764 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
William J. Mason, of Virginia, has 
a grievance. He tried to get money 
from others that did not belong to 
him and that he did not earn. He 
did not get it. Instead the other fel¬ 
low got $20,300 from him. It came 
about this way: A friend told Mr. 
Mason that he had a brother in New 
York who was a telegraph operator. 
This brother tapped the wires, and got 
advance news of the races. As soon 
as the horse race was run he knew the 
winner, and a bet could be made on a 
sure thing before the pool room men 
got the news of the race. That looked 
easy, so he came on to New York with 
his wife and found their way to the 
rooms where the operator seemed to get 
the advance news in a secret closet. His 
small bets were successful until he 
won $300; but after that he lost until 
$12,300 was gone. The friend wa$ 
awfully sorry, but promised to recover 
it all and more besides. So they went 
back the next day and repeated the ex¬ 
perience with a loss of $8,000. Now 
Mr. Mason says he was swindled and 
bemoans that he could not trust a 
friend. He does not seem to realize 
that he entered a conspiracy to swindle 
others, and that if he won some one 
else had to lose. When a man de¬ 
liberately goes into a trick to swindle 
others and loses himself he cannot ex¬ 
pect much sympathy from people who 
refuse to go into schemes to get money 
which does not belong to them and 
which they have not earned. 
What do you think of a party who will 
ship a few worthless cards and pictures to 
a defenseless woman without an order for 
the same and then because she refuses to 
forward the cash for them to send her such 
a letter as the enclosed in an attempt to 
frighten her into paying the amount rather 
than to be sued? Of course I do not ex¬ 
pect that there would ever be any law suit. 
Such people keep as far away from the law 
as possible. w. l. t. 
Poultney, Vt. 
The letter referred to as being en¬ 
closed was a printed form in imitation 
of a typewritten letter sent out by 
Messrs. Smith & Smith, of Bloomfield, 
N. J., threatening to bring suit on ac¬ 
count of “To-day’s Magazine,” pub¬ 
lished or formerly published by the Da- 
terson Pub. Co., Warren, Pa. We un¬ 
derstand this Publishing Co. failed and 
has gone out of existence, as it so well 
deserved, on account of their manner of 
doing business, as indicated by the above 
letter. We have heard from a number 
of subscribers who received exactly 
similar letters, asking what they had 
better do about it, and our universal 
advice has been to throw the letters in 
the fire and pay no further attention 
to the threats of the collection agency. 
Will you advise me as to the soundness 
of the Maxwell Investment Co., Kansas 
City. Mo., and the safety of the mortgages 
it offers? B. f. d7 
Massachusetts. 
The company seems to be in a fairly 
satisfactory condition. Its business 
seems to be that of buying bonds and 
mortgages and selling them again. That 
is mortgage brokers, but they seem to 
borrow the greater part of the money 
invested in the mortgages.' For example, 
their mortgages and bonds amount to 
about $350,000 and the item showing 
the amount borrowed to carry them 
$341,000. The net surplus in addition 
to capital stock is about $23,000. The 
securities offered this subscriber are 
first mortgage bonds on improved Ok¬ 
lahoma farms. It does not appear that 
the company guarantees the bonds in 
any way except to say that if they are 
not as represented the company will 
repurchase them at par. We do not 
like this assurance because it appears 
to be a safety clause, while in effect 
it is not. If the company represented 
the mortgages, falsely, its promise to 
redeem them in that event would not 
be of much value. It is equal to say¬ 
ing: “If we cheat you in the sale, 
we will make good afterwards.” Then 
again, the mortgages may be as repre¬ 
sented, and not be worth the money at 
that, and furthermore, there could be a 
dispute over just what was represented. 
These mortgages may be entirely safe. 
Again, they mav not, you could not buy 
one of them until you had an appraisal 
of the farm against which the mort¬ 
gage was filed. This appraisal would 
have to be made by a disinterested ap¬ 
praiser, who was entirely familiar with 
the property, who was selected by you, 
and who was known to you to be com¬ 
petent and honest. If you were taking 
a mortgage in your own neighborhood 
you would first appraise the property 
yourself, or if you did not have the 
information vourself, you would insist 
on such an appraisal as is described 
above. All the more reason for having 
TTTH: RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 29, 
the anpraisal on property at a distance 
about which you have no definite in¬ 
formation. This is one of the difficulties 
in financing farm mortgages. The ap¬ 
praisal is hard to get and expensive. 
We wish it were otherwise, but the in¬ 
vestor cannot take chances in buying 
such mortgages through brokers. Even 
if the company was responsible, you 
would have no redress from them. They 
sell you the mortgage just as they would 
sell you a horse. Then it is yours and 
if it proves to be worth less than you 
paid, the loss would be your own. 
Twelve or more years ago I bought 50 
shares, par value $10 per share, of North 
Eastern Telephone Co. stock. Afterwards 
New York parties got control of the com¬ 
pany and sold out to the New England 
Telephone Co., which offered 50 cents per 
share for the minority stock. It cost me 
$500, and I think they should pay that 
back for my stock. Would you be willing 
to try to collect it? M. a. b. 
Maine. 
This company had bonds out as well 
as stock. The management was bad, 
and the New England Telephone and 
Telegraph Company bought up the 
bonds for 42 cents on the dollar. Then 
for 30 days they made an offer of 50 
cents per share for the stock, but did 
not get all the securities. The property 
was then in the hands of a receiver and 
was sold by order of the court against 
the protest of minority stockholders. 
The company was discontinued and the 
stock has no value whatever. 
I enclose a subscription for a man who, 
if he had taken The R. N.-Y. for a number 
of years, as I have, would have been ahead 
in planting of one orchard and years of 
time. He bought a large peach and apple 
orchard from the Albaugh Nurseries, of 
Dayton, Ohio, and the trees commenced to 
bear last year. Instead of getting a nice 
variety of choice fruit as he supposed be 
was getting, his orchard is entirely Ben 
Davis, and so far as I know of the many 
orders they secured for peach trees in my 
neighborhood none of the trees proved true 
to name, most of them being an inferior 
white peach. Before going to some of my 
neighbors the agent came to me, but I told 
him I had been reading of this firm in 
The R. N.-Y. and 1 would not accept their 
trees as a gift, but he sold large quantities 
of trees to people in this vicinity at prices 
about double what I paid for good trees. 
Judging from what I have seen locally 
they have damaged fruit growers in this 
vicinity at least $5,000 in the goods that 
they sold them in about 30 days. 
Ohio. J. c. M. 
Some people who seem to have a 
tender feeling for crooks say The R. 
N.-Y. ought to confine itself to the 
production of farm products and leave 
/he business end of the farm—buying 
and selling—to others. We have, how¬ 
ever, no such expression of views from 
farmers themselves. Which is the more 
important, that we give the grower in 
advance information which he cannot 
well get for himself, but which will 
enable him to get the varieties and 
quality of trees desired, or to leave 
him to the tender. mercies of the Al- 
baughs and their kind, and then give 
him instruction about the cultivation of 
a comparatively worthless orchard? We 
know the rule in the past has been to 
give instruction that would not em¬ 
barrass the instructor. We would not 
belittle the value of information on cul¬ 
tivation and care, and conservation on 
the farm; but we submit that the aver¬ 
age grower is more successful in con¬ 
quering bugs than in suppressing of the 
plausible tree agent, which, to our mind, 
is the more dangerous pest of the two. 
On May 11 we shipped to Geo. Paltridge, 
242 Flushing avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.. 163 
cases of eggs on his track bid of $5.60 per 
case, and have not received any returns. 
Will you please take this up and see what 
can be done towards collecting it? 
Ilersman, Ill. s. H. & s. 
On May 7 we shipped 20 cases of eggs 
to Geo. Paltridge, 242 Flushing avenue, 
Brooklyn. N. Y., for which we were to re¬ 
ceive $5.60 per case or $112. The sight 
draft was returned to us and we have 
never been able to get a settlement out of 
him. Can you advise in what way we can 
collect this amount? t, w. C. 
Baylis, Ill. 
The above two letters from sub¬ 
scribers illustrate the experience of 
shippers in sending produce to “fly-by- 
night” commission men. Our 1 repre¬ 
sentative called at the address given, 
but was told that Mr. Paltridge at some 
previous time had some room in connec¬ 
tion with some one else at that address, 
but his present whereabouts were un¬ 
known. Our representative learned 
that he is at the present time receiving 
mail through some little sidewalk fruit 
stand owner in the vicinity, and is no 
doubt receiving goods right along. 
These producers shipped him nearly a 
thousand dollars worth of goods, and 
will never receive a penny in return. 
We are powerless to help them. We 
can only repeat the warning, “Don’t 
ship produce of any kind without drst 
ascertaining the reliability and respon¬ 
sibility of the party or house to which 
you are shipping.’* Later, Mr. Paltridge 
advises us that he has been adjudged 
a bankrupt. Certainly. Now he can 
begin all over again, and he will prob¬ 
ably offer more for goods than other 
houses will, which expect to pay their 
bills. 
Warren B. Wheeler and Sillman Shaw, of 
Wheeler & Shaw, Inc., and G. Alden White- 
more, a clerk, were recently indicted by the 
federal grand jury in Boston, Mass., on 
the charge of using the mails in a scheme 
to defraud in connection with the sale of 
stocks of the North American Rubber Com 
pany. Wheeler & Shaw were the fiscal 
agents of the rubber company. The indict¬ 
ment charged that false statements were 
made regarding the cost of manufacturing, 
selling price and the net profit of the rub¬ 
ber company’s product.—Daily Paper. 
We have no complaints on this con¬ 
cern, but it is well to be suspicious of 
all these propositions promising big 
profits. There are more gold bricks of 
this kind sold in the cities in a day than 
in the country in a month, but we want 
to drive them out of the country en¬ 
tirely. It is one of the things in which 
the city may well have a monopoly. 
I had two of the Success Company $100 
bonds, which I sent back at their request 
at the time of the company’s assignment 
last year and received a certificate of de¬ 
posit from the trustee. I inclose a letter 
just received from the Thwing Company 
about the matter. Will you kindly give 
me your opinion and advise as to whether 
it would be best to accept their proposition 
or not? h. g. 
New York. 
% 
This man wants our honest opinion 
and advice. We give it frankly. Here 
it is: He was played as a sucker when 
he bought those bonds. He took the 
bait and bought a gold brick. He gave 
up his money and took in exchange the 
naked promise of an insolvent company 
to pay it back. He was lied to and 
deceived as to the nature of the- so- 
called bonds, and as to the'needs of the 
money and the uses to which it was to 
be applied. The moment he parted with 
the money it was lost. He may as well 
have put it into the fire. When the 
concern failed, a farce was worked up 
in the shape of a reorganization, and 
a trusteeship, and more money collected. 
The new scheme lasted about a year, 
then the whole bubble collapsed. The 
concern went out of existence and the 
bonds and stocks and obligations of the 
company had absolutely no value. Now 
these gentlemen organize a new com¬ 
pany on the corpses of two dead publi¬ 
cations and tell you they will give you 
new stock for the worthless bonds, if 
you take 10 per cent of their face in 
new stock and pay new cash for it. 
This is not a new trick. It was recently 
worked on the Hampton Magazine stock¬ 
holders. It has been worked several 
times on the E. G. Lewis dupes, and 
is the final act in practically all the 
get-rich-quick schemes. It is worked on 
the theory that the average person will 
send good money after bad losses. Ex¬ 
perience has taught the schemers that 
they can work the first victims for a 
second or a third time cheaper and 
easier than to hunt for new dupes all 
the time. j. j. d. 
BOOKS WORTH BUYING 
American Fruit Culturist, Thomas.... $2.50 
Bush Fruits, Card. 1.50 
Principles of Fruit Growing, Bailey.. 1.50 
Successful Fruit Culture, Maynard.... 1.00 
Dwarf Fruit Trees, Waugh.50 
Plums and Plum Culture, Waugh.... 1.50 
Pruning Book, Bailey. 1.50 
Nursery Book, Bailey. 1.50 
Spraying of Plants, Lodeman. 1.25 
Plant Breeding, Bailey..... 1.25 
Evolution of Our Native Fruits, Bailey 2.00 
Survival of The Unlike, Bailey. 2.00 
Horticulturists’ Rule Book, Bailey.... 2.00 
The Soil, King. 1.50 
Soils, Hilgard . 4.00 
Fertility of the Land, Roberts. 1.50 
Irrigation and Drainage, King. 1.50 
Fertilizers, Voorhees . 1.25 
Agriculture and Chemistry, Storer, 3 
vols. 5.00 
Forage Crops, Voorhees ... 1.50 
Principles of Agriculture, Bailey..... 1.25 
Garden Making, Bailey. 1.50 
Vegetable Gardening, Bailey. 1.50 
Forcing Book, Bailey. 1.25 
How Crops Grow, Johnson. 1.50 
How Crops Feed, Johnson.. 1.50 
Cereals in America, Hunt. 1.75 
Fo’-’ge and Fiber Crops in America, 
Hunt . 1.75 
Book of Alfalfa, Coburn. 2.00 
Farm Grasses in United States, Spill¬ 
man . 1.00 
Clovers and How to Grow Them, Shaw 1.00 
The Potato, Fraser.75 
Tomato Culture, Tracy.50 
Celery Culture, Beattie.50 
Chrysanthemum Culture, Herrington.. .50 
Plant Culture, Oliver. 1.50 
The Rose, Kingsley. 2.00 
Landscape Gardening, Waugh.50 
Diseases of Animals, Mayo..... 1.50 
Farmer’s Veterinary Adviser, Law.... 3.00 
The Horse, Roberts. 1.25 
Hens for Profit, Valentine. 1.50 
Swine in America, Coburn. 2.50 
Sheep Farming, Wing. 1.00 
How to Plan the Home Grounds, Par¬ 
sons . 1.00 
Ornamental Gardening, Long. 1.50 
The Small Country Place, Maynard.. 1.50 
Bean Culture, Sevey. 50 
Hedges, Windbreaks and Shelters, 
Powell.60 
Asparagus, Hexamer .50 
Mushrooms, Falconer . 1.00 
New Rhubarb, Culture, Morse.50 
Greenhouse Construction, Taft. 1.50 
Greenhouse Management. Taft. 1.50 
Our Insect Friends and Enemies, Smith 1.50 
Economic Entomology, Smith. 2.50 
Law for the American Farmer, Green 1.50 
Feeds and Feedings, Henry. 2.25 
A B C of Bee Culture, Root. 1.50 
Feeding of Animals, Jordan. 1.50 
Feeding Farm Animals, Shaw. 2.00 
Types and Breeds of Farm Animals, 
Plumb . 2.00 
Principles of Breeding, Davenport.... 2.50 
Animal Breeding, Shaw. 1.50 
The Study of Breeds, Shaw. 1.50 
Milk and Its Products, Wing. 1.50 
Milk Testing, Van Slyke.75 
Practical Farming, McLennan, .. 1.50 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
409 PEARL ST., NEW YORK CITY 
What You SEE You KNOW 
That is why we show you 
these two pans. We want you 
to SEE and KNOW the differ¬ 
ence between the World’s Best 
Cream Separator and less mod¬ 
ern machines. 
The full pan contains the disks taken from one 
of the thousands of separators which have been re¬ 
placed by Tubulars. They tire a woman and try her patience; they rust, wear 
loose, eventually give cream a metallic or disky flavor, and waste cream in the 
skimmed milk. 
The other pan contains the only piece used inside the marvelously simple, 
wonderfully clean skimming, everlastingly durable 
Dairy Tubular Cream 
SEPARATOR 
What a difference! Take your choice, of course, but remember that mis¬ 
takes are unpleasant and costly and must eventually be corrected. Why not ask 
those who have discarded other separators for Tubulars? Their advice i 3 valua¬ 
ble; they have paid good money for experience—they know the difference. 
Write for a full, fre e trial. Other sepa- THESHARPLLS SEPARATOR CO. 
mentforTubSfa r rs P To We st Chester, pa. Branches: Chicago, III. 
get prompt attention. San Francisco, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Dallas, Tex. 
ask for Catalog 153 Toronto,Can.; Winnipeg,Can. Agencies Everywhere 
SHARPLES 
