Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1920-11-26
George W. Banks Writes an Interesting
Letter About Texas and Arkansas

state he has no connection whatever
with the Harry H. Hoffman Oil Com
pany, from which company several of
our citizens have received circular
letters. On Sunday he took me out i'll
the oil fields, and it certainly is an in.
teresting sight to witness. The roads,
however, are beyond description. In
fact they are not roads, but just get
through where you can. II you a
picture nothing but holes and bitches
In all directions-fillet with mire, COM
posed Of water, clay and oils the
only way you can form an idea how
bad they are. And after you have
done that, add five hundred per cent.
aud you will about strike it. You just
pick out a hole that looks shallow,
drive through and trust to luck. The
only vehicle that can get you there aud
back Is a Queen Thu Liz. Nothing else
could pull through and live to tell the
tale. 1t is said here that Henry Ford
crossed a mule with a bicycle, and the
Tin Lizzie was the result.
Burkburnett, one Of the oil to Sns,
and also one of the richest oil producing
towns in this section, is composed OF
little one-story shacks, and from ap-
pearsnces were built from material Oh
tanned off a dump, with old battered
tin gathered from the same place cover
ing the rtof. The owners of these
shacks and lot, so x 100, are happy and
c~ontentedly resting quietly and draw
ing down from fifty to five hundred
dollars a day and more in royalties,
without doing a tap OF work. When
oil was discovered IN this section they
leased the right to drill for oil on their
ground. One-eighth of whatever oil is
produced goes to the owners of these
little shacks, and lot wells are drilled
ri2ht at either the front or back door,
in fact are drilled everywhere. Even
the cemeteries have not escaped. We
went from there to another oil town of
the same kind, only worse, called New
town, where during the height Of the
oil boom about a year ago they averaged
seven killings a week. But, now the
rush Is owe and some of the most IN
desirable citizens having left or been
killed, law and order prevails to a GER
tain extent, and it has settled down
and become a most respectable COM
munity. The average has been cut
down TO only one or two killings a
week. These were cotton trading
towns before oil was discovered.
Wichita Falls is a town of about
10000 inhabitants, and, like Fort
Worth, has a shortage Of houses, a little
three-room bungalow and bath renting
for seventy.five dollars a month. Some
of the handsomest church buildings /
have ever seen are greatly In evidence
here, as well as handsomer houses, ali
the result of oil.
Returned to Fort Worth on Monday
on the flyer, and by a great effort made
it in five hours. The lobby of the West
brook hotel here reminds one of the
floor of a stock exchange all day long
and clear into the night. They talk oil,
sleep oil, dream oil, eat oil, drink oil, and
Saturday nights 1 guess take a bath In
oil. Left there on Tuesday morning,
November 10Th, al six o'clock, arriving
at Hot Springs at 10.15 that night,
havingtravelledsince IeavingWildwood
2,432 miles by train and sixty miles
over the oil fields in a Tin Lizzie.
GEO. w. BANKS.