1910. 
THE RURAL 
NEW-YORKER 
026 
OTHER PEOPLE’S REPUTATIONS 
As an honorary member of the Amer¬ 
ican Woman’s League I have been deeply 
interested in your exposure of E. G. 
Lewis and associates, and their methods 
of doing business. But when I notice 
Mr. Lewis does not take up the charges 
made against him and his board of man¬ 
agement by Mrs. Tener and others, and 
answer them openly and fearlessly in his 
own papers, after having published the 
charges therein, and tries to make Mrs. 
Tener out as trying to disrupt the League 
when she asks for a fulfillment of his 
own published promises only, I cannot 
hold my peace. Yet Mr. Lewis is backed 
up by some typical St. Louis millionaires, 
both Democrats and Republicans, some 
of whom are presidential timber, accord¬ 
ing to Lewis. Of course the People’s 
University and some features of the 
League are good, and Lewis could be or 
could have been a tremendous power for 
good in this country, but when he puts 
a woman to the dogs for asking for a 
“square deal’’ only then I say, if the 
pith were punched out of a hair and 
ten thousands of souls such as he pos¬ 
sesses were put in this hollow hair and 
shaken up, they would rattle! There 
ought to be some method of putting 
Lewis and some' of his millionaire asso¬ 
ciate grafters where their pure (?) 
morals would not be further contami¬ 
nated ! Since Mr. Lewis declared for 
woman suffrage he seems to have for¬ 
gotten the subject! 
Then I remember in 1908 Mr. Lewis 
promised great exposures of political 
corruption, “such that would shake the 
nation to its depths.” I was agent for 
his papers in Valparaiso, Indiana, where 
I was attending Valparaiso University, 
but no exposure came! Did he sell out? 
But give Lewis enough rope, and he 
will hang himself, as the saying goes. 
Readers of his papers with half an eye 
ought to see through Lewis. And the 
lady from Florida who gave Mrs. Tener 
the lie shows in her letter streaks of the 
same goods she handed out so freely, 
and that she wanted to “stand for.” I 
am a full paid member of the League and 
have received some first-class instruc¬ 
tion from the People’s University; the 
“learned professors” seem to be gentle¬ 
men, but I want to see Lewis hand out 
the square deal! Well, let’s keep quiet 
and see just what seat I get in the 
Ananias Club. e. k. meadoe. 
R. N.-Y.—You will probably get a seat 
down near the furnace! Stay right 
there, for a cold day is coming to 
Brother Lewis. You are not the only 
one to size up the situation. If Lewis 
could answer those questions he would 
do so and thus end the discussion. In¬ 
stead of answering he calls names and 
resorts to sarcasm and insinuation. 
There may be some talkative or hypno¬ 
tized members of the League who con¬ 
sider this argument, but those who are 
capable of reasoning will see the point. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Ten million sheets of in¬ 
ternal revenue stamps for tobacco, snuff 
and cigarettes, having a face value of 
about $5,000,000, have just been destroyed 
at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. 
These internal revenue stamps have been 
distributed among sixty-six internal revenue 
collectors, but were made useless by the 
increased tax imposed on tobacco, snuff 
and cigarettes by the Payne-Aldrich tariff 
act, the increase taking effect July 1 last, 
when the order was issued calling in the 
old stamps. 
Adolph Rothbarth, representative in 
America of one of the largest hop dealing 
firms in the world, Rothbarth & Co. of 
Frankfort on the Main, London, St. 
Petersburg and New York, was arrested 
in New York September 14, a confessed 
bank swindler. Ilis victims were the Mer¬ 
cantile National Bank, which, according to 
the District Attorney’s office, is out $58,- 
000, and the Liberty National, which holds 
$75,000 of his fraudulent notes. After 
twenty years of honorable dealing as the 
New York agent of a firm whose credit is 
internationally good, Rothbarth in 1905 
made up his mind that he wanted to be 
a millionaire and get his million quick. He 
adventured into Wall Street, playing the 
bull end of the market and putting up for 
margins cash that he had obtained from 
the banks on the strength of impeccable 
business statements. lie had been ruined 
in the panic of 1907. Thereafter Roth¬ 
barth played a confidence game with three 
banks—the Mercantile, the Liberty and the 
National Park, keeping each institution ig¬ 
norant of his borrowings from the others 
and floating his hop business with the 
proceeds of false statements of credit and 
cash. 
George W. Fitzgerald, formerly cashier 
of the United States Sub-Treasury at Chi- 
ago, was indicted September 14 by the 
Federal Grand Jury on the charge of steal¬ 
ing $178,000 from the Sub-Treasury. The 
money mysteriously disappeared from the 
cage over which Fitzgerald had charge. 
The disappearance caused a tremendous 
sensation in political circles at one time, 
it having been suggested that the mo :ey 
was used in politics. The $173,000 dis¬ 
appeared from the Sub-Treasury February 
20, 1907. At that time Fitzgerald was as¬ 
sorting teller. Fitzgerald is said to have 
been trapped by the story given out some 
time ago that the statute of limitations 
had expired and that whoever committed 
the Sub-Treasury theft was immune from 
prosecution. This story is declared to 
have been given out for the express purpose 
of leading Fitzgerald into a trap. The in¬ 
dictment against Fitzgerald was returned 
February 17. The true bill contains four 
counts, three of which charge Fitzgerald 
with embezzlement and the other charges 
him with the larceny of $173,000. 
A car on the Main street line at Colum¬ 
bus, O., was blown up September 18, as a 
result of the strike of the union employees 
of the Columbus Railway and Light Com¬ 
pany. The crew escaped injury and at 
once took out another car. One passenger 
was hurt by flying glass. Two arrests 
were made. Two previous attempts had 
been made to blow up cars, but without 
success. 
Four men were killed and two severely 
injured in a head-on collision between Mo¬ 
bile & Ohio and Iron Mountain freight 
trains September 18, niile miles north of 
Cairo, Ill., in a dense fog which obscured 
the electric headlights. Operator Charles 
E. Clark, who is blamed for the work, is 
under arrest. He went on duty only an 
hour before the wreck. The regular op¬ 
erator was sick and he was sent out to 
relieve him. He says he did not under¬ 
stand the signal system. 
M. L. Morgenthau, head of one of the 
large candy concerns of New York arrived 
September 15 by the Cunarder Mauretania 
with his wife and two daughters and 
twelve trunks filled with dutiable material. 
Mr. Morgenthau had made a carefully 
prepared declaration bristling with details 
accounting for $700 worth of clothing, 
chiefly dresses, bought on the other side. 
Customs Inspector .1. Dolan, who examined 
the trunks, found in them new gowns 
which appeared to be worth several times 
the amount declared by Mr. Morgenthau. 
This caused a careful search, which re¬ 
vealed ropes of pearls and other jewelry 
which Mr. and Mrs. Morgenthau had con¬ 
cealed in their clothing. The concealed 
articles are said to be worth $9,300. 
President Woodrow Wilson of Princeton 
was nominated for Governor by the Demo¬ 
crats of New Jersey in their State conven¬ 
tion September 15. Dr. Wilson won hand¬ 
ily with a vote of 749 1-2 more than he 
needed. Dr. Wilson defined as the main 
issues of his campaign reorganization and 
economy in administration, the equaliza¬ 
tion of taxation and the control of corpora¬ 
tions. Dr. Wilson will resign from Prince¬ 
ton in October, as he does not think it 
fair to remain as head of the college dur¬ 
ing his campaign. 
Promotion of an alleged lottery scheme 
has got the Continental Watch Company of 
Pittsburgh, Pa., into trouble with the Post 
Office Department. It is charged that the 
company is engaged in “conducting an en¬ 
terprise for the distribution of prizes by 
lot or chance through the mails,” and a 
“fraud order” Sept. 15 was issued against 
it. The company, it is alleged, formed 
clubs of forty members each among miners 
in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the 
members agreeing to pay $20 for that 
amount of furniture, clothing, or a watch. 
Payments of $1 were made every two 
weeks, when one member of each club was 
selected by lot to receive the full amount 
of his merchandise. Thereafter he made no 
payments. Nineteen members of each club, 
therefore, received their goods for less than 
their value, while twenty-one were required 
to pay the full amount. 
Four Chinamen who, the police say, were 
being smuggled into this country from 
Canada were found in a freight car at 
Holyoke, Mass., September 19, well pro¬ 
vided with food and opium. The China¬ 
men were taken to the police station to 
await the arrival of Federal officers. The 
freight car in which the Chinamen were 
found was billed from Hawick, P. Q., and 
consigned to J. Drew of Holyoke, and ar¬ 
rived in the yard September 18. Two men 
acting suspiciously about the car caused an 
investigation, arid, breaking the car door, 
the policemen discovered the Chinamen en¬ 
joying themselves behind bales of hay. 
Two persons were killed through an au¬ 
tomobile accident September 19 on the road 
between Nazareth, Pa., and Easton. John 
Fry was driving a party of four friends 
in his new car, and when he reached a 
stretch of good road he put on speed. He 
lost control and the car smashed into a 
telephone pole. The party was thrown 
out and Miss Ruth Seiple of Bangor, Pa., 
was instantly killed. William Walker, also 
of Bangor, died later. Two other girls in 
the car and Fry were painfully hurt. 
Bombs, numbers forty and forty-one in 
the war between two factions of gamblers, 
were exploded in Chicago September 20 in 
two places five miles apart within forty-five 
minutes of each other. In neither case 
was any person seriously injured, though 
the damage to buildings was considerable. 
For three years the police have been in 
a turmoil over mysterious explosions which 
have caused serious injury to several per¬ 
sons and thousands of dollars’ damage to 
property. The police believe that the 
bombs have all been thrown by the same 
man. 
STATE “GRAFT” INVESTIGATION.— 
How the old Republican machine held up the 
traction interests of this State for “con¬ 
tributions” averaging from $20,000 to $50,- 
000 a year was the trail followed by the 
legislative investigating committee in its 
hearing September 14. Louis Bedell’s for¬ 
mer testimony that much of the credit 
placed in his name with Ellingwood & Cun¬ 
ningham, the legislative brokerage firm, 
went for campaign expenses, was corrobo¬ 
rated by Louis F. Goodsell, former Senator 
from the Orange-Rockland district. Good- 
sell, whose account in the brokerage firm’s 
books was even more extensive than Be¬ 
dell’s, swore that he paid more than $10,- 
000 at a time to Reuben L. Fox, former 
Secretary of the State Committee, and that 
other amounts. drawn on the brokers were 
used for campaign expenses in his own dis¬ 
trict. He presumed Tracy Rogers was not 
giving him all this money himself, but that 
it came from the traction interests. The 
Street Railway Association, representing 
most of the large traction interests of 
the State, also paid agents in Albany, it 
was shown, including Charles H. Betts, the 
State Committee member from the Ontario- 
Wayne district, for “supplying informa¬ 
tion,” and these same interests used a 
newspaper man in Albany as a go-between 
to buy New York Transportation stock, 
gathered in a legislative pool, at 10 points 
or more above the market price, chat the 
legislative members who held the stock and 
who evidently had received it without put¬ 
ting up any margin, might reap a good 
profit. Other interesting disclosures of the 
day were that Dr. Lyman Abbott and Seth 
Low opposed the Goodsell bill favoring the 
New York Transportation Company before 
Governor Roosevelt, but that Roosevelt 
signed the bill against their opposition. 
September 16 H. H. Vreeland of the Metro¬ 
politan Street Railway Company told how 
the corporations were held up by all candi¬ 
dates and acknowledged paying Republic¬ 
ans $25,000 and Democrats $18,000. A 
broker’s clerk told of paying $500 to George 
R. Malby by direction of G. Tracy Rogers; 
there was no stock transaction to account 
for the credit, and there was nothing owing 
to Mr. Malby. 
DR. SCHURMAN AND DIRECT PRIMARIES. 
I read with pleasure your editorial in 
answer to Dr. Schurman’s argument against 
direct primary reform, in which you take 
exceptions to his “moonshine” about Athens 
and Rome and their “despotism” and “de¬ 
struction” as a result of pure democracy. 
There is little doubt that of the innu¬ 
merable and perpetually changing causes 
that led to the destruction of those cities, 
you have noted the important ones. Many 
other causes, such as malaria, and the 
breeding out of the Northern blood, might 
also be urged, but I think you are doing 
Dr. Schurman a favor in answering such 
arguments. Historical parallels have no 
scientific value in political science, and the 
authorities in logic scarcely give them con¬ 
sideration on account of their apparent 
unsoundness. J. S. Mill, our greatest au¬ 
thority, says of “the eternal arguments from 
historical examples, from Athens and Rome, 
from the fires in Smithfield or the French 
Revolution 
“I will not waste time in contending 
against modes of argumentation which no 
person with the smallest practice in esti¬ 
mating evidence could possibly be betrayed 
into, which draw conclusions of general ap¬ 
plication from a single unanalyzed instance 
or arbitrarily refer an effect to Home one 
among its antecedents, without any process 
of elimination or comparison of instances.” 
Athens was a pure democracy, Athens 
fell, therefore pure democracy caused the 
destruction of Athens—therefore beware of 
primary reform, just the kind of argument 
Mill will not waste his time with because 
of its stupidity. Any primary reformer who 
feels at all disturbed by Dr. Schurman’s ar¬ 
guments ought to read chapter seven of J. 
S. Mill’s “Logic of the Moral Sciences.” 
But neither logic nor history are necessary 
to diagnose the case of Dr. Schurman. 
Michigan. hale tennaxt. 
NEW YORK STATE FAIR. 
The New York State Fair at Syracuse 
was a fine exhibition, larger in every way 
than ever before. Year after year the 
grounds grow more attractive and conveni¬ 
ent. This is not only due to the new 
buildings which are being added, but also 
to the fact that the trees and shrubs 
started soon after the fair was established 
at Syracuse are now growing rapidly. They 
add every year to the beauty of the grounds. 
These trees made slow growth at first, as 
the soil was not well adapted to them, but 
they now appear to be making up for lost 
time, and will eventually make this spot 
the place of beauty. There was a fine dis¬ 
play of live stock, larger than ever before 
except in the case of swine, where there 
was a light falling off. The poultry dis¬ 
play was particularly good, and indicated a 
great interest being awakened in the New 
York hen. One of the most attractive fea¬ 
tures was a tent in which several times 
each day Prof. Rice, of Cornell, gave a 
demonstration of the best ways of killing 
poultry. There were also frequent addresses 
on practical poultry subjects. The various 
institutions in the State, especially those 
which conduct farms, were also represented, 
and all made displays which attracted great 
attention. One of the most noteworthy was 
that made by Commissioner Driscoll, of 
New York, who showed defective weights 
and measures. Many people were especially 
interested in knowing how customers have 
been robbed and cheated through these false 
weights. 
The live stock was as usual an attrac¬ 
tive feature. The Hereford cattle were ab¬ 
sent, but their loss was more than made 
up by the increased displays of dairy cows. 
Horses were largely represented, and it is 
more evident even than last year that New 
York offers a fine opportunity to breeders 
of the heavy and fashionable type of horses. 
There was also an immense display of farm 
implements, this year larger than ever, and 
the implements were exhibited to good ad¬ 
vantage. 
The horticultural exhibit was very fine. 
So much fruit was shown that the space 
was thoroughly crowded. As usual there 
was a sharp contest between the two large 
State associations. This year first prize 
finally went to the New York State Fruit 
Growers’ Association, they winning over 
Western New York by 3% points. When 
it is understood that the winning exhibits 
consisted of 1,760 different plates, while 
the loser showed 1,370 plates, with barrels 
and boxes in both exhibits, one can under¬ 
stand what the duties of judgment 
amounted to. The fact that exhibits from 
other States were barred this year did not 
seem to affect the size of the exhibitions. 
New York fruit growers responded and 
filled up the space, and there seems to be 
the general comment to the effect that it 
was much better to award the prize money 
within the State. As usual the Geneva 
Experiment Station made a fine exhibition 
particularly of plums. There was a sharp 
contest in the class for best county ex¬ 
hibitions, which was finally won by Or¬ 
leans County, with Niagara County second 
and Ontario County third. The Hilton 
Grange won the prize for the largest and 
best Grange exhibition, with Knowlesville 
Grange second and Newfane Grange third. 
We expect to give later a study of the 
fruit exhibited at Syracuse. Financially the 
fair was a great success, although early in 
the week it looked as if the bad weather 
would hurt attendance. As it turned out 
the total attendance for the week was 196,- 
410, while last year the attendance was 
180,324. It is thought that when the re¬ 
turns are in and all bills paid there will 
be a balance this year of about $60,000 or 
more. The success of the fair this year 
must give great satisfaction to the manag¬ 
ers, for it was generally clean and well 
conducted. 
THE POTATO CROP. 
From our observation we believe there 
will not bo any more potatoes this year 
than there were last, and we do not look 
for prices to be any higher than they were 
last year. The weather has been favorable 
in all growing sections, except perhaps 
Northern Michigan, which does not come 
on this market unless they are scarce in 
Ohio and New York points. 
IRON CIT V PRODUCE CO. 
Pittsburg, Fa. 
We usually clean up our potato crop in 
July, but this season we had too much 
rain. Farmers could not dig, old pota¬ 
toes were abundant, and the consequence 
was not much was done in the potato line. 
Much of the stock was left in the ground 
until the present time, and while we are 
now taking in sufficient quantities to sup¬ 
ply our trade, this .condition cannot last 
long. In fact, it is only a matter of about 
two or three weeks until we must look 
elsewhere for our supply. 
Nashville, Tenn. bailey-hooper co. 
The potato crop throughout our terri¬ 
tory, namely Minnesota, Northern Wiscon¬ 
sin, Northern Iowa, South Dakota and 
North Dakota, is short. It is impossible to 
state definitely how short it is, but we feel 
confident that it will not be over 50 per¬ 
cent of the potatoes there were last year. 
Early potatoes were practically nothing. 
The late potatoes will be fair crop. As 
you know, there were so many potatoes in 
this territory last year that they could not 
be marketed, and while the crop this year 
is extremely short in comparison, there will 
probably be plenty of potatoes produced 
to supply the territory and to furnish a 
great many for shipment We look for con¬ 
siderable higher prices to rule than last 
year. GAMB1E ROBINSON COM. CO. 
Minneapolis, Minn. 
Hay and Feed. 
We regard the situation as favoring 
higher prices for grain and feed during the 
Fall and Winter. We do not expect prices 
as high as those prevailing during the last 
Fall and Winter, but with former years as 
an example, when prices invariably ad¬ 
vanced during these seasons we naturally 
expect a repetition of the advance. 
THE G. W. KENNEDY MILLING CO. 
Shelbyville, Ind. 
Ailing Ducks 
What ails my ducks, or what can I do 
for them? I hatched about 30 in the early 
Spring, and have just one left. I then 
bought some Pekin eggs and had 11 hatch. 
They grew nicely until about a month old. 
Then they began to die. They are now 
two months old and I have only four left. 
They eat their breakfast all right, and run 
around and appear all right. They sit 
down in a natural manner and die. They 
are fed on a crumbly mash of bran anil 
meal with meat scraps in it; plenty of 
water warmed a little, a warm house, plenty 
of sand and a large yard with grass in it. 
They do not have fits as ducks sometimes 
do; just sit down and die. They have 
never been wot, as I get them into the 
house if it rains a little sprinkle. 
J. M. R. 
You are feeding your ducks a too con¬ 
centrated ration, which causes all of your 
trouble. I would suggest making half or 
two-thirds of their food boiled potatoes 
and cut clover—equal parts—for a week, 
then use one-third roughage, cut clover or 
Alfalfa mixed with boiled potatoes, one- 
third wheat bran and the other third made 
up of five parts cornmeal, three parts beef 
scrap and one part sand. Always be very 
careful not to feed too much cornmeal to 
ducklings before they are old enough to 
stand a strong ration. c. s. g. 
Death of Sow, 
I lost recently a Berkshire brood sow. 
A neighbor thought it hog cholera. I have 
nine shotes; if contagious will keep them 
out of pen. The sow acted as if dizzy and 
tried to drink, but could not swallow ; in 
two days she was taken blind and r< fused 
to try to eat. would stagger and fall; last 
day drooled at the mouth. She had noth¬ 
ing to eat previously but whey, graiD and 
vegetables. c. n. m. 
New York. 
There is nothing in your meagre descrip¬ 
tion to indicate cholera as the ailment 
present, nor could anyone say with confi¬ 
dence what was the matter. A sick hog 
shows the symptoms you describe in any 
one of a large number of diseases. For 
instance, she may have had rabies from 
the bite of a mad dog; but acute indiges¬ 
tion might cause similar symptoms. A post 
mortem examination should have been made 
by an expert. It will be well to clean up. 
disinfect and whitewash the pen occupied 
by the sow, and on general principles to 
keep the pigs away from the place for fear 
it may have been a contagious disease. 
A. s. A. 
“A Sure To Catch ” Mouse Trap. 
A small glass dish, or closed end thimble, 
a square of pasteboard and bread crumbs 
are used to make this trap. Add a little 
butter and sugar to bread crumbs, press 
closely into thimble until nearly full. In¬ 
vert the dish on pasteboard with the thim¬ 
ble under the edge with open end toward 
the center and edge of dish near the small 
end. The mouse, in trying to get the con¬ 
tents, rolls the thimble under the dish with 
himself a prisoner. The cat will be ready 
to pounce upon the mouse when the dish is 
raised. Or it may be killed by making a 
hole in the board the size of a lead pencil 
and placing over a gas jet for a few min¬ 
utes. j. c. c. 
Jollytown, Pa. 
