Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-02-01
TOPOLOBAMP0.
ONE OF ITS VICTIMS GIVES HIS FIX
 TERRENCE.
A Discouraged and Broken Spirited Com munity---The Dream of Its Founder not Realized---Its Bankrupt Con-
 ditiOn.
TEMPE Ariz. Jan. 26. 1890

TEMPE, Ariz. Jan. 26, 1890.
 EDITOR ENTERPRISE Three years ago, l with my family, was at Topo- lobampo, 'Sinaloa, Mexico,wlth co m- munistic Colony then numbering about three hundred and fifty men, women and children. Two months soiourn among them satisfied us, and with some thirty others we left, and about March 1st, 1887, landed at Guaymas.
 As soon as we reached the United States, did all in my power to inform people of the true condition of affairs in said Colony, and was kindly given the columns of many of our leading journals to disseminate the truth among the people.
 For several months after my return I considered it duty incumbent upon me, to warn people against this most infamous scheme, to further the petty ambition of A. K. Owen and others, whose only desire in getting the peo- pie to go there, was to build arailroad.
 Of the suffering endured by the numbers of that communlstlc gath ering I shall not now speak, but may at some future time, if agreeable to your readers and yourself, write de- ] tailed account of our separations and adventures, our troubles and our trav- els in that much overrated country and among those estimable and much under estimated people, the original 1 inhabitants.
 I had long since given up the idea of ever writing another word in regard to this communistic move, but when an article lauding such a~deplOrable 1 failure, appears in the columns Of a | journal as THE ENTERPRISE, reaching as it does all classes and grades of peO- pie, in fact the leading paper of Ari- zona, I cannot deny myself the Oppor- tunity to give to it's readers, at least a crumb of truth as to the true charac- 1 ter of the move.
 I cannot more ftly show the present condition of the Colony, than in the experience of c. c. Remley who was induced to join by representations of the ideal life which was to be enjoyed at Topolobampo He joined a party from Kansas City last year, and took his family and supplies sufficient for a two years stay at the Colony. He re- manned four months, leaving these last November for San Francisco. He says, "the Colonists now number about one hundred and ten, mostly old men and women who have become so em- bittered by their disappointment that they are hard to live with. If these people could get means to leave, there would not be twenty remaining at the place, but having put their money in the general fund they can get nothing back. All are paid for their work in time checks which cannot be cashed because the directors say there are no funds. Some of the land owned by the Colony is good, but the Colonists persist in planting eastern seed, and they have thus regularly lost their crops. The regular diet of the Colon ists is black eyed beans and corn bread three times a day, and most of them are too poor to buy meat. The most of the statements in the Credit Fon- cier," the official newspaper organ pub Iished there, are falsehoods, as the Colony has nothing to offer to new members but hard work and poor food.
 The Credit Foncier of Sinaloa is in corporated, and for more than three years has been doing business as such as Topolobampo. With the exception of few thousand dollars, roped out oi his dupes by theospecious falsehood; of this man Owen, they have conGuc- ted their business wholly ons credit and to-day they have debt, Ii they ever intend to pay their credit checks, of at least a millions dollars, and is in , every respect bankrupt concern The original objects of the Colony have been abandoned, and the dream of the beautiful city by the sea, is al obliterated vision of the past. As Mir | Remley says, there are some good land;
 there, located along the banks of the Rio Fuerte, but they were long age , taken up by the Mexican people, whC ? hold them at as high a figure, as lave
 if the same quality is held in the Sal river valley. The Colony two year ago abandoned the lands at Topolo
 bampO and purchased small trac 2 forty miles away, which the saddene, and hopeless remnant how occupy. - The moving spirit among them i , Mrs. Marie Rowland, who edits tht newspaper. She no doubt curses the
 day that she met and became tn
 dupe of Owen, and was by him in " duced to give up her home in NeV Jersey, and move with her brillian g but over emotional and invalid hus . band to that desolate and barren re e zion. knew these people, and oftel V talked with them of the ideal life a "the city by the sea" and can under :. stand the hopeless wretchedness whic a prompts that bright and able woman
 to continue to write and publish tn sensational trash which fills the pape V she edits. They gave up all they ha f to join this move, as did hundreds ( a others, and the only results so far aC o complished have been misery and f S nancial bankruptcy.
 If any of your readers have eve s thought of going there, let them poI 70 der well, and then, if carried away wit
 the scheme, leave their families we n provided for at home, then make th If trip alone. They will, if they don
 turn their money into the public fun' 10 soon return and mentally thank th F. undersigned for this advice.
 .o l.. H. HAWKINS.
 Tempe Town Talk.
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