The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-01-20
A VISIT WITH A FORMER CITIZEN OF ARDMORE
FROM A PORTRAIT PEDDLER
TO A PROMINENT LAWYER
Everybody Is Proud of the Career of Ed Bond, and
While His Letter Is Long 1t Was Too Interesting
for the Blue Pencil
Duncan, Okla, Jan. l6, 1921

Duncan, Okla, Jan. 16, 1921.
The Ardmoreite,
Ardmore, Oklahoma,
Dear Sir
Upon my return TO Duncan yester-
/ day l found your letter of the 18th
instant awaiting me in which you ad-
wise me OF your plan to give the home
| people of Arimore an evenings visit
with those who formerly resided there
and are now living in other portions
of the country, by means Of letters
and that | was included in this novel
event; and | hasten to assure you thai
+. is highly gratifying to me to be
remembered in this connection, after
an these years | have been away from
Ardmore. l will always have warm
place in my heart for Ardmore, my
advent into the west having been
staged there and l have many pleasant
mcmories-but to my story.
| landed in Ardmore in June, 1896,
carrying a sample case OF enlarged
portraits for which was soliciting
orders from house to house. ! had not
/ become addicted to work at that time
and this was as near nothing as
could find to do. In two days | had
decided 10 abandon the quasi-hobo
profession and settle down at Ard
more Git was some time before /
could settle up) and thereupon became
secretary to Colonel Trask who, at that
time was developing the asphalt mines
west of the town. In few months l
took up the study of llw, writing
shor hand in the law offices and courts
as the safest bet for a meal ticket,
and in 1899. blossomed forth as an
attorney, with license issued by
Judge Townsend duly admitting me to
practice legal fraud on those who
might be so dense and unobserving as
to enguge my services. There appeared
TO be so few of this class, however,
shat on the 18th day of August, 1900,
| loaded my few effects on wagon
and regretfully left Ardmore behind
me and arrived at Duncan on Sunday,
the 18th. Right here seems to be an
appropriate place for my tribute to
Arlmore. When l arrived there in
1896 it was a struggling, but almost
ypical frontier town but the majority
Of its citizens were of the kind that
stood for law and order and slowly
i&oved forward and upward until in
few years, the town emerged a city
of the first class in every sense OF
the. word they realized that no town
] e. III,
and thereupon, by the practice Of their
conceptions, they have buildedfa city
of which the state and nation may
we'll be proud Throughout all this
formative period have watched the
growth of your city with a sort of per-
sonal pride. Like "a great many others
living there during my residence in
Ardmore | endured many hardships
and advers!ties; we were pretty much
all of a kind In this respect, but / have
so many pleasant memories OF my few
years stay in Ardmore that the un-
| pleasant events Of that time are re-
ceding further and further from my
mental vision every day and the recol-
lections of those four years contain nor
one ignoble prejudice or memory, but
only the knowledge and consciousness
of most delightful sojourn in what
was then, an incipient city, and has
since become the metropolis OF one
of the greatest industries of The world,
and even now when ! am no longer
a citizen of that place, / rejoice with
you in the progress ana advancement
in every way Of Ardmore. Now your
question, whether | like Duncan bet
ter than / do Ardmorc ] do not love
Ardmore less but love Duncan more.
l will always love Ardmore, | suppose.
The eagle may change It's plume, tine
leaf its hue, the flower its bloom,
But ties around my heart We're spun
that would not, could not, be un-
done.
But Duncan-listen-wh came
here It was scarcely more than "a VII
llge. Like Ardmore, as have said
the better element predominated, and
finally won out; but at that time this
section could boast of its share Of the
0utlawry that was so prevalen, all over
the Indian Territory. Crimes Of all
kinds were common. as In all other Sec