1910. 
7-03 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
New Way to Pay Old Debts. 
After 10 years devoted to gathering 
in of other people’s money, E. G. Lewis, 
St. Louis, Mo., now virtually admits the 
total collapse of his numerous schemes, 
and again appeals to country people to 
furnish the cash to pay his mountain of 
indebtedness. During these 10 years he 
has had practically a new scheme for 
each succeeding year, the last usually in¬ 
volving all the others, and bigger than 
the previous one. Little less than 
millions was involved in any of them. 
Country people were induced to send 
him money for stocks, mortgage certifi¬ 
cates, notes, bank deposits, interim re¬ 
ceipts, and goodness only knows what 
else. They were induced to do this un¬ 
der assurances of great profits and big 
dividends. Bonuses of worthless stock, 
and promised participations in profits of 
the various enterprises was a frequent 
allurement held out to the unwary. As 
usual, with fake promoters, the paper 
certificates of the former schemes were 
transferable to the new venture, and 
there was always an opportunity to in¬ 
vest some new cash in additional certifi¬ 
cates of the new bubble. These enter¬ 
prises embrace the United States Fibre 
Stopper Co., capitalized at a' million, on 
patents, the stock of which he sold as 
high as $2 per share or double its face. 
Then comes the Lewis Publishing Com¬ 
pany, with stock of $3,500,000; the Star- 
Chronicle Publishing Company, with 
stock of $500,000. Again comes the Uni¬ 
versity Heights Realty and Development 
Company, capitalized for $1,000,000, and 
the Development and Investment Com¬ 
pany, with $100,000 of capital stock, and 
the University City Art Museum Society, 
the People’s Savings Trust Company, with 
an authorized capital of $400,000, and 
$5,000,000 is promised for its ultimate 
capitalization. Some of these companies 
acquired and still hold real estate out¬ 
side of the city of St. Louis, but every 
foot of such land is mortgaged to the 
limit, some of it plastered three deep, 
and in such large amounts that provision 
is made that interest must be paid 
monthly. 
A single instance with the Develop¬ 
ment and Investment Company will tend 
to show the status of many others. Mr. 
E. J. Loomis, Cambridge, N. Y., loaned 
$1,800 on some form of certificate which 
Lewis represented to be “practically a 
first mortgage bond’’ for five years, with 
interest and profit-sharing privileges. 
The notes matured, but were not paid. 
Finally Lewis asked that they be sent 
in, and gave him the privilege of taking 
stock in the Trust Company, or cash. 
He sent them and asked for cash. He 
got in return an “interim receipt.” This 
was two years ago. He has not been 
able to get his money since, and we have 
not yet succeeded in getting it for him, 
but for our efforts to do so, Mr. Lewis 
has brought suit against The R. N.-Y. 
for nearly half a million dollars. Even 
the interest has not been paid on these 
loans. In October last Lewis wrote Mr. 
Loomis that he would pay the claim as 
soon as he succeeded in placing a mort¬ 
gage on the property. The mortgage 
was placed in December for $141,810; 
and yet no money for Mr. Loomis. 
Later he promised us that it would be 
paid by June first, but it has not come 
yet. When he first launched his Ameri¬ 
can Woman’s League scheme it was for 
.the expressed purpose of paying his 
debts. On that scheme the women of 
the country have on his own statement 
sent him about $3,000,000 in addition to 
the millions sent on the previous 
schemes; but to all appearances his af¬ 
fairs are now in a more tangled condi¬ 
tion than ever. 
So desperate is the situation that he 
now admits in his own paper of July 27 
that a committee has been trying for 
months to evolve a new plan to relieve 
the situation. In this he admits that if 
the real estate holdings were sold now 
it would not bring more than one-half 
the value he puts on it. Of course, it 
is worth simply what it will sell for, and 
on his own statement that is half his 
appraisal. 
From this bewildering maze of debts— 
maturing mortgages, accumulating in¬ 
terest, past due notes, and other obliga¬ 
tions, Mr. Lewis now proposes to es¬ 
cape by an issue of “Builder’s Fund 
debentures” (notes of a straw individ¬ 
ual) and exchange these notes for the 
present obligations, and more cash. Even 
the chapter women are to be asked to 
accept these notes in lieu of promised 
benefits for cash already furnished. Mr. 
Lewis takes a full page of his paper to 
explain the new financial tangle, yet it 
could be all told in a few words thus: 
“I have mortgages and interest and 
notes, and other obligations coming dud. 
Creditors are pressing me for their 
money. I have borrowed the limit on 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
such property as I have. Bankers and 
money loaners will loan me no more. 
The Woman’s League scheme has failed 
to furnish sufficient cash to meet my 
obligations. Hence, I propose to create 
a man of strazv. I will dump all of my 
debts over on his imaginary shoulders; 
and have him , issue all the 10 -year notes 
needed. I zvttl hand these notes over to 
my country creditors for everything that 
I ozve them. That will keep them quiet 
for 10 years anyway. Then I zvill issue 
enough more of the strazv-man notes — 
there is no limit to them—and exchange 
them zinth other country people for zvhat 
further cash I need. These creditors ozve 
me a living for these 10 years, and if 
there is anything left then, they are zvcl- 
come to it, provided I cannot think up a 
bigger scheme or tzvo to fool them with 
in the meantime.’’ 
• To have stated it in that way would 
have saved a lot of paper and ink for 
Mr. Lewis, and a lot of confusion for 
his readers; but it would not have served 
Mr. Lewis’s genius for complications 
and literary mazes when it suits him to 
disguise the real purpose of his schemes. 
It is really amazing that any man would 
seriously make such a proposition, but 
Mr. Lewis has found getting money from 
country people so easy in the past that 
he looks upon any visionary scheme to 
get it now as practical. Even if he had 
not tried his tricks on The R. N.-Y. 
people, and earned an exposure, we 
doubt if he could continue to borrow 
money indefinitely. There is a limit to 
credulity. But this is a big country, and 
the schemes contemplated the collection 
of money in small sums from people 
widely separated, and there is no know¬ 
ing how long it could be continued if 
some one had not shown up the scheme. 
During the “many months” that his 
committee has' been laboring to find a 
way for him to escape his debts he has 
been holding conventions, and paying the 
expenses of delegates to them out of the 
league revenues, and making frantic 
efforts to get more money—in other 
words, to increase the burden the com¬ 
mittee was laboring to relieve. He has 
boasted incessantly of the confidence im¬ 
posed on him by the women who at¬ 
tended his convention. He apparently 
opened his heart to them to take them 
into his full confidence. Now it seems 
he had a mental reservation. He was 
not entirely frank with them. He did 
not reveal everything to them. They 
heard nothing of financial difficulties. 
He did not give them that confidence. 
They knew nothing of the difficulties of 
the committee that had -been struggling 
for “many months” to find a way to pay 
a mountain of debts by creating a chain 
of mountains of debts, and incidentally 
to get a little extra cash to keep new 
and old schemes going. After all his 
eloquence about the equality of sexes 
and the emancipation of womanhood, 
when it came to a practical test he repu¬ 
diated his own theories and denied them 
the information due them as co-workers. 
For shame, Mr. Lewis! Did you keep 
the news of troublesome finances from 
these women, that they may go home and 
without suspicion of your financial diffi¬ 
culties send you more money as you 
have since been so frantically urging 
them to do? Or do you just believe that 
women have no right to know of the 
financial straits of men and institutions 
to whom they are contributing the sav¬ 
ings of themselves and of their friends? 
Whatever the object of the gentle decep¬ 
tion, it has turned the tide of woman’s 
confidences from Mr. Lewis. He has 
furnished the evidence of his own in¬ 
gratitude and deception. Heretofore he 
has managed to interest many good and 
honest women in his extravagant 
schemes. They now begin to resent this 
insult to their good sense and to their 
intelligence. He can no longer depend 
on them for the millions needed. There 
is not an imbecile outside of our insane 
asylums who would loan him money on 
his latest scheme. 
We may as well remind Mr. Lewis 
now that The R. N.-Y. holds about 
$20,000 of claims that cannot be ex¬ 
changed for straw debentures. They can 
be settled only for cash. And he may 
thank his stars that criminal prosecu¬ 
tion has not been instituted on some of 
the accounts for getting money under 
false pretenses. 
CROP NOTES 
The apple crop in this section will be 
light. Not much fruit of any kind in this 
vicinity : there are no commercial orchards 
here. Just now a very severe drought is 
upon us; corn will stand it only a short 
time, though with rains within ton days 
there would be a good crop. Wheat is mak¬ 
ing from 20 to 30 bushels. Oats are better 
than usual. First cutting of Alfalfa was 
splendid, second light and third is making 
no promise at all. Unless it rains it will 
not pay to cut it. G. H. p. 
Hastings, Neb. 
As far as weather goes here we have 
nothing to complain of: had two or three 
weeks of perfect haying weather, with no 
clouds in sight. It was perhaps a little too 
dry for corn and oats, and a tew beans 
refused to sprout, but on the whole no harm 
was done. The wheat crop has improved 
wonderfully since Spring, when it looked 
pretty thin. Some fine pieces of wheat are 
in this section, and the greater part of it 
is harvested. We had some heavy rains 
last week, and it was thought the cut wheat 
would sprout, but I believe little, if any, 
has. Of course 1 do not know how it will 
thrash out. but it seems good and fairly 
heavy. Oats are rather short from lack of 
rain before heading, but I think the crop 
will be up to the average. The harvesting 
of this crop has already begun. Peas were 
a success, and hay, although short in the 
early Spring, seems fairly good. There is 
some still standing, but the busiest farmers 
have theirs all secured. Beans look fair, 
have seen some fine pieces. The rain just 
after haying prevented some from cultivat¬ 
ing, and that has been a drawback. They 
are now in bloom. Potatoes do not seem 
extra good, although personally I have two 
acres of as nice potatoes as I ever looked 
at. The bugs have not been bad with me, 
although in some sections they have de¬ 
stroyed the crop. Last year I had a good 
many potatoes weighing over a pound 
apiece: this year I expect larger ones. I 
use clover sod and plenty of potato fer¬ 
tilizer. cultivate and spray every week ; 
spray with Bordeaux Mixture for blight and 
add arsenate of lead for bugs. Corn is not 
a crop in this section, although there are 
some good pieces. Apples begin to show up, 
but the crop is said to be small. I would 
not be surprised if it was as heavy as 
usual in this section : Orleans County is 
the apple belt. Stock is doing well as yet, 
the rains having helped the pasture, but 
this section is not much for stock raising. 
Orleans Co., N. Y., July 29. J. s. p. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The steamer Machinaw, 
with .$200,000 in gold bullion picked at 
Kotzebue Sound ports, has arrived from 
Nome. Officers of the Mackinaw report the 
worst ice conditions in Bering Strait that 
have been encountered in 17 years. Capt. 
Frank Mills said it took 12 days to make 
the passage from Nome to Kotzebue Sound, 
when ordinarily it can be made in 30 hours. 
The Mackinaw was surrounded by ice from 
July 2 to July 13 and made slow progress 
forcing its way through drifts and llaws^ 
in the field. In some places the ice was 
piled 80 feet high. At the entrance to 
Kotzebue Sound the ship’s way was blocked 
by a solid wall of ice and much time was 
lost in waiting for a passage to open. Lit¬ 
tle difficulty was experienced on the south¬ 
bound trip. Capt. Mills said that the cold 
wind blowing inland from the ice fields 
had caused a backward season and the 
country about Kotzebue Sound presents a 
midwinter appearance. 
Aaron Busclibaum and Arthur Block, 
New York's butchers, testifying before the 
Federal Grand .lury, investigating Chicago 
packing concerns, said July 27, Chicago 
packers had cut prices and undersold the 
New Y'ork Butchers’ Dressed Beef Asso¬ 
ciation at a loss of .$2,000,000 in order to 
obtain control of the New Y'ork concern. 
The men testified the New Y'ork concern be¬ 
gan to lose money when prices were cut in 
Chicago and stock in the association de¬ 
creased in value, until the officers learned 
the National Packing Company had obtained 
full control of their stock. The Grand Jury 
heard how 5,000 New Y'ork retail butchers 
tired of paying the prices demanded by the 
Chicago packers’ companies, organized an 
association among themselves. It was in 
1904 when the retail butchers founded this 
co-operative association. Big slaughter 
houses, where the butchers did their own 
killing, were acquired, and for a time every¬ 
thing went well. Then, according to the 
witness, the Chicago packers began to take 
notice of them. Frederick Joseph, who had 
been the head of the Schwarzschild & Sulz¬ 
berger Co., an independent concern, became 
president of the association, his sou, Moses 
II. Joseph, was made secretary, and the wit¬ 
ness said the Chicago packers then began to 
cut prices. The association, being under¬ 
sold, began to lose money. The value of its 
stock decreased. Joseph bought large 
amounts and the retail butchers woke up 
to the fact that the National Packing Com¬ 
pany had secured control of their asso¬ 
ciation. 
Lower prices of meats will be brought 
about if the plans of the United Butchers 
of America are put into successful opera¬ 
tion. The retailers declare that the pack¬ 
ers are to blame for the high prices of 
meat, and now plan to prove it by eliminat¬ 
ing that individual entirely. John H. Scho¬ 
field, secretary of the Butchers’ National 
Organization, says that an attempt will be 
made at the convention at Chicago on 
August 15 to 19 to organize and establish 
independent co-operative abattoirs, render¬ 
ing plants, and tanneries; and he expects 
arrangements to be made for trying the 
experiment in Chicago. “The question has 
been under consideration for some time, and 
we now feel certain that the project will go 
through.” he said. “This move will enable 
the retail butcher to operate independently. 
We propose to kill all our cattle and to 
market the by-products. With the great 
profit that would accrue from the by-pro¬ 
ducts, wo would be able to retail meat to 
the consumer at least 50 per cent, more 
cheaply, and still make a profit.” 
Because there are not enough drunkard’s 
wives in Kansas City, Kan., to keep going 
the home founded for them by Carrie Na¬ 
tion, it is to be returned to the giver, it 
was announced July 28 bv Peter Goebel, 
president of the Associated Charities. Mrs. 
Nation has asked that the property be re¬ 
stored to her. as she desires to sell it and 
devote the proceeds to a school for neg¬ 
lected children in Eureka Springs, Ark. 
John G. Carlisle, former Secretary of the 
Treasurv, died at New York July 31. John 
G. Carlisle rose from humble beginnings. 
He was born in Campbell, now Kenton 
Countv. Kentucky, on September o, 1835. 
His father, Lilbon H. Carlisle, was a small 
farmer, who inherited the old Carlisle farm, 
a few miles from Covington. Ky. The ram- 
ilv originally came from Virginia. John 
Griffin was the eldest child in a large fam¬ 
ily After receiving a common school edu¬ 
cation he taught school at Covington, mean¬ 
while studying law. He was admitted to 
the bar of his native State in 1858. He 
entered public life almost at once, but for 
the first 20 years his activities lay entirely 
within the ’borders of his native State, 
where he became greatly respected for his 
ability. From his first appearance in Con¬ 
gress in 1870 Mr. Carlisle became recognized 
as an authority on questions of finance. 
He was re-elected to the House of Represen¬ 
tatives seven times. In December, 1883, 
when the House organized, he was elected 
Speaker. To this place he was re-elected 
in 1885 and in 1887. While serving as 
Speaker. Mr. Carlisle became noted for his 
fair and even rulings. But long before he 
attained the speakership, Carlisle had been 
the leader of his party in Congress and it 
had been urged that he was the ablest and 
most successful leader the Democrats have 
had in the House since the war. 
The strike situation in the Westmoreland- 
Indiana, Pa., coal field has grown more 
acute. The home of Andy Koski, a non¬ 
union man, near Latrobe, was blown up 
August 1 with dynamite. Koski and his 
family were thrown from their beds and in¬ 
jured. Beer kegs loaded with nitroglycerine 
have been placed in the way of automobiles 
used by the State constabulary. The troop¬ 
ers August 1 going from Greensburg to Ex¬ 
port found a beer keg in the middle of the 
narrow road. It was rolled off to one side. 
The autonfobile party returning an hour 
later found the same keg again in place. 
This excited suspicion and the keg was 
brought to Greensburg, where it was found 
to contain enough nitroglycerine to blow 
up that end of the county. Twenty miners 
were arrested for carrying concealed wea¬ 
pons. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Owing to the 
discovery of the foot and mouth disease 
among cattle in Yorkshire, England, the im¬ 
portation of cattle from that country into 
the United States has been prohibited until 
the extent of the disease can be determined. 
Growers and dealers in the northern 
Madison county, N. Y., onion district, who 
have been anticipating for 1910 the biggest 
and best crop of onions ever grown in that 
section, are disheartened over the sudden 
anpearance of a disastrous blight. The 
onions of early sown fields must be pulled 
a full month before reaching maturity and 
many late fields will be abandoned alto¬ 
gether. Three hundred thousand bushels 
were expected. Now there will probably be 
but 150,000, making an estimated loss of 
from .$50,000 to .$75,000. 
The Government has decided that pend¬ 
ing the decision of the higher court in the 
bleached flour cases millers must stop bleach¬ 
ing or stand criminal prosecution for each 
shipment of bleached flour made in inter¬ 
state commerce. At a conference between 
Assistant Attorney-General Fowler and So¬ 
licitor McCabe of the Department of Agri¬ 
culture, the latter representing Secretary 
Wilson, it was decided that the inspectors 
of the bureau of chemistry should be in¬ 
structed to obtain samples of bleached flour 
shipped in interstate commerce by millers 
and jobbers since the date of the decision 
in the Kansas City case, with a view to 
criminal prosecution of those responsible 
for the shipments. • The Kansas City case 
was a seizure of certain flour which the 
Government claimed was manufactured and 
misbranded because it had been bleached 
with nitrogen peroxide. After five weeks 
trial the verdict sustained the contention 
of the Government and the bleachers have 
appealed the case to the Circuit of Ap¬ 
peals. 
Several hundred fruit growers and farm¬ 
ers assembled July 27 at “The Ranch,” on 
the 1000-acre plantation of Horace Rob¬ 
erts, about three miles from Moorestown. 
where was held the midsummer meeting of 
the New Jersey Horticultural Society. 
There was an informal discussion on the 
raising of small fruits. It was the general 
consensus of the growers present that for 
early peaches the Carman proved the best 
and most satisfactory. Barton Brothers, 
the Burlington County “peach kings." who 
are reported to have cleared .$20,000 on 
this crop alone last year, were prominent 
among the horticulturists. An exhibit was 
made of the Pan-American strawberry, 
which was asserted will bear fruit from 
June until September. Benjamin Lippiu- 
cott, a cherry grower of Cinnaminson, 
said cherries were all that could be de¬ 
sired, and ,T. Lawrence Lippincott, of 
Riverton, thought that he had added .$5,- 
000 to the market value of his cherry crop 
by the liberal use of a spray three times 
during the season. John S. Collins, who 
has 550 acres of apples and pears, near 
Merchantville, was well satisfied with his 
crop outlook. Arthur J. Collins, of Moores¬ 
town, admitted that he had this season 
cleared about $1,000 an acre on goose¬ 
berries. Albert Repp and ex-Senator C. 
Fleming Stanger, of Glassboro, were much 
pleased with the outlook for peaches, and 
Professor Blake, of the New Jersey Ex¬ 
periment Station, gave a scientific talk 
on the value of the self-boiled lime and 
sulphur mixtures in destroying all fungi 
diseases. Raising three crops on one piece 
of ground has been successfully accom¬ 
plished by Horace Roberts, who gathers 
strawberries, peas and tomatoes from the 
same acres. Among those present were 
Franklin Dye, Secretary of the State Board 
of Agriculture ; George W. F. Gaunt, State 
Senator from Gloucester County, and Mas¬ 
ter of the New Jersey State Grange; Har¬ 
vey S. Lippincott, manager of the Dela¬ 
ware Agricultural Experiment Farm of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad; John B. Smith. 
State Entomologist; President Bancroft, of 
the Peninsular Horticultural Society. Dela¬ 
ware and Maryland; Howard G. Taylor, 
Riverton: George E. De Camp. Roseland ; 
Dr. J. B. Ward. Newark. After dinner, 
which was served on the green under the 
trees, the entire party visited the peach 
orchards of Barton Brothers and of Hor¬ 
ace Roberts. 
The Pennsylvania Pure Butter Protec¬ 
tive Association adopted resolutions at the 
Philadelphia Produce Exchange July 27, in 
which they declared that changes should be 
made in the State oleomargarine laws for 
further protection against substitution. 
They asked the co-operation of the State 
Grange and the Pennsylvania State Dairy 
Union. James Foust, State Dairy and 
‘Food Commissioner, was present at the 
meeting and pledged his support to the 
resolution. 
The New Y'ork Board of Education re¬ 
cently accepted with thanks the offer of 
Frederick Looser & Co. to give a young tree 
to every pupil in the Brooklyn public 
schools. ’ There are about 250.000 pupils on 
register in the schools of that borough. 
The trees are to be of the hardy Catalpa 
kind, which are especially valuable for their 
rapid growth and shade giving branches. 
They will be ready for distribution in time 
to be planted next Arbor day, which comes 
on May 5. They will be one year old and 
12 to i5 inches high. 
