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# REFORMER A BANKRUPT. OWES HALF A MILLION. L. H. Jones, Formerly of Buffalo, Has Assets of $140. Lodewick Holmes Jones, erstwhile reformer in Buffalo, filed a petition in bankruptcy here yesterday, with liabilities of $498,607, and assets of $140. L. H. Jones, better known in Buffalo as "Loddy," or "Kodak" Jones, is still a subject of sorrowful comment in the Bison City on the part of ministers, saloonkeepers, tradespeople and his former friends. Jones is a son of a wealthy lawyer, and from the days when he attended the Central High School of Buffalo he was marked for his nerve. After graduating from the high school Jones entered a law office and studied law. Shortly after he was admitted to the bar he sprang into prominence by posing as a reformer. His pet hobby was the enforcement of the Raines law, and in obtaining evidence of violations of the law he photographed saloons where the violations were committed. He was beaten a number of times for this by irate saloonkeepers and also had his camera smashed, but he got much free advertising from the newspapers. He over-reached himself, however, when he took a photograph of a building that was owned by his own father, and his desire to enforce the Raines law abated immediately. Jones then turned his attention to Sunday baseball playing and succeeded in stopping this sport on Sundays in Buffalo. In these efforts he had the support of the Rev. Dr. O. P. Gifford, pastor of the Delaware Avenue Baptist Church, one of the wealthiest churches in Buffalo. Jones seemed to prosper, but suddenly his relations with Dr. Gifford were severed, and about the same time he ceased all his reform efforts. To a friend, Jones confided that reforming had paid and had helped him to build up a big law practice. The next heard of Jones was the announcement that he had married a wealthy Southern girl and had bought a gne home in Linwood-ave., one of the most fashionable sections of Buffalo. The lavishness with which the house was furnished for his bride, the opulence in which Jones lived, his retinue of servants and fine horses made many older Buffalo lawyers envious. Jones hinted that he derived a big income from a theatre in which he was interested, but no one knew where Jones got his money until one day, several big drays were backed up to his fine house and the place was stripped of all its contents by the tradespeople, who had never been paid for the wares. A contractor, who had built a veranda on the house, and who had not quite finished the job, tore down the veranda and carted away the material. Jones then disappeared from Buffalo, and, excepting those who had special cause to remember him, he was soon forgotten. The fact that he was here was not known in Buffalo, but that he is a bankrupt is not a surprise to Buffalonians. The principal creditors are: Henry Altenbrand and twenty-eight others, doing business on August 3, 1903, as the New-York and New-England Underwriters at Lloyds, $20,000; A. B. Wolf and W. 1. Clarke, of No. 80 William-st., $153,000; the Bank of Richmond, receiver of the Richmond Fire Insurance Company, Richmond, Va., $8.000; the Buffalo (N. Y.) Savings Bank, $105,000; the Third National Bank, of Buffalo, $6,300; the German-American Bank, of Buffalo, $28,000; the receiver of the Bank of Commerce, Buffalo, $34,700; Adelbert Moot, Buffalo, $16,000; the Seaman's Bank for Savings, at No. 70 Wall-st., $89,000. The petitioner also owes for a number of household accounts, furnished him at Oyster Bay, in July last, all for small amounts. The major portion of the liabilities were incurred in Buffalo for living expenses, where, according to the petition, petitioner was interested in insurance, and in connection with which the expenses were incurred. The assets consist of petitioner's office furniture, fixtures, law books and household effects. Philip P. Gardiner, of No. 32 Broadway, is the attorney for the petitioner.