Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1889 — AN OUT-SPOKEN OPINION ABOUT OKLAHOMA. [ARTICLE]

AN OUT-SPOKEN OPINION ABOUT OKLAHOMA.

The following breezy but not exactly complimentary description of Oklahoma is copied from the Minneapolis, Colorado, Republic. Its interest for local readers will be somewhat enhanced by the fact that it is addressed to a former fellow townsman: Guthrie, Ind. Ty. April 26, 1889. Emend Waiinkk and Boys:— This is a b of a place, nothing but lot jumping and it takes grit to get one’s rights you can bet. Oklahoma is nothing but a sand bed, clear down to the bed rock, no subsoil, sand as fine as flour and as soon as the soil is plowed it will all blow away, and if it should rain it will wash up into regular canons. The ground is as dry as a bone and I do not believe that it has rained down here for the last six months. Talk about Oklahoma! it will turn out to be a South Sea bubble. Some of my friends have requested me to advise them whether to come to Oklahoma; I would say no, it is entirely overdone and many will drop their wad in Oklahoma. Tiffs is no country like you have surrounding Minneapolis and will never make a successful fuming country. I have never been so disappointed in regard to anything as I have to Oklahoma and I may truthfully say that nearly everyone else is in the same boat. Expect to return to Minneapolis in the near future. Your friend,

J. E. RICKENBACH.