1910. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
S26 
OTHER PEOPLE’S FINGERS 
Pull Out the Lewis Chestnuts. 
In April last we received a long letter 
from Mrs. Robert W. Tener, 114 12th 
street, Wheeling, W. Va., in protest 
against what we had said about the 
schemes of E. G. Lewis, and ardent¬ 
ly defending him and his American 
Woman's League scheme. The let¬ 
ter recounted the expected benefits of 
the League as promised by Mr. Lewis. 
It was to be incorporated at the conven¬ 
tion then about to be called at St. Louis, 
and turned over to the management of 
the women, who were to elect their own 
officers and their own board of trustees, 
and begin the management of its affairs. 
They were to have 50 per cent of the 
money sent to Lewis for memberships, 
and to start off with a little nest egg of 
$2,600,000 from that source alone. This 
was to be a permanent endowment. 
We recognized in our correspondent a 
woman of strong mental attainments and 
of high moral ideals, coupled with an in¬ 
dependent and resolute mind. She had, 
however, accepted every promise that 
Lewis had made in good faith, and be¬ 
lieving sincerely in the ultimate fulfill¬ 
ment of those promises, we realized that 
argument was useless, and we concluded 
to wait, confident that Lewis would in 
time furnish more conclusive proof of his 
want of sincerity to a woman of Mrs. 
Tener’s analytical mind and sense of 
moral responsibility, than anything that 
we could say of his past records and 
present pretensions. He furnished the 
evidence sooner than we expected. We 
now have the following letter from Mrs. 
Tener: 
“Enclosed please find copies of the 
“Final Plan,” etc., adopted at the first 
convention of the American Woman’s 
League, held in University City, St. 
Louis, Mo., June 9-11, note marked pas¬ 
sages especially. Perhaps you may re¬ 
member that I wrote you last April a 
letter in answer to an article of yours 
sent me by a Maryland friend concerning 
Mr. E. G. Lewis. I was perfectly sincere 
in all that I then said. But I was sent to 
St. Louis in June as the delegate from 
the Wheeling Chapter. I was charmed 
with the buildings, for they are remark¬ 
ably handsome and substantial, but I 
could not find that any of them belonged 
to the League. There were many little 
things to make me uneasy, but the ‘busi¬ 
ness’ meeting aroused my suspicions. 
We met about 11 a. m., June 11, and had 
speeches, presentations, songs, etc., until 
nearly 2 p. m. Then, long after lunch¬ 
eon hour, in a hot crowded Summer 
theatre with many people soon to leave 
the city, we were introduced to the busi¬ 
ness of organizing what was to be a 
great movement. How? Instead of 
voting by sections, only portions of the 
“Final Plan” were read which had been 
handed us during the previous half hour 
(That edition did not contain ‘Trust 
Agreement’ and by-laws of Founders’ 
Chapter.) Then Mr. Tebbetts read his 
copy of the by-laws, but few heard him. 
Everything was adopted ‘as a whole.’ 
No discussion of any question was called 
for, nor any opposing vote. When Mr. 
Tebbetts skipped, I stopped following 
him and read the ‘Final Plait’ for my¬ 
self and discovered many things I did 
not like. I tried to have a number of 
the delegates meet with me Saturday 
night to talk it over, but because of a 
contra-announcement by the management 
we numbered only about twenty at this 
meeting. I spoke of the experience of 
the Florida Chapter on the deed question. 
Sunday I formulated and wrote out my 
questions and objections, and on Mon¬ 
day, June 13, in presence of several dele¬ 
gates, I asked Mr. Lewis to grant me a 
personal interview to discuss the ‘Final 
Plan.’ He refused very rudely, though 
I offered to stay a week to give him 
time. I had had interviews with Judge 
Barclay, the League officials’ lawyer and 
Mr. Tebbetts, and have been constantly 
since in correspondence with the man¬ 
agement, and have finally asked questions 
of some lawyers. Through it all my 
suspicions have grown deeper, until this, 
right or wrong is my conviction: 
“The men in charge of the American 
Woman’s League will go on with the 
People’s University as long as it pays 
them, or for five years anyway, as they 
have five-year contracts with the promi¬ 
nent teachers. They will go on building 
chapter houses (generally cheaper ones, 
as the membership requirement for those 
over $10,000 is now practically pro¬ 
hibitive) for the same time, and when 
they stop they will own everything ex¬ 
cept where the local chapters have been 
very careful to change their deeds. One 
lawyer says the chapter houses practi¬ 
cally belong to the trustee in whose name 
they stand, and he can mortgage or con¬ 
vey them at will—and by the freedom 
of officials from liability as provided, we 
would have no redress. They are not 
under bond; they are paid no definite 
salaries to keep us from having any 
claim on them for services; they pay taxes 
and insurance on the chapter houses, so 
we lose property rights; there is no date 
set for another election, and no provision 
made for the election of delegates to an¬ 
other convention. (I think Article 8, 
by-laws, indicates no future convention.) 
President and board serve for five years, 
and even act for the whole League with¬ 
out further formality; and the whole 
“Plan” and procedure show plainly that 
they got us there to vote them into a 
power it will be hard to deprive them of. 
You know how ardently I supported Mr. 
Lewis, but I based my faith in him on 
definite promises that I did not think any 
man would dare break. We were long 
promised: 
“First, that the Founders’ Chapter 
would be incorporated at this convention. 
“Second, that women of the chapter 
would be put in charge of every depart¬ 
ment. 
“Third, that the money would be put 
into a permanent fund, and only the in¬ 
terest used. If these pledges had been 
kept, the League would have been a solid 
business proposition, and E. G. Lewis 
would have been vindicated before the 
world. I believe that if rue women 
would awaken to the true state of affairs 
we could yet compel him to do what is 
right, but the very women who were 
there are more convinced of his sincerity 
than ever, except those who heard him 
speak to me. 
“I cannot understand it. If you will 
refer to my letter of April 17 you will 
see how I depended on these promises, 
and Mr. Tebbetts writes me July 27 that 
‘Mrs. Tener of Wheeling is absolutely the 
only one so far as I am advised that has 
by voice or pen made any adverse criti¬ 
cism of the Plan!’ Perhaps_ I am, but 
women of 12 States are waiting to hear 
what conclusion I reach. 
If I am the only woman to understand 
their far-reaching schemes, I may be 
morally obligated. At any rate I have 
spoken plainly to my chapter. I have 
resigned my position as local representa¬ 
tive and declined the nomination as State 
Regent of West Virginia and am sending 
postals to the delegates interested telling 
them so. 
“I thought it only fair to write you 
that I am now largely of your opinion of 
Mr. Lewis, though I have yielded unwill¬ 
ingly to this conviction, for it seems in¬ 
credible that any man could accept the 
reverence, almost adoration, of thousands 
of fine women and be capable of deceiv¬ 
ing them—and that I alone should be 
right and those other thousands be wrong. 
If anything I have said is useful to you, 
you are welcome to it. If possible I 
would like it used without my name as 
I do not court publicity, but if necessary 
I do not hesitate to stand by anything 
I have written. If other League mem¬ 
bers who may be dissatisfied wish to 
communicate with me through you I 
will appreciate the favor of a notice from 
you.” 
Sincerely yours, 
MRS. R. W. TENER. 
114 12th Street, Wheeling, W. Va. 
Mrs. Tener sends this as a .postscript: 
“A chapter in Florida had qualified 
for a chapter house and obtained the lot. 
A local lawyer drew up the deed thus: 
‘If ever the property is diverted from its 
use as a club house, the lot revests to 
the donor, as League literature directs.’ 
This deed was sent about May 1, and 
would be accepted with this trifling addi¬ 
tion-: The League should have first right 
of purchase of the lot at the price named 
in the deed, though property might have 
gone up 1,000 per cent. The chapter re¬ 
fused and substituted this: ‘The local 
chapter should have first right of pur¬ 
chase of the house at an appraised value.’ 
On June 8 to 10, Wednesday, Thursday 
and Friday, at the convention this deed 
was refused, and on Saturday, June 11, 
I publicly mentioned the experience of 
this chapter in answering some one who 
said ‘our deeds protected us.’ The offi¬ 
cials heard me. I" spoke of it several 
times, and on Monday the lady who had 
brought the deed said to me, ‘Please don’t 
mention our chapter again, for they have 
given me my deed. Thanks to you.’ Of 
course it was the publicity accomplished 
it.” 
“The Final Plan,” alluded to by Mrs. 
Tener, is the scheme supposed to be 
adopted by this meeting of the American 
Woman’s League. We shall give an 
analysis of it with Mrs. Tener’s notes, to 
show the “cut-and-dried” character of 
its provision. We have no doubt that 
hundreds of other women feel as Mrs. 
Tener does, but have found no means of 
expressing themselves in public. They 
will be heard from later. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Edward Smith, a driver for 
the American Ice Company, was arrested 
August 10 in New York in front of a West 
Forty-fourth street tea room by Inspectors 
from the Bureau of Weights and Measures 
and locked up in the East Fifty-first Street 
Police Station on a charge of selling short 
weight. Some time ago the proprietor of 
the tea room suspected that he was not 
getting full weight on his ice and com¬ 
plained to the bureau. Commissioner Dris¬ 
coll and two inspectors went to the place 
to wait for the arrival of the iceman. 
After the ice had been put in the boxes 
Smith gave the proprietor a bill for 4,.’520 
pounds. The ice was then weighed by the 
inspectors and found to total only 3,140, 
over 1,000 pounds short. 
As the result of an experiment upon a 
guinea pig, that died after being inocu¬ 
lated with frozen eggs, J. Buschel, a large 
dealer of Philadelphia, was arrested Au¬ 
gust 10 on a warrant obtained by the State 
Dairy and Food Department on a charge 
of selling eggs unlit for food purposes. 
Harry P. Cassidy, special agent of the 
Dairy and Food Department, alleges that 
Buschel sells frozen eggs which have been 
removed from the shell, and in a solid body 
are disposed of to bakeries, which thaw 
out the product. The samples seized were 
examined by Prof. Lawall, chemist for the 
food department, and Dr. Randall C. Ros- 
enberger, ch’ef bacteriologist of the Jef¬ 
ferson Hospital. They inoculated the 
guinea pig with the frozen eggs and it died 
within twelve hours. Two other egg deal¬ 
ers were also held for a hearing on charges 
of selling eggs unfit for use. 
Due to the explosion of a vulcanizing 
machine Halsey’s garage at Eastliampton, 
Long Island, was totally destroyed by fire 
August 10 and also Jaffe’s general store 
adjoining. The new car belonging to Dr. 
William Tod Helmuth, Jr., of New York, 
and a number of others belonging to the 
Summer colony were burned. Dr. Hel- 
muth's car was near the door, and an at¬ 
tempt was made to get it out. The brakes 
had been locked, however, and the res¬ 
cuers were compelled to flee with their 
clothing ablaze. Altogether twelve cars 
were burned, of a total value estimated at 
$100,000. All of the cars are believed to 
be insured. The loss on the general store 
was $20,000. 
How three inmates of the Massachusetts 
State prison at Charlestown were able to 
construct a counterfeiting outfit and man¬ 
ufacture spurious half dollars has been dis¬ 
covered by Secret Service officers. Ever 
since July 21, when the State prison offi¬ 
cials discovered that counterfeit half dol¬ 
lars were in circulation in the prison and 
that some had got outside, an investigation 
has been in progress. At that time it be¬ 
came known that Patrick Hanley of Lynn, 
who is serving a twenty-five-vear sentence 
as an habitual criminal, was involved. Two 
other prisoners have been found to be ac¬ 
complices. The method of the counter¬ 
feiters was ingenious. They secured from 
unknown sources some scraps of tin and 
lead, a jeweler’s crucible, and some plaster 
of Paris. One of the trio has a knowledge 
of electricity, and it was he who devised 
the means of melting the metal. He cut 
in on the electric light wires in Hanley’s 
cell, attached two pieces of carbon and 
placed them on a small sheet of iron cov¬ 
ered with fireproof cement. On the white- 
hot carbon the crucible was placed, the 
metal was melted, and the coins were 
manufactured in a plaster of Paris mold. 
It is suspected that there was an accom¬ 
plice outside the jail who assisted in the 
distribution of the coins and the supplying 
of material for their manufacture. 
A large dam on the estate of Henry J. 
Cookinham, a brother-in-law of Vice-Presi¬ 
dent Sherman, at Hinckley, in the Adiron- 
dacks, was destroyed August 11 by poach¬ 
ers and vast damage to surrounding prop¬ 
erty was wrought. It is stated that the 
dam was blown up by dynamite by per¬ 
sons with a grudge against the owner of 
the property. Mr. Cookinham had recently 
taken legal action against several poachers 
and has had trouble with petty thieves. 
Two years ago the residence of Mr. Cook¬ 
inham on the estate was destroyed by fire. 
There was some talk at the time that the 
fire was set, but this was not proven. 
The big bodv of water that broke through 
the dam uprooted hundreds of trees, 
washed away four highway bridges and 
swept away about one-fourth of a mile of 
the road. 'Meadow lands on one of Mr. 
Cookinham's farms were practically ruined. 
The water tore great holes in the land 
and carried a large quantity of hemlock 
about two miles down the stream. Nearly 
all the damage was confined to land owned 
by Mr. Cookinham. 
August 15 Governor Harmon called out 
the militia to enforce order in Columbus, 
O , where the local authorities have failed 
to stop rioting incident to a street car strike. 
The local police mutinied and showed sym¬ 
pathy with the rioters who render the 
town unsafe. There was little rioting 
after the arrival of the soldiers. August 
1C 33 policemen who mutinied were dis¬ 
charged The cost of the militia will be 
very heavy. $100,000 being asked for ex¬ 
penses August 16. 
The Newark, N. J., plant of the Stone 
Age Plaster Company was sold at sheriffs 
auction in the court house in that city 
August 16 to Clarence B. Browning an 
engraver of 216 William street, New York, 
for $28,000. Browning, who is an assignee 
of the third mortgage, was the only bid¬ 
der. No representatives of John A. Qualey 
or others interested in the plant were 
present at the sale. The sale was to have 
been held two weeks ago, but on the plea 
of counsel for Qualey and his partner. 
Harvev Wiley Corbett, a continuance of 
two weeks was granted. The sum of 
$34 000 was needed with which to pay the 
creditors of the Stone Age Plaster Com- 
panv. Counsel for Mrs. Elizabeth F. 
Qualey. Corbett and other stockholders of 
the Magnesia Asbestos Company of Amer¬ 
ica. of which tlie Stone Age Plaster Com- 
panv was a subsidiary concern, consented 
to the vacating of the order granted bv 
Vice-Chancellor Walker postponing the sale 
of the Stone Age Plaster Company. It 
was explained to the Court by ex-Judge 
Chauncey II. Beasley that because of the 
proceedings instituted against Corbett and 
Qualey by Airs. AVilliam T. Bull and the 
attachment of his bank accounts the credit 
of the company had been so impaired that 
it was impossible to raise the necessary 
funds. The vacating order left Sheriff 
Harrigan free to dispose of the property 
at once. Mr. Browning was interested 
through having bought a third mortgage 
on the property. He advertised the pro¬ 
posed sale of two weeks ago widely with 
the hope of recovering the money he had 
invested. McDermott & McDermott, attor¬ 
neys for the stockholders of the Stone Age 
Company, say that the sale was illegal and 
will be set aside. 
Because of the serious forest fire situa¬ 
tion in the new Glacier National Park in 
Montana, Acting Secretary Pierce of the 
Interior Department, August 16, requested 
Clement S. Ucker, chief clerk, who now 
is in the Yellowstone National Park on a 
tour of inspection, to go to the new park, 
to assist Supervisor Logan in handling the 
situation. Because of the extensive acre¬ 
age of the Glacier Park, it is difficult for 
one man to supervise the fighting of the 
fires. The cost of fighting the fires in the 
national forest in the Missoula district, 
comprising Montana, northern Idaho, and 
Wyoming, is $7,000 a day. This will cre¬ 
ate a deficit in the appropriation of $135,- 
000, made at the last session of Congress, 
for fighting forest fires during the current 
fiscal year. It is not believed that the sit¬ 
uation will be materially relieved until 
rain falls in the regions where the fires 
are the most serious. With the best or¬ 
ganized and largest force of fire-fighters 
that has been mustered against the fires 
that have invaded several valleys of the 
Glacier National Park, the Flathead Res¬ 
ervation, officers in charge of those parts 
of the national domain began August 16 a 
new and thorough campaign against the 
flames. The new forces comprise three 
companies of the Twenty-fifth Infantry for 
the park and the Flathead forest, and an¬ 
other company, and possibly two, for the 
reservation. In addition to the soldiers 
the fighters in the park number nearly one 
hundred men. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The controversy 
over the transportation of milk came up 
efore the Interstate Commerce Commis¬ 
sion at Boston August 16, where three local 
contractors complained that the schedule 
recently adopted by the Boston and Maine, 
the Maine Central, and the St. Johnsbury 
and Lake Champlain Railroads, are exces¬ 
sive. The railroads replied that they were 
compelled under the Massachusetts statute 
known as the Saunders law to increase the 
rate and charge a can rate instead of by 
the car. 
August 15 the Vancouver Exhibition 
buildings at Hastings Park were formally 
dedicated. The great Canadian National 
apple show will be held there October 31- 
November 5. 
THE DELAWARE PRODUCE EXCHANGE. 
The Delaware Produce Exchange was 
formed last Spring in Dover at a meeting 
called bv the State Board of Agriculture, 
and while yet only in the midst of the sea¬ 
son, it has done business amounting to 
$250,000, and has brought increased prices 
to the farmers for berries, npples, peaches, 
and for early white potatoes. It is now 
operating at about 15 points and is not 
only a direct benefit to the farmers at 
these points, but has caused the buyers at 
other railroad stations to pay higher prices 
for farm produce. It is probable that an 
office building will be erected in Dover to 
accommodate next year’s business. Ebe 
Walter is the general manager, and A. II. 
Hardesty, secretary and treasurer. 
The peach crop now going to market from 
Delaware is for the most part of very good 
quality and prices aye fair; from 80 cents 
to $1 per half bushel basket has been 
paid for fine fruit at the railroad stations 
along the Delaware road. Early apples 
have been fine and the yield has exceeded 
by more than 25 per cent that of last year, 
and prices have been almost uniformly high, 
reaching at the railroad stations here $1 
per seven-eighths bushel hamper. The 
canning factories are using a small quantity 
of peaches. The Delaware tomato can¬ 
neries are about ready to start up. The 
crop is good but the acreage is considerable 
below that of last year. Cantaloupes • are 
beginning to move, and if the weather con¬ 
tinues favorable the crop will be large and 
prices good. 
ENTERING AN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
On page 617 a young man 26 years old 
spoke of a complete course at an agricul¬ 
tural college. He has only a common 
school education, and was doubtful about 
his abilitv to pass an entrance examination. 
J. M. Drew, registrar of the Minnesota 
School of Agricuiture, sends us the follow¬ 
ing statement: 
“I am very much interested in the story 
of the young man mentioned in the •en¬ 
closed clipping from The R. N.-Y. The 
young man need not be alarmed about his 
age if he wishes to go to an agricultural 
college, as some of our best students have 
been as old or older when they entered 
here. You say that probably the require¬ 
ments for entrance now are higher than 
at the time you entered the agricultural 
college. This is true in the case of a 
good many college courses, but we have 
here what we call our school course, to 
which are admitted boys and girls from dis- 
rict schools and which, no doubt, he could 
enter. He belongs to the class of young 
people that we like to help and from which 
we get our very best students.” 
Hay crop extra good; barns not large 
enough to hold same, farmers are stacking 
some outside. Oats looking fine; if noth¬ 
ing happens will be the largest crop our 
farmers ever had. Wheat and barley good, 
but not so much planted as in former 
years. Potatoes are doing well now, but 
have had a hard time on account of the 
bugs, and a shortage of Paris green. Tur¬ 
nips, carrots, beets and beans doing well; 
hardly any corn here on account of the 
cool nights. More cheese is being made 
this year than in any one year since the 
factories started. a. w. g. 
Kensington, Prince Edward Island. 
Keep your eye on the “Boston Milk War.” 
I understand the farmers are being pros¬ 
ecuted for sending dirty milk. About two 
weeks ago I had a can of “sour” returned 
in which I found a quantity of tea leaves 
and can nearly two inches fuller than 
when it left here. I also hear they are 
carrying fish on the milk car. Letters of 
complaint to the milk company are not 
answered. J- *’• s. 
Connecticut. 
