Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1915 — GOOD LETTER FROM OMAR C. RITCHIE [ARTICLE]

GOOD LETTER FROM OMAR C. RITCHIE

Regrets Our Crop Loss and Says to “Keep a Stiff Upper Lip”—Has Had Experience. L’Argent, Concordia Parish, La., July 25, 1915. Editor Republican, Dear Sir: It is with sincere sorrow and regret that I read in your last issues of the heavy losses of my old Jasper county friends, caused by the heavy rainfall of the past two weeks. I can deeply sympathize with them because of my heavy losses in 1912 and 1913 from the Mississippi river overflows, the only times this section had suffered from that cause in 30 years. The two overflows in succession (such a catastrophe never known before), ruined many good planters and disheartened many others, but it taught us many lessons for our own good in the future. Let youT people “keep a stiff upper lip” and let the strong of mind and heart encourage the weak, by example and help, if necessary. Where a good man is in debt and cannot pay now, extend the time of payment and give him a chance. Don’t let him eave the country and advertise its shortcoings. Jasper county is “all right.” I remember that away back in the 70’s, when I was with my father on our farm 4 miles • southwest of

Rensselaer (now owned 'by Walter Porter), we suffered from a June flood. The Iroquois river backed the waters of Carpenter’s creek and the Big Slough up over our farm until the place was completely covered with water, excepting where the house and )arns stood. Our crops promised big yields, just as yours did last month, but in one night and day it was ruined. The waters laid over the farm for almost thirty days. We cut a good crop of second growth timothy and wild hay to carry our stock through the winter, but where we usually gathered thousands of bushels of fine com every year, that season my father and I gathered our entire crop of com in a bushel basket and did not have enough to fill it once. The following year we had a bumper crop of everything. On 12 acres of land near our bams I gathered 104 bushels of com per acre, the best crop I ever made or ever saw grow, although if is frequently beaten in this country by our iboys’ com clubs. So keep up your courage and all pull together. The greatest permanent loss the county and Rensselaer, especially, will suffer from, was the defeat of that subsidy for the building of that interurban railroad. That was a fatal blunder and should, if possible, be reconsidered. We had the j same conditions of poor crops, poor prices, short-sighted and ignorant people to contend with and overcome, when the Monon railway was first surveyed and asked for 2 per cent tax subsidy from the townships in Jasper county, through which it was to be laid. Almost every taxpayer howled against it and the fellow from the townships not liable, the worst of all. But, thank Heaven, that progressive and public-spirited old citizen of Rensselaer, Alfred McCoy, was theni at his best and ably backed iby my father, Dr. James Ritchey, and by Dr. I. B. Washburn and a few others, enterprising and generous men, who gave their time and money to push the railway’s cause and finally achieved success. Their foresight and spirit made Rensselaer and Jasper county what they are today. Suppose these public spirited men 'had been overcome by the opposition and the railway scheme defeated, Jasper county would today be in the class with Brown county. The taxes on the interurban railway would soon have repaid the initial cost to Jasper county and many times over, repay it by assisting in developing the city and the country in every way. I’m sorry you turned such a good thing down. Recall it, if you can. Here’s good luck to old Jasper county, and her good people, from one of her old boys. Sincerely yours,

OMAR C. RITCHIE.

Nineteen sixteen Model Maxwell touring car $656; self-starter and all modern; at the Main Garage. Call and 3ee it.