Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1902 — Col. Powell a Mere Root [ARTICLE]

Col. Powell a Mere Root

“Boast not thyself of tomorrow” nor yet of the day after, neither of, big pumpkins, nor of lots of weather, neither of large corn nor of tall men, for thou knowest not how soon a truthful man from Oklahoma may drop in and double discount all that of which you so louldly boasted. This truth has been bumped into The Republican with a great and mighty bump. For scarce was the ink dry on our accounts of the great and supposed unequalled dimensions of Col. A. A, Powell, the Texas giant, when lo! the man from Oklahoma arrives and proves that as compared with the Oklahoma giant, the Texas Goliah is a mere runt. And the worst of it is, the Oklahoma men, in spite of their big stories, always keep strictly within the truth, or at least it is generally the best policy to admit that they do. And in this case of the giants, there is no doubt about it, for the man who tells the story is none other than J. F. Warren, our former county school and Sunday school superintendent and a man of such settled veracity of of habit, that even the exuberant atmosphere of Oklahoma could not change him from the truth. This Oklahoma man, of whom indeed, some reports have been traveling through the newspapers, was seen, talked to and critically examined, by Mr. Warren, at El Reno, only a few days before he made this last trip home. His name Mr. Warren does not remember, but he is 8 feet and 2 inches tall, or nearly 10 inches higher than Col. Powell. He wears a number 24 shoe, ahd without being fat or of heavy build for his height, weighs 365 pounds. His age is 34 years. He has got rich by exhibiting himself, and the day Mr. Warren saw him at Elßeno he took in SIOO, at 10 cents a look. Mr. Warren is a six-footer or thereabouts, and with a tall hat on he could stand erect under the Oklahoma man’s horizontally extended arm, and never touch it. He took a gold ring off his fourth finger, and Mr. Warren passed a silver half dollar through it, and a half dollar nothing in size by being transplanted to Oklahoma. He always sleeps on two beds. He is an Odd Fellow, a K. of P„ and an Elk. He was born in Minnesota, but makes his principal headquarters in Oklahoma, where he has a brother, and where he owns numerous farms.