New Britain herald., 1924-09-15
BEAN KING' GONE,
 BUSINESS FAILURE
Lewis E. Sands Missin6-- Crash
 Entails Possibly S5O0,OOO

Albion, N. Y, Sept 15.-Weaken- ing under the strain of financial wor- ries, his friends believe, Lewis E. Sands, wholesale bean dealer and known as the Worlds Bean King" has vanished. AS a result of his disappearance, his wholesale plant here, doing business as Lewis E. Sands Co.,, Inc, and twenty-eight receiving stations and warehouses in this state and scores of others throughout the country today for the first time stand idle, in compliance with an order of his attorney. Lia- bilities of the company are said to exceed the assets by from s3oo,oOO to $500, 900.
 Rated millionaire, bearing high reputation as philanthropist, | civic leader and churchman, and recognized by election to bank di- rectorates, for his business ability, Sands who vanished last Tuesday, from small beginnings built up a business that won for him world wide distinction.
 His Rise to Wealth
 His rise from near poverty to "World Bean King" has all the ele- ments of fiction. When Henry Sands, father of Lewis, left Albion for parts unknown, his wife and four chill dren, two sons and two daughters were left to shift for themselves.The elder Sands had eked out living by l buying small lots of beans from nearby farmers and picking them over in a small barn in the rear of the Sands home.
 Lewis Sands was 15 years old when his father left and the bur den of supporting the family fell upon him. He chose to sort beans as his father had done. Within a few years he was hiring from two to five women to assist him in the work and acquiring a reputation for hon. esty which proved valuable to him in later years. Shortly after, Sands married Mary Stevens, daughter of q an Albion Methodist minoster. He succeeded in interesting Wall street capital in his bean business, erected a large plant and set out to gain a better foothold in the industry.
 When the World war breke out
 the business was firmly intrenched in New York and many other states
 and was in a position to bid for con-
 tracts to furnish beans for the al lied armies. It is reported that Sands made more than a million dollars from these contracts. During his business career, Sand! has devoted himself almost entirel! to his own industry and it is be lieved by friends here that thu strain has caused some form of men
 tai disturbance. Sands gained fol himself a record by his donations tt
 charities and institutions
 Dses Big Business. The Sands corporation has don an annual business of four or fiv
 million dollars through branches il . many states. There are 2S branche in this state and the rest are scat
 tered through Michigan, Massachu - setts, Pennsylvania, Connecticu - Rhode Island, California and othe
 western states.
 d The company's principal creditor 0 areb anks in Boston, Philadelphia n Rochester, Waverly, Lockport an
 western cities, besides several bea l. dealers thoughout the country. y Announcement of the closing wa r. made by Sanford T. Church, attol 1t ney for Mir. Sands He said no actio e had been taken toward bankruptc,
 this depending on further examins
 ton of the books and a meeting
 creditors,
 Iy T am confident in the, integrity st MT. Sands and believe f1is absence
 caused by a mind broken over final ," cial worries" MT. Chueh said. '' m preliminary examination of the con
 pany's books indicates that it is il s. solvent"