Ross, who 
bails from “up State.” are all Bahamans 
or Nassaus as they are popularly called, 
from the chief city of the Islands. 
The farm comprises less than 22 acres 
under cultivation, devoted to only three 
crops, but it requires an immense amount of 
work for all that. There are two acres of 
'I'Ll £5 RURAL 
snap beans, nearly six acres of strawberries 
and something less than 14 acres of toma¬ 
toes. The beans have been planted just a 
week and are up and showing along the 
row nicely, an excellent stand. Four and a 
fourth acres of strawberries are in 12-inch 
rows, with paths between each four. These 
fruited last season and were carried 
through the Summer in good condition and 
give promise of a fine crop. An acre and a 
half more were grown in matted rows from 
plants set in May. Those will be fruited 
just as they stand, which is an experiment 
for this section. In fact that remark ap¬ 
plies to strawberry growing here in general. 
A few scattered blossoms are beginning 
to appear, so there is prospect of berries 
being fairly plentiful by Christmas. If I 
can find time I hope in the near future 
to write of the peculiarities of the straw¬ 
berry under these changed conditions. 
Tomatoes are the great crop in this sec¬ 
tion, and for some unexplained reason, prob¬ 
ably climatic, theer seems to be no end of 
annoyance and failure in the attempt to 
secure a stand this season. Many plants 
instead of taking root when set out, dwindle 
and die, and what do grow do not start 
with the usual vigor. I myself have 
replanted nine acres outright, and then 
there seems to be no end of resetting miss¬ 
ing hills. From all sides comes the same 
story. However, as the season advances 
conditions seem to improve. 
My! I have wandered off and pretty near¬ 
ly forgotten the day’s work. Where were 
we? Oh. yes, the men lined up ready for 
work. Well, here are orders : Ross hitches 
the mules in the cutaway, and continues the 
work ’of yesterday—preparing tomato rows 
for fertilizing. Joe, Octavius and Samuel 
go to the seed-bed and pull enough tomato 
plants to finish planting those 16 rows that 
were left last evening, something over an 
acre. Victor takes those two pails and 
delivers water from the pump at the new 
seed bed. while I sprinkle to wash down 
the fertilizer I applied last evening. Thus 
the day’s work starts. In less than an 
hour the seed-bed has been properly wetted 
down and the men have returned with what 
they think a sufficient quantity of plants. 
With a light marker I now draw the lines 
where the plants are to be set in the wide 
rows that have previously been prepared 
and fertilized. Samuel follows with a three- 
peg cross-marker, marking the place for two 
plants at each stroke. Victor drops plants 
and occasionally as he gains on Joe and 
Octavius who are setting them he sets a 
few himself. By the time they have set 
four rows Samuel and I have finished 
marking. He now drops plants, and Victor 
helps set while I drop the plants and set 
my row with the rest. After going around 
once in this way there are only four rows 
left. I leave the.men to finish, while I ar¬ 
range the preliminaries of the next job, 
which is wheel-hoeing and fertilizing the 
old strawberries. 
Joe is told to get what plants are needed, 
if any, and finish alone while the others 
are to come to the strawberry patch when 
the supply of plants is out. It is necessary 
to brush the fertilizer from the foliage of 
the strawberries to prevent burning; so 
armed with pruning shears I go to the pas¬ 
ture where grow a few clumps of tall tough 
wiry grass, locally known as “switch-grass.” 
Securing a quantity of this, with pliers and 
wire I soon form several brushes or brooms 
that are just the thing for the purpose. I 
next bring out the hand fertilizer-distributor 
and adjust it for the work in hand. By 
this time the three men arrive and two 
of them are sent to use the wheel hoes. As 
the chances are good for light showers in 
the near future and part of the field has 
already boon hoed I think it just as well 
to hoe before fertilizing. Joe soon appears 
and takes charge of the distributor, fertil¬ 
izing two rows at a time, that is going 
and returning on a four-row bed. 
By this time it is well nigh 10 o’clock. 
Samuel is new at the work and I have the 
task of initiating him in the effective use 
of his brush. It is characteristic of the 
Bahama negro that he is not a very apt 
pupil, but he can usually be depended upon 
for conscientious performance if he is thor¬ 
oughly taught. After various criticisms and 
retrials, he gets along all right and I take 
another brush and thus each taking a 
row we keep up with the distributor. 
After a few rounds I call Victor to take 
my brush, while I go to inspect the team 
work. I find the first stage of the work 
completed and at a point where it is neces¬ 
sary to reverse the disks. I help Ross 
with this and when we are through it is 11 
o’clock, time for dinner. The men go to 
the packing house to eat their noon lunch, 
while I mount my wheel and ride to the 
village, a quarter of a mile distant, for 
the mail. I get home by 11.13, eat dinner, 
look over the news a few minutes and by 
12 o’clock am again on the job. but I take 
the afternoon more leisurely. The work is 
all laid out and will run smoothly to the 
end of the day. I inspect the work of the 
brushers; make sure that the quantity of 
fertilizer going on is constant, then take 
the idle wheel-hoe and stir the soil of the 
seed-bed that was wetted in the morning, 
together with two others. As the sun de¬ 
clines I call Octavius to leave his hoe, get 
some tomato plants and reset some that 
burned in a sandy spot that was planted 
early the day before. Directly after 4 
o’clock I go to the house to write'the week¬ 
ly checks for the men. They receive $1 50 
per day, 10 hours. I return to the farm 
by 4.30. The sun is near the horizon, glim¬ 
mering through the distant pines that skirt 
the Everglades. The men put away their 
tools and remnant of fertilizer and are ready 
for their week’s reward. One more day 
and a busy week are completed. 
Dade Co., Florida. d. l. iiautman. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The entire business quar¬ 
ter of Ogden. Utah, was threatened by fire 
November 15. The loss will approach 
$750,000. The fire started in the Eccles 
Building, one of the largest structures in 
the city. 
Selden Bacon. John Howard Hill and 
Philip C. Clifford, trustees in bankruptcy 
for the United Wireless Telegraph Com¬ 
pany, appointed by the Federal Court in 
Maine, and two other creditors, the Na¬ 
tional Surety Company of New York and 
Herman G. Neuhoff of New Jersey, Novem¬ 
ber 17 filed a petition in bankruptcy in the 
United States District Court here against 
Christopher C. Wilson, former president of 
the company, now serving a term of im¬ 
prisonment in the Federal penitentiary at 
Atlanta. Ga. The claims of the petitioners 
aggregate $1,698,530.23, and insolvency, 
NEW-YORKER 
concealment of sums of money aggregating 
$700,000, and transfers made by Wilson to 
the Wilson Mining Company of Colorado, 
and of $300 to R. R. Robins, with intent 
to hinder, delay, and defraud creditors, are 
alleged in the petition. 
Thirteen indictments for rebating were 
filed November 17 by the Federal Grand 
Jury against railroad men and shippers of 
this city and Chicago. Until the findings, 
including 45 counts, were made public in 
the United States District Court, there 
had been not the slightest intimation that 
an inquiry into such charges was being 
conducted. Seldom had an investigation 
of the kind proceeded with such secrecy. 
It had been in progress many weeks. The 
railways concerned are the Baltimore Sc 
Ohio and the Lehigh Valley. 
The New York Up-State Public Service 
Commission in submitting to Controller 
Sohmer its estimate to< carry on its work 
for the next fiscal year, has asked for an 
appropriation of $550,000 for the elimination 
of grade crossings. This would provide 
$2,200,000 for grade crossing elminationn, 
the railroad companies paying one-half 
and the State and municipalities ’each 
one-quarter. The New York City Public 
Service Commission has asked for $1,000.- 
000 for grade crossing improvements in 
Greater New York. 
The sale of chewing gum at ships stores 
has been prohibited by order of acting 
Secretary of the Navy Winthrop. This 
order was issued upon the recommendation 
of Capt. William F. Fullam. commanding 
officer of the battleship Mississippi, which 
was approved by Rear Admiral Hugo Oster- 
baus, commander in chief of the Atlantic 
battleship fleet. 
The thriving village of West Winfield, 
a dozen miles south of Utica. N. Y., suf¬ 
fered severely by fire November 17. The 
thermometer registered nearly zero and 
suffering was intense among those whose 
homes were burned. The loss will reach 
$60,000. 
Judge Christian C. Kohlsaat, in the 
United States Circuit. Court November 18 
quashed the beef packers’ temporary writs 
of habeas corpus, which they obtained a 
few days before in an attempt to delay 
the trial of the criminal case against them. 
Judge Kohlsaat held that the Circuit Court 
had no power to issue a writ except in 
extraordinary circumstances and that the 
present case was without the right. The 
government has thus won another move 
in its fight to bring to trial the nine in¬ 
dicted heads of the Beef Trust. In the 
hope of getting some court to declare the 
provisions of the Sherman Anti-Trust law 
unconstitutional, eight of the nine packers 
surrendered themselves to the United States 
deputy marshal at Chicago and obtained 
temporary writs of habeas corpus, on the 
technical ground that they were being 
“imprisoned.” 
Chinook winds and more heavy rain 
increased the floods November 19 through¬ 
out western Washington. Many rivers 
are at record height and have stopped 
t.ransmiountain service on the Northern 
Pacific, the Great Northern and the Mil¬ 
waukee railways, which have thousands of 
men clearing away landslides and rebuild¬ 
ing washed out tracks. Bellingham was 
isolated by flood waters. The flood covers 
four miles of track near Stanwood on tjie 
Great Northern’s coast line. At Silvana 
the water was six feet deep in the streets. 
The tracks are under w’ater between Sedore 
and Lyman. Part of Renton, a suburb of 
Seattle, was under water from the overflow 
of the Cedar River. Parts of the Puyallup, 
White and Stuck valleys, between Tacoma 
and Seattle, are great inland lakes. The 
flooding of the valleys cut off a large 
part of the milk supply of Tacoma ana 
Seattle. One big dairy herd was marooned 
on an island near Auburn. Milkers reached 
the cows with boats. 
The Hudson County, N. J„ Grand Jury 
continued in Jersey City November 19 the 
charge of conspiracy made by Eugene ,T. 
Schwarz, the president of the Schwarz 
Brothers Company, of Harrison, N. 
against two employes and several govern¬ 
ment inspectors. The company has a 
horse meat pickling factory at Harrison. 
Schwarz says the company’s plant was en¬ 
tered surreptitiously at night several times 
by government officers, aided by two of his 
employes. A result of the investigation 
has been the beginning of five suits by 
the State Board of Health against the 
Schwarz Brothers Company in the First 
District Court of Jersey City, for violation 
of the pure food and sanitary slaughter¬ 
house laws. Schwarz says the plant was 
open at all times for government officers, 
and that there was no reason for surrep¬ 
titious visits; that none of the product of 
the factory was sold or delivered in this 
country, and that the business was carried 
on with the knowledge of the diplomatic 
officers of The Netherlands, in which the 
product is sold. 
William J. Cummins, the Nashville pro¬ 
moter. was found guilty November 20 of 
the larceny of $140,000 out of a fund de¬ 
posited with the Carnegie Trust Company 
of New York. District Attorney Whitman 
will move to have a day set for the trial 
of Charles H. Hyde, former City Chamber- 
lain, who was indicted on May I last for 
bribery under a section of the Penal Law 
which relates to malfeasance by public 
officers. The indictment was based on evi¬ 
dence that Hyde when City Chamberlain 
forced the Northern Bank to lend $130,000 
to the Carnegie Trust Company and that 
he was a gainer by the transaction. The 
proceedings against the former City Cham¬ 
berlain grew out of the fact that there 
were heavy deposits of the city’s money 
made in banks that immediately before or 
immediately afterward lent large amounts 
to Cummins, then controlling factor of the 
Carnegie Trust Company. 
Unless the American Sugar Refining 
Company comes to a settlement with New 
York City within a short time for its ar¬ 
rears in water charges there is a strong 
possibility that the water supply of the 
refineries will be cut off. In March of this 
year the sugar company sought to have the 
city restrained from taking the steps which 
are now seriously considered. At that 
time Morgan J. O’Brien, who was appointed 
referee in the case, reported against the 
injunction when he found that the company 
had been taking water illicitly through by¬ 
passes. In his opinion, however, the ref¬ 
eree said that the city’s bill, which was 
for $525,000. was excessive and that he 
thought one-third of this amount would 
be nearer the mark. The city officials are 
not willing to accept this amount, and 
unless the sugar company is willing to make 
a better settlement very soon it will have 
to do its refiniDg without water. The 
city has never prosecuted to judgment «. 
suit for the arrears. 
A comprehensive investigation of steel 
rails from the furnace t& the time they are 
laid in the track is recommended by Chief 
Inspector Harry Belknap of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission as the result of the 
investigation conducted by him into the 
wreck on the Lehigh Valley Railroad near 
Manchester, N. Y., on August 25, 1911, in 
which 29 lives were lost and 62 persons 
were injured. According to the report a 
broken rail caused the derailment of the 
heavy train, which consisted of 14 coaches 
and two engines. It was known as a 
“piped” rail, but according to James E. 
Howard of the bureau of standards, an 
expert in steel structure, it also developed 
a new defect, which he designates as “trans¬ 
verse fissures,” a far more dangerous de¬ 
fect than “piping” and one which could be 
due to service and could not be detected 
before being laid or in course of manufac¬ 
ture. “Piping.” it is stated, is due to de¬ 
fect in manufacture. Mr. Howard says 
that the development of these transverse 
fissures suggests that the limit of wheel 
pressure has been reached and probably sur¬ 
passed on rails of the usual width and 
shape of head and that the increasing oc¬ 
currence of accidents of this character is 
a ■warning of this fact. 
Mary Dugan, who came to the States 
from a small town in Ontario 10 years 
ago, acquired a knowledge of business af¬ 
fairs in Boston and then came on to New 
York in search of a wider field, was in¬ 
dicted November 21 by a Federal Grand 
Jury for fraudulent use of the mails. She 
is said to be the first woman indicted as 
a principal in such a case. The case in 
which Miss Dugan is involved has to do 
with the sale of the stock of the Manhattan 
Real Estate Company. Along with Miss 
Dugan the Federal Grand Jury returned 
indictments against James C. Gavigan, 
Irving J. Isbell and George riane of J. 
C. Gavigan & Co., Herron Rayley, ex¬ 
president of the Manhattan Real Estate 
Company; Arthur S. Frederick and George 
R. Euell. The indictments contain five 
counts. They charge that the defendants 
made false representations—using the mails 
to do so—regarding the desirability of in¬ 
vesting in the properties of the Manhattan 
Real Estate Company, namely, Llnderhurst 
Square, North Babylon Park, Higbie Park, 
Linden Beach and Richmond Hill. It was 
represented, according to the indictment, 
that the equities in these properties were 
of large value and that the Manhattan 
Real Estate Company was in a prosperous 
and sound financial condition. It also was 
represented that the company was paying 
3 per cent dividends quarterly out of the 
earnings. The prospectuses told of large 
sums of money spent for improvements and 
added that the company had assets on hand 
exceeding in value the par value of all the 
authorized capital stock. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The twenty-sixth 
annual meeting of the Oregon State Horti¬ 
cultural Society was held at Portland, Ore., 
November 15-17. Valuable papers on the 
cultivation of fruits and their marketing 
and on trees and planting were read and 
discussed. 
The British Columbia Nurserymen’s Asso¬ 
ciation was formed at a gathering of nur¬ 
serymen in Victoria recently and the fol¬ 
lowing officers elected: Richard Lavritz, 
Victoria, president; C. A. S. Atwood, Grand 
Forks, vice-president; Ricliard McComb, 
Aldergrove, secretary and treasurer; V. 
Crawley Ricardo, Vernon ; Charles L. Trot¬ 
ter, Vancouver, and the officers ex-officio, 
executive committee. 
Melon growers of Alabama, Georgia, Flor¬ 
ida and the Carolinas apeared November 21 
before Commissioner Charles A. Prouty of 
the Interstate Commerce Commission at the 
New York Custom House and declared that 
12.8 railroads had hurt the watermelon 
industry by discriminative freight rates. 
Richard J. Donovan represented the com¬ 
plainants. He said that the grievance of 
the plaintiffs went back to 1902, when the 
railroads refused to deliver melons at the 
Manhattan piers, as had been the custom, 
and forced the complainants to pay five 
cents a hundred to get the melons over 
from Jersey City. The result of this 
change was a paralysis of the business in 
this city. C. W. Mathis, called the 
“watermelon king,” testified that formerly 
a carload of a thousand watermelons cost 
the grower $70, but that now he had to 
pay $90. T. O. Lawton gave testimony of 
similar import. The case will be consid¬ 
ered finally in Washington in February. 
The report to the Winnipeg Board of 
Trade November 15 on the condition of 
the 1911 crop shows that 75 per cent of 
thrashing has been completed in Manitoba, 
and 50 per cent in Saskatchewan. In 
Winnipeg 44,921,810 bushels of wheat have 
already been inspected and there is now 
in store in interior elevators fully 18,000,- 
000 bushels more, so that, including 3,700,- 
000 in transit, not inspected, 66,621,810 
bushels are safe. 
The New York State Humane Societies’ 
convention at Auburn November 15 adopted 
a resolution appointing a committee to ob¬ 
tain the enactment of the “old horse trar- 
fie bill” to prevent the sale of wornout 
horses; a resolution to ask President Taft 
and Congress to name a commission to 
investigate slaughter houses here and 
abroad, with a view to enacting Federal 
laws to prevent cruelty, and another di¬ 
recting the law committee to draft an 
amendment to the State transfer tax law 
providing for exemption from taxation for 
legacies left to anti-cruelty societies. 
The second annual meeting of the North¬ 
ern Nut Growers’ Association will be held 
at New York College of Agriculture, Ithaca, 
N. Y.. December 14-15. A variety of topics 
will be discussed. Anyone interested in 
nut growing is eligible as a member. Rob¬ 
ert T. Morris of New York is president 
of the Association. 
Columbia University, New York, offers, 
beginning November 22, a series of 16 lec¬ 
tures on “Economic Agriculture.” The lec¬ 
ture's will be held at 4.30 p. m. on Wednes¬ 
days, in Schermerhorn Hall. Here are 
some of the subjects and the speakers: 
“How a City Man can Succeed in Farming,” 
by Professor O. S. Morgan; “Agricultural 
Possibilities About New York City ” by 
George T. Powell; “Soil BacteriaTheir 
Importance and How to Control Them Ad¬ 
vantageously,” by Jacob T. Lipman, director 
of the New Jersey Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Station; “Practical Problems in De¬ 
poning the Dairy Herd,” by Professor 
Henry Wing. 
