The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1919-08-19
WOndrOus Tales From Walters
By w. f.. Kerr

BY w. F.. Kerr.
Walters, Okla, Aug. 1S-Prosperity
| is riotously rampant over this section
of Oklahoma. If a man says he's broke,
you conclude that he's incompetent or
| lazy If he isn't making more money
than he ever made before. doubtless the
gears are meshed in his differential
| A year ago | travelled some of the
trails that head into here. and found
the populations majority blue languid
and idle; worn out from waiting for
rain. but hanging desperately to the
hope that a profitable oil field would
develop. Yesterday smiles filled the
wrinkles that old frowns made. Dol
| lars clinked in the tills where pennies
We're safeguarded last year. The fell
| lows that sat on the corners and whit.
| tied and chewed, and talked forebod-
ingly last year, We're so busy yesterday
| that an ordinary news hound had to
make appointments to get to them.
SO much for oil and rain. The town
is thoroughly fabricated with its own
oil, and every few days during nearly
all of this year its radiator has been
refilled with water. Its average speed
is that of the siX-cylinder on a dragged
sector of the DCD Hihghway, with all
the plugs hitting, and the tires full of
air.
| doubt if there is need of a provi-
dent society in Cotton county. If it
has a poor farm, the commissioners
had as well lease it to oil men and get
it off their hands. | doubt if there is a
case of poverty in the county, whereas
g 70 hprnft
in the throes of a drouth, knew not
where the next meal was to come
from. It should be said in behalf of
the county that it is not permanently
drouthy The inhabitants feel here as
did woman in Fisher county, Texas,
to whom l talked few weeks ago.
The car we travelled in stopped at a
little ranch house in the midst of a
great forest of mesquite timber, in the
shadow of Double Mountain. and on an
upper level of the fertile BraZos river
country. The house had been recently
painted. The yard was clean and roses
and wild flowers grew beside the
walks. The barn was new and all
fences in good repaid. Inside the house
was as neat as a pin. a trim little
matron, clad in a clean apron and with
her hair freshly combed, brought us a
dipper to take to the cistern.
II didn't expect to see such a pros
porous country place in West Texas
after the long drouth," I said to her.
How did you come to paint the house?"
Her smile was charged with resent |
ment.
"I'd have you know" she said. that
IL, in,
Texas. We have had many years of
good crops. And you'll remember"
she added challengingly. that last year
there was a drouth nearly everywhere |
else"
Given a fair chance and tolerable |
circumstances, the average inhabitant |
of West Texas or West Oklahoma will |
make a reputation for his country if the |
old one happens to be skipping. Fertile |
soil is near everywhere in the west
farms that will produce nearly any
thing the climate will sustain.
Mayor w. II. Divers told me that |
things change so fast in Walters that
il makes him dizzy. Banker Coleman, (
who has been here twenty years an1 |
during most of them knew nearly all |
the inhabitants by their first names,
remarked that today he doesn't know |
the names of half his depositors Bank
er Sultan. wilfully overworked. debated |
whether to drop active management of
the bank or get out of oil, concluding
that he'd do neither.
Banker Coleman, mindful of the dan
gers of profligacy on the part of the
newly well-todo. sat in a handsomely
equipped new office of his bank and ad
vised his customers to spend wisely.
In spite of most excellent crops and
a developing oil field. the stars are yet |
distant to a few. A business man said;
This Is just fine: just the thing
we wanted: oil wells. gas wells. pipe
lines. refineries. new business houses.
a double population and all that, but,