Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-11-16
Miss Florence Minis Writes of
IS, a Visit to Oklahoma City.
Dear Advertiser:

Erlf a tlSlI 10 OhAdlOiuo Sily.
tDear Advertiser:
If every state called its capital by
Its own name plus city," it would be
Ia blessing straight from heaven to
1.-THE average school boy, who memoriz-
Ees that Olympia is the capital of
Washington, when he would much
rather be thinking, and probably is,
|that nothing like food for thought is
80 good as food for his gun, and the
fact that practice makes perfect in
shooting rabbits is worth more than
the thought that is perfect in men,
orizing geographical situations.
Although l have never been a
small boy, / have been small girl,
and can sympathize. Now, you
doubtless begin to think that have
some thought back of this long, mys-
terious statement.
+ made recent trip to Oklahoma
City, through the country, and l was
Just thinking of what a blessing that
j could easily remember the capital
of at least this state.
We passed cotton fields on the way
down, real prairies and old wells. Oil
wells are a common sight to me now,
though the extent of my knowledge
lis this, that the oil is under the
ground and the derricks above.
+ In the party Saturday were sever
Eal members of the faculty, among
them President Caldwell, who has a
keen wit that he displays with much
Frequency. He said that he had lived
in this country for about fifteen
years and in that time he had man
aged somehow to learn that when
the workmen drilled for oil, they
bored down in the ground instead Of
up in the air. Beyond that his knowl-
edge stops, so he says, but l am sure
that he knows more. Blessings on
The man who sometimes admits that
she knows nothing about certain CIV
ien things. I very often, in answer to
"a student, say 81 don't know" and
more often than that accept sug
;gest:ons from them in certain mat
Eers, reserying at all times the right
ssls s assrt ghorita tive nowledgs
when it pleases me.
sincerely trust that no teacher or
student will ever try to outline one
of these struggles on my part to
write, for it can not be done. The
letters are neither fish nor fowl,
nor good red herring" but freak
of literature which can not be clas-
sifed.
But to return to the subject of
oil wells, / have learned two or three
things about them. The nearest field
is the Tonkawa oil field about six
miles from town. The largest produc-
ing wells bring 5000 barrels day.
Sometimes the oil shoots high above
the derricks like a geyser. AS soon
as possible, however, when the oil is
reached it's current is turned into
pipes and led away to tanks, and
thence taken to Ponca City ten miles
away to the Marland refneries.
Fortunate are those people who
owned the land thus oil lined and
silver lined.
As we passed the cotton fields, l
missed the melodious voices of the
Southern cotton pickers and their big
baskets and picturesque grouping. To
me cotton field is not cotton field
without the colored people. That is
but the stage setting and they are the
actors, and when the curtain of the
present is rolled away, / shall once
again be glad to be in the audience
before that southern stage.
Red hills, oak covered, reminded
me of Edgefeld as we rode farther
south and nearer the capital.
What was my surprise on reaching
the outskirts of the city to be greet
ed first by the Capitol itself, sitting
out in cornfeld, as though it had
come to meet me, stranger. There
were no finely kept lawns, and no
shrubbery, only bare field in the
midst of which was a large square
white building. So much for the real
estate people, who managed to get
the Capitol on the outskirts, so that
the city will build out around it.
The lack of we'll kept surroundings
is due to the Republican element in
+l,o ,+o+o ,,,bo rofuead tho oncaccarv