THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
237 
1910. 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
When You Get It Hold It. 
For the benefit of confiding people 
who think they are going to get great 
benefits from money sent E. G. Lewis, 
St. Louis, Mo., for his new scheme, the 
so-called American Women’s League, 
we print herewith a photograph of a 
note given Mrs. Anna Orton, widow. 
North Tarrytown, N. Y., four years 
aeo, and now 14 months overdue. Mrs. 
Elizabeth Dinsdale, of the same place 
holds a similar note for $100. Mr. 
Tames Lunsden, held a similar note for 
$300; but was induced by Lewis to 
exchange it for a receipt, which has 
never been paid. Mr. John R. Orton 
holds a preliminary receipt for $25 
since August 30, 1905. All of these 
parties are at North Tarrytown, N. Y., 
and it is safe to say that no league will 
be formed in that town. When this 
note became due it was presented for 
payment through the Tarrytown Na¬ 
tional Bank, and the Boatman’s Bank 
of St. Louis. Payment on it was re¬ 
peatedly refused by Lewis. The Dins¬ 
dale note was also presented for pay¬ 
ment in the same way, and after re¬ 
peated refusals to pay by Lewis, the 
note was regularly protested. Lewis 
promised to pay it in 60 to 90 days. 
It isn’t paid yet. 
Originally these people sent the 
money to Lewis for stock in the 
People’s U. S. Bank. This was in 
1904. The profits they were led to ex¬ 
pect discounted 520-per-cent Miller of 
State prison fame. The bank was 
capitalized for $2,500,000; and we un¬ 
derstand the poor people through the 
country contributed nearly a million and 
a half of cash. The money he col¬ 
lected through letters and circulars, but 
principally through a cheap woman’s 
paper. Lewis promised to put up dollar 
for dollar of his Own money with the 
country people, but it was found that 
he really didn’t have any money of any 
account to put up, and practically put 
in little or none. He also promised 
that the directors of the bank were to 
be other bankers and responsible men 
of St. Louis, and that none of the funds 
should be used for those interested. 
It was found that he appointed himself 
and his employees officers of the bank, 
and we believe he organized a pub¬ 
lishing company and a speculating land 
company, and used the funds of the 
bank to promote these schemes. He 
made one fatal mistake; he organized as 
a National bank, and when he began to 
violate the banking laws of Uncle Sam, 
he got the National bank inspectors 
after him, and the bank was closed and 
fraud orders issued against him, so that 
neither himself nor the bank could use 
the mails. This was in the Spring of 
1905, and he was cut off from the 
use of the bank funds and also unable 
to collect more from the people. The 
people, however, had about $1,300,000 
in the bank. The bank was to be 
closed up and the proceeds returned 
to the people, and Lewis set to work to 
put himself in position to control this 
money. He played high for it, and got 
it in this way: He wrote the people 
that their bank had been assassinated 
by the Government; but he was going 
to save it for them. It was found that 
87 cents on the dollar could be returned 
to the people, but Lewis promised them 
100 cents on the dollar with interest 
if they would assign their claims over 
to him. You see the situation; Lewis 
was hard up for ready cash. He was 
willing to promise a bonus of 13 per 
cent to people who turned over the S7 
cents to him without security. Of 
course, he obscured the point. He 
played on the feelings and sentiments 
of the people. He claimed he was 
working only for them, to get justice 
for them, to restore the People’s Bank, 
and elociuence of this kind by the yard. 
Well, Mrs. Dinsdale and Mrs. Orton 
indorsed their stock and sent it to 
Lewis as he requested, and under his 
promise that he would pay the face 
value in full in three years with in¬ 
terest. They got the notes. In all Mr. 
Lewis got about $900,000 out of the 
bank on notes of this kind sent him 
by the original investors in his defunct 
bank. They did not have the notes 
long, however, when he wanted to ex¬ 
change them for stock in his land com¬ 
pany. When this failed he wanted to 
exchange them for stock in his publish¬ 
ing company, and lastly he made re¬ 
peated and frantic efforts to get them 
exchanged for stock in his new People’s 
Trust Co., which, by the way, was sup¬ 
posed to be organized under State laws, 
and not under inspection by U. S. in¬ 
spectors. But these women held on to 
their notes, in spite of Mr. Lewis’s 
hysterical efforts to induce them to put 
them into his possession by forwarding 
them to his trust company. The first 
installments of interest were paid on 
the notes, but no further payments have 
been made. 
All told now we have on file claims 
against Lewis aggregating several thou¬ 
sand dollars. All tell the same story. 
All were induced to send the money for 
the bank. Practically all accepted notes 
similar to the above, and Lewis, of 
course, (got the cash Ifor them out 
of the bank. Some of the victims 
changed from one stock to another as 
he requested, and at times demanded. 
Many sent the notes back under the 
promise that the money was to be re¬ 
turned. What they got in return is 
the “Interim Receipt.” Those who 
changed for Lewis Publishing Company 
istofok were promised dividends, and 
some of them got one or two small 
dividends. It is not apparent, however, 
that the company ever earned any divi¬ 
dends, and as it is an offense punish¬ 
able in both the civil and the criminal 
courts to pay dividends where none 
is earned, this phase of the case may 
yet be examined as to its legal aspects. 
The whole mess as revealed in the cor¬ 
respondence and other evidence before 
us, is, in our judgment, one of the most 
flagrant and successful attempts at decep¬ 
tion and fraud that we have yet exam¬ 
ined. Both Mrs. Dinsdale and Mrs. Orton 
were poor widows working to make a 
living for their fatherless children at 
the time Lewis induced them to accept 
his notes and turn over their money 
in his defunct bank. This money rep¬ 
resents the small savings of widows, 
who sent it to him originally in $10 in¬ 
stallments as they saved it. It is 
money that meant privation for mother 
and children. It may be a more legal 
form of getting possession of other 
people’s money than meeting a man on 
the street and picking his pocket, but 
the children who suffered privation be¬ 
cause Mr. Lewis got their mother’s 
money could hardly appreciate the dif¬ 
ference. For ourselves we would call 
it a respectable business to break open 
a bank safe and get away with the cash 
in comparison with Mr. Lewis’s plan 
of taking bread out of the mouths of 
widows and their fatherless children. 
What do the deluded women who 
have fallen into his American Women’s 
League scheme think of this? Can 
they hear the hungry cry of children 
appealing to Mr. Lewis to return their 
mothers’ savings that they may have 
bread? Will they expect more from 
their labor and investments than these 
poor widows have received? This 
condition admits of no argument. 
Above you have the name and address 
of the women who have suffered and 
lost. In our files we can show you 
many similar complaints aggregating 
several thousand dollars in sums of $2 
to $500, practically all from poor people, 
and most of it from working women. 
Lewis pretends now he is building up 
institutions of learning and culture and 
charity for women. Here is his record 
with helpless widows and orphan chil¬ 
dren. If there be anything more con¬ 
temptible in the history of fake schemes, 
we have yet to discover it. j. j. d. 
H 
0 
9 
F 
H 
M 
GR 
5% Trustee Note, n». 
office OF the LEWIS PUBLISHING CO., 
- LWn rtyiHeiskr-St LoulvGo.. Mo.W^ , v 1 -J.90£L 
5515 
3fax ualur rmtn^ib, I hereby f romi 
sum of 
.1905. 
.Dollars 
the 
(In gold coin of the United States of present 
from this date at the rate of five per cent per. 
1906, and semi-annually thereafter) at tln^mTe __ 
maturity hereof, unless this note be sooneV fully pai<: 
This Note is transferable by endorshiment hereon, 
return of same to me at the office aforesaid, w 
balance remaining due thereon. 
Witness my signature the date first aforesaid. 
The foregoing Note is one of a series of similar notes mentioned in a certain Trust Agreement dated September 1, 1905, between 
E. G. Lewis and H. L. Kramer (of Kramer, Indiana) as Trustee, whereby the income of E. G. Lewis is pledged to the full payment of 
the same (principal and interest) as defined in said Trust Deed, duly recorded 
ipre three years from this date, and interest thereon 
rst interest to be paid between January 1 and 10, 
niversity Heights,.St. Louis County, Missouri, until 
evidence of said transfer) and 
said endorsement, for the 
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