THE RURA-I> NEW-YORKER 
567 
1912 . 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
Nine of the 12 jurymen in the fa¬ 
mous St. Louis case voted that E. G. 
Lewis had used the United States mails 
with intent to defraud. Three of them 
refused to vote to convict. After being 
out 72 hours and declaring their inabil¬ 
ity to agree, the jury was discharged 
and a mistrial declared. 
The charge of the judge to the jury 
was clear and definite. According to 
all our reports it indicated a prompt 
conviction. The following paragraphs 
from the charge are taken from St. 
Louis daily papers: 
“Statements of fact,” the judge said, 
“promises as to future rewards, expressions 
of opinion and assurances of profits if 
made for the purpose of getting money 
or property are frauds. Nothing is more 
deceptive than speeches, promises and high- 
sounding phrases holding out sure profits. 
This the framers of the statute against 
the unlawful use of the mails knew well. 
“The significant fact,” Judge Amidon 
continued, “in an indictment for using the 
mails fraudulently, is whether the iutent or 
purpose is honest or deceitful. Schemes 
involving representations of fact, assur¬ 
ances of past, present or future conditions, 
if they are believed to be uutrue, are de¬ 
ceptive. The most successful of these 
schemes are those that are cloaked in the 
best legal form. 
“Nothing is more persuasive than our 
postal system. All the wealth and power 
of the Government is committed to carry 
the letter or newspaper, swiftly and 
secretly to its destination. It is entirely 
manifest that as an agency it could be 
very readily used for fraudulent schemes. 
The law is to forbid the carrying out of 
any schemes to defraud with the help of 
the vast, beneficent postal system. 
“If Lewis, by intentional deception, led 
people to pay over money to his compan¬ 
ies his belief that he could return the 
money without loss would not condone the 
wrong of getting it by deception.” 
In reference to the six per cent Univer¬ 
sity Heights Realty notes Judge Amidon 
said the evidence showed that the notes 
were advertised as first mortgage securi¬ 
ties, but that when they were sent out 
some were first mortgage, some were trust 
deed notes and some were unsecured. 
“The advertisements represented that 
the property would be improved by the 
money received from the six per cent notes, 
but 'what did he actually do with the 
money?" went on the Judge. “Did he ac¬ 
tually use it to improve the property of 
the University Heights Realty and De¬ 
velopment Co.? We find that he spent only 
*70,000 improving that property and $10,- 
000 acquiring other property.” 
The Judge carefully discussed the evi¬ 
dence pertaining to the issue of unsecured 
notes to investors who had testified they 
expected to get secured notes. He asked 
the jury if Lewis had intended the reci¬ 
pients of these notes to know they were 
unsecured or secured. 
“It has been testified here,” said Judge 
Amidon, “that circular letters were sent 
out to investors explaining that the notes 
they were getting were unsecured. This is 
persuasive evidence, it seems to me, that 
Lewis understood that the subscribers be¬ 
lieved they were getting secured notes for 
their money. 
“If he wanted them to know what they 
were getting, why didn’t he unequivocally 
and unmistakably tell them that they were 
getting unsecured notes so that the whole 
matter would be a plaiu, honest, open busi¬ 
ness transaction?” 
“In view of what he discovered, why 
didn’t he abandon his circular letter and 
write in his magazines an advertisement 
which would clearly state that these notes 
were not secured notes, but were wholly 
unsecured ?” 
Judge Amidon discussed the $600,000 
seven per cent note issue at length. He 
said that it was represented that the note 
issue would be limited to that sum, and 
that the notes would be paid promptly at 
maturity, and that they were a safe and 
profitable investment. “The indictment 
charges that Lewis knew that this was 
untrue,” said Judge Amidon. 
“It charges that he made these represen¬ 
tations to beguile the people out of their 
money. On the other hand, the defendant 
claims, the representations were true and 
made with the honest intention of being 
carried out. 
“Which is right? Is the Government 
right or Lewis?” 
The Judge outlined the charges with ref¬ 
erence to the Lewis Publishing Co. pre¬ 
ferred stock, which in the advertisements 
was represented as a profitable investment, 
which would pay 15 per cent dividends 
December 20, 1908, and larger dividends 
later. 
The jury was instructed that if it 
thought Lewis knew that these promises 
were false he was guilty of intent to de¬ 
fraud. 
“As I remember,” continued the Judge, 
“Mr. Lewis did represent again and again 
that the investors who subscribed for the 
preferred stock would be entitled to a 15 
per cent dividend, and he fixed the date on 
which the dividend would be declared. 
“It may be that it was his honest opin¬ 
ion that the company had earned a divi¬ 
dend and that it would be declared, but 
in passing upon it you must have all the 
facts and circumstances. You must know 
that a dividend could only be declared out 
of net profits. _You have the testimony pf 
Treasurer Putnam that the company, in 
1908 and 1909, was losing $30,000 a month. 
“You must determine if Mr. Lewis be¬ 
lieved it had earned a 15 per cent dividend 
over and above expenses. If he did not be¬ 
lieve it. if he put forth a false representa- 
ition, then his project for the sale of pre¬ 
ferred stock was a scheme to defraud.” 
On Monday morning after being out 
since Friday night, the judge called the 
jury and gave them the following sup¬ 
plementary instructions: 
“Out of the sale of the preferred stocks 
of the Lewis Publishing Co., it was 
charged,” Judge Amidon charged, “that 
Lewis had used the post office to an ex¬ 
tensive degree. The evidence showed that 
he caused letters to be mailed in this con¬ 
nection. If you believe the evidence, and 
it is not controverted, only in one instance, 
then you must conclude that he did pro¬ 
cure the sales by fraudulent representa¬ 
tions as charged. 
“Whatever representations were made 
were made by Lewis himself. He wrote 
the advertisements and caused them to be 
published. If you doubt this, all you have 
to do is to look at the advertisements. 
“The pi'oject began December 3, 1908. In 
his advertisements he said that any per¬ 
son who would purchase his stocks and 
have them registered in his own name 
would be entitled to a 15 per cent dividend 
on a certain date. He advertised this 
stock had earned a dividend which was to 
be declared by the directors out of the 
profits of the company. On these repre¬ 
sentations. the evidence shows, the stock 
was subscribed for and sold. 
“On December 26 Lewis wrote and pub¬ 
lished an article saying he had received 
a great many letters from persons who 
wished to get the stock and owing to the 
short time before the closing of the books, 
December 20, had been unable to get in in 
time. He said then he would set the date 
up to February 1, 1909. 
“Those were the representations about 
this stock. If you have any doubt, you 
ought to have the advertisements read to 
’you. You ought to be guided by the evi¬ 
dence as you remember it. 
“Were these representations false or 
true? You can determine that by looking 
at the business of the Lewis Publishing 
Co. What does it show ? The evidence 
shows that in the year 1908 the company 
was not in a profitable state so it could 
pay a dividend. The company had bor¬ 
rowed, on 10-month notes, nearly $100,000. 
That the company had used hundreds of 
thousands of dollars in paying losses. 
“The treasurer of the company told you 
that the current losses in this year 
amounted to $30,000 a month. Then you 
heard Mr. Radert. the Government expert 
bookkeeper, testify that the books showed 
a business loss, just as the treasurer had 
said. 
“At the time this stock was offered for 
sale, the evidence shows that the company 
was receiving the proceeds of the seven 
per cent notes to pay losses in operating 
expenses; that $125,000 was received for 
this preferred stock. This money was re¬ 
ceived, according to testimony, on the rep¬ 
resentation that the stock had earned a 
dividend. This money was used to pay 
losses. 
“Is this credible evidence? Lewis has 
gone on the stand. Did he make any ex¬ 
planation as to the sale of this stock or 
as to the conditions of the business? Did 
he say he was disappointed, and couldn't 
pay ? 
“There is nothing to show that when the 
stock advertisements commenced or when 
the books on the sale of it were closed 
that there was any unforeseen event to pre¬ 
vent payment. The business went right 
along. Now are you ready to take the 
evidence and the law, as I stated it, and 
follow it willingly, to be guided to a ver¬ 
dict of guilty or not guilty—or not guilty 
or guilty? If you are, you are ready to 
decide according to the evidence. 
“It is possible you may say, ‘I believe 
if nothing had happened to Lewis and al¬ 
though he made these representations 
falsely, if he had not been interfered with 
he would have been able to pay it all 
back.’ But you are not permitted to in¬ 
dulge in such argument as that. If you 
believe he advertised the sale of stock' on 
fraudulent representations, as I outlined, 
and he got the money for it, and although 
you should believe he would have repaid 
it if he had not been interfered with, that 
is no justification for a verdict of not 
guilty. 
“The law forbade him to get that money 
by false representations and if he did so 
get it. I care not what you believe or what 
he believed as to whether he could take the 
money and make it profitable for the in¬ 
vestors. 
“The embezzler says: ‘I can take this 
money and use it; I am confident I shall 
be successful. I can use it and return it 
with no wrong or injury to anyone.’ But 
the law does not palliate any such wrong¬ 
doing or reasoning. 
John Dunlap, of Steelville. one of the 
nine jurors who held out for conviction, 
declared after the jury separated that 
Brennan, Johnson and Ilalloman. the three 
who held out for acquittal, did very little 
arguing in the jury room. He declared 
that for the most part they shrugged their 
shoulders and said they thought Lewis in¬ 
nocent. The nine were willing to argue at 
all times, he said. About 50 ballots were 
taken, without any change in any of them. 
Another juror said the nine were in 
favor of conviction on all 12 counts and 
those about the debentures appeared es¬ 
pecially strong to them. 
Nothing seems to be more uncertain 
than a jury trial. If one man out of 12 
is moved by sympathy or prejudice or 
doubt he can cause a disagreement. 
Some jurors are over-scrupulous about 
conviction on criminal trials. It was 
not denied that the people had lost their 
money—millions of it. The only ques¬ 
tion was, did Lewis get the money by 
misrepresentation or deceit? Nine of 
the jurors said he did. The charge of 
the judge would seem to indicate the 
same conviction. The other three jur¬ 
ors did not so vote. 
In view of the indisputed evidence in 
the case, the judge’s charge, and the 
nine votes for conviction, there can be 
little real comfort to the defense. 
Of course the indictment still stands, 
and the case must be tried all over. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Fire that did damage to 
the amount of $250,000 destroyed three 
large warehouses, the Olson apartment 
house and 14 residences in the southern 
part of Butte, Mont., April 10. 
Major-Gen. Frederick Dent Grant, U. S. 
A., commander of the Eastern Division of 
the Army, died April 12 of throat trouble 
at the Hotel Buckingham, New York. He 
was born in 1850. Frederick D. Grant was 
with his father in the latter part of the 
Civil War, serving as voluntary aid and 
despatch bearer to Gen. Grant. He never 
was formally mustered into the service, al¬ 
though he held from his father a com¬ 
mission as first lieutenant. This boyhood 
record was “corrected” by Congress in 
1910 so that he became eligible to the 
Grand Army of the Republic. As soon as 
he was old enough he was appointed to 
the Military Academy at West Point from 
New York and was graduated and com¬ 
missioned a second lieutenant June 12, 
1871. He served in Indian warfare, in 
Porto Rico and the Philippines. 
Miss Clara Barton, founder of the Amer¬ 
ican Red Cross Society and one of the best 
known women in the world, died at her 
home at Glen Echo, Md., April 12 after a 
lingering illness. Miss Barton was past 90 
years of age. Although she had been in 
failing health for years death came almost 
without warning. During the Winter she 
had contracted a severe case of pneu¬ 
monia, which affected her heart, and it was 
rrom this latter trouble that death en¬ 
sued. Clara Barton, whose 23 years of 
office as president of the Red Cross in this 
country ended in 1904, was born in North 
Oxford, Worcester County, Mass., on 
Christmas Dav of 1821. Her name was 
known wherever famine or war or disaster 
visited the people of a country, from Ar¬ 
menia to Cuba, from Russia to the United 
States. She wore the Iron Cross of Ger¬ 
many, and the decorations and diplomas of 
Baden, Austria. Servia, Turkey, Armenia, 
Switzerland. Spain, Russia and Belgium 
were conferred upon her. She began her 
philanthropic work among the soldiers dur¬ 
ing the Civil War, became acquainted with 
the Red Cross Society in Switzerland in 
1869, and worked for it through the 
Franco-Prussian War, and Paris Commune. 
It was not until 1881 that this country 
formed the Red Cross Association, which 
has taken an active part in the relief of 
disaster since. 
Two women were killed and more than 
50 persons were severely injured by the 
caving in of the lloor of an unfinished 
Roman Catholic Church at Harrington 
Park, N. J., April 14. Temporary wooden 
supports under the floor could not stand 
the weight of 300 eager men and women 
who had rushed into the edifice, snapped 
and the planking bowed down to the cellar 
10 feet below in the form of a hopper. 
Into this spa'ce the men, women and chil¬ 
dren were thrown heltcr skelter and upon 
them came heavy piles of lumber which 
had been left in the room. It was this 
lumber that did most of the damage, al¬ 
though suffocation beneath the struggling 
mass accounts for the two deaths. 
The Mississippi River levee at Panther 
Forest. 19 miles above Greenville, on the 
Arkansas shore, gave way April 12, and 
the water is finding its way over 2O0 
square miles of rich farming lauds and 
several prosperous towns toward the Ten¬ 
sas and Arkansas River. Sixty townships 
in Chicot, East Ashley, Drew and Desha 
Counties, in Arkansas, and East Carroll 
Parish, La., were inundated. Lake Village, 
with a population of 1500, is the most im¬ 
portant town in the path of the water. So 
far as can be ascertained there has been 
no loss of life. 
An action has been brought in the Su¬ 
preme Court at White Plains, N. Y., by 
Arthur Hasselman, of Scarsdale, against 
James Peabody, professor of biology in 
the Morris Heights High School, New York 
City, tor $15,000 damages, Hasselman 
alleging his digestion has been ruined and 
his health permanently impaired by eating 
chickens which had eaten a mixture of 
cyanide of potassium and bran prepared by 
the professor. Hasselman’s chickens played 
havoc with Professor Peabody’s garden. 
The professor warned Hasselman that he 
would shoot the chickens if they were not 
kept out of his garden, and finally did 
shoot one, and took it to Hasselman with 
his compliments. The chickens kept going 
into the professor’s yard, and Peabody, ac¬ 
cording to Hasselman, mixed the poisoned 
stuff and put it on his porch. Some chick¬ 
ens died. Others lived, but they ate enough 
cyanide to render their flesh poisonous 
when they were killed and eaten, Hassel¬ 
man asserted. The shooting of one chicken 
and the poisoning of others became known 
last Summer, when the Society for the Pre¬ 
vention of Cruelty to Animals had Pro¬ 
fessor Peabody in court, when he was 
fined $10. 
The greatest marine disaster in the his¬ 
tory of ocean traffic occurred April 14, 
when the Titanic of the White Star Line, 
the greatest steamship that ever sailed 
the sea. shattered herself against an ice¬ 
berg and sank in less than four hours. 
Out of nearly 2200 people that the Titanic 
carried only' 745 are known to have been 
saved, and most of these were women and 
children. They were taken from small boats 
by the Cunarder Carpathia. The wreck 
occurred about 70 miles south of the Grand 
Banks, 500 miles from Halifax, in a locality 
where the ocean is two miles deep. Wire¬ 
less messages called a number of steamers 
to her aid, the nearest being the Carpathia. 
170 miles away. Several other steamers 
went to her aid, first reports stating that 
the Virginia of the Allan Line was towing 
the Titanic to Halifax. It appears, how¬ 
ever. that the huge vessel was gone when 
the Carpathia reached the scattered life¬ 
boats containing the survivors. There 
were 16 lifeboats, wide, unsinkable, capa¬ 
ble of resisting the battering of heavy 
seas. They were capable of holding 50 
persons each in smooth water. The women 
and children were put in some of these 
boats, each boat in charge of an officer of 
the ship. Then the old men and such of 
the men passengers as were ill or afflicted 
were ordered into boats. It appears that 
the icebergs and fields are unusual in ex¬ 
tent this season. On the previous Thurs¬ 
day the Carmania had passed an expanse 
of bergs a mile long, many of them several 
hundred feet high. The total loss of life 
on the Titanic is put at 1,565. Four offi¬ 
cers came away in command of boats, but 
as the women and children were cared for 
first, a small proportion of those saved 
were men. Many people of wealth and 
prominence are among those lost, includ¬ 
ing J. J. Astor, F. D. Millet, the distin¬ 
guished artist; W. T. Stead, the English 
journalist, and Isidor Straus. The money 
Joss is estimated at over $5,000,000, and 
including cargo may resell $15,000,000. 
The wireless was responsible for the pos¬ 
sibility of rescue. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—-The State Fair 
at North Yakima, Wash., has announced 
prizes for a 60-day endurance egg laying 
contest, to begin at noon on July 28 and 
end on September 26, during the fair. 
Poultry will be entered in teams of four 
liens and a rooster. The State will fur¬ 
nish free pens and feed. 
President Taft sent to Congress April 13 
a special message asking for an appropria¬ 
tion of $1,000,000 beyond the present per¬ 
manent appropriation for the meat inspec¬ 
tion service in the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture. “The increase is necessary,” read 
the message, “to enable the department to 
inspect microscopically the flesh of hogs 
that is to be converted into meat food pro¬ 
ducts which ordinarily are eaten without 
cooking. Several deaths have resulted from 
eating such products, which contain 
trichinae.” 
Governor Dix signed April 15 the Harte 
bill providing for the establishment of a 
New York State School of Agriculture on 
Long Island and appropriating $50,000 for 
that purpose. The Governor says in a 
memorandum that in addition to State 
agricultural schools, which should conform 
to the standards required by the State 
agricultural advisory board, plans should 
be put into effect for the training of quali¬ 
fied agricultural teachers in one or more of 
the State normal schools, and an effort 
should also be made toward the introduc¬ 
tion in tlie public high schools of at least 
the elementary study of agriculture and of 
other subjects of special value in the rural 
sections of the State. He says: “In view 
of the present condition of the State’s 
finances, I have concluded to approve only 
the bill establishing a State school of 
agriculture on Long Island. I have been 
led to this determination largely by the 
reason that the vegetable growing interests 
of the State would be encouraged and 
given such aid as is possible only through 
the instruction of a school especially 
equipped tor that purpose.” The bill 
which the Governor indicates he will dis¬ 
approve appropriates $50,000 for the estab¬ 
lishment of a State school of agriculture 
at Ivetika College, Keuka Park. 
President Ilibben, of Princeton Univer¬ 
sity. told the members of the Princeton 
Long Island Alumni Association recently 
of a new scheme for getting the poor boy 
through college. Princeton intends to have 
a farm upon which the needy student can 
work and make, President Hibben thinks 
about $2 a day. A plot of 10 acres be¬ 
longing to the college is already being 
plowed and will be ready for student farm¬ 
ers this Summer and next Fall. The col¬ 
lege commons and the various clubs will 
provide a ready market. Dr. Hibben said. 
It will be a great service to Princeton, 
which, the president believes, has too long 
borne the reputation of being a college for 
the rich. 
Peach Prospactt in Kansas. 
A peculiar situation as to peaches exists 
in Kansas this Spring as reported from the 
agricultural college. The central part of 
the State will have a full crop, according to 
present indications, while the northeastern 
section will have none. South of Fort Scott 
and westward, the hardier varieties still 
show enough buds to make a crop in fav¬ 
ored localities. An explanation of the un¬ 
usual conditions is offered by C. V. Hol- 
singer, horticulturist with the extension 
department of the agricultural college. 
“The favored peach section this year will 
be a belt beginning in the central part of 
the State, extending east to Topeka and 
north to the Nebraska line. In some parts 
of that belt, 90 per cent of the bloom buds 
went through the Winter. Ordinarily, if 
five per cent of the bloom survives the Win¬ 
ter a full crop will result. This hig£ 
percentage of good buds means a big crop 
of peaches in this part of the State unless 
something happens later. But the north¬ 
eastern part of Kansas will have no peaches. 
I account for that in this way: Last Oc¬ 
tober was wet in that section and the trees 
were full of sap when the first freeze came. 
That killed the buds. In the central belt 
the Fall was dry and the trees went Into 
Winter quarters in good shape. The buds 
were dry and withstood the cold. Elbertas 
and Crawfords will not be so plentiful as 
the hardier varieties.” 
Peach buds in Ottawa Co., Ohio, east of 
Port Clinton, show from 25 to 50 per cent 
live buds. Salway the best. Smock and 
Elberta not so good. This section includes 
Danbury, Gypsum, Marblehead and Ca¬ 
tawba Island. West of Port Clinton and 
in about Oak Harbor they are nearly all 
killed. Wheat in this section is all winter 
killed on many of the farms. The farmers 
are sowing the fields to oats. e. c. a. 
Ohio. 
Ilay Is bringing $8 to $10 per ton at 
barn; never heard of any sales of silage 
at any price. Cows $40 to $70; working 
oxen six to 6% cents live weight; veal, 
seven cents; fat hogs, 5 ft cents, both live 
weight. Potatoes were a complete failure 
about here and there are. none for sale; 
were there any they would bring the farm¬ 
er $1.30 to $1.50 per bushel. Eggs are 
now selling at 20 cents per dozen. There 
is no milk, only sufficient to supply local 
demand, which brings six cents per quart, 
sold about here; nearly all milk produced 
is separated and cream taken to local 
creamery owned by Hood & Sons of Bos¬ 
ton, Mass., for which last check was at 
38 cents for butter fat. There are a very 
few farmers making butter for which they 
get 33 to 35 cents per pound. Manure $3 
to $3.50 per cord of 128 cubic feet. 
Windsor Co., Vt. w. c. R. 
