The Arkansas Farmer

Dear Cousins All:

Letters have been coming in thick and fast the last few days. There are certainly some very interesting ones in the bunch, and we hope that we'll continue to get even more before the first of December. Of course, it is hard to choose the very best letters and have them meet with everyone's approval, but we hope that everyone will like at least the most of the letters which we tried to choose as carefully as possible.

However, there is one little hint or suggestion that I should like to make—In writing letters for this prize contest, try and leave out as much as possible of your own description—and use that same space to tell about the part of Arkansas where you live, the things you like to do, the crops you raise, your activities as F. F. A. boys, 4-H Club boys or girls.

The three best letters which we have received so far head the list. Now, I promised to tell you more about Kansas when I wrote again. Alice Murrill, I was quite interested in your letter for I have a number of friends in Kansas City, Kansas. My old home was 135 miles straight south from Kansas City, in the little town of Girard, Crawford county, Kansas. Girard is located in the center of the coal producing section of Kansas. We have an almost limitless supply of coal, but the demand for Kansas coal isn't so great because the people in the Middle West are not educated to call for "Kansas Coal"—and most of the coal that is sold is Pennsylvania coal. However, we hope to eventually remedy this condition.

The last year has seen a marked increase in the oil production also in our part of the state. Small wells, but number of constant producers.

Now my home town—Girard has had an interesting story: It was founded by a doctor named Strong in 1869. At that time, it was prairie land proper and he went hunting one day in February and killed a deer on the southeast corner of the square. He staked the spot and called it Girard for his home back in Pennsylvania. Girard was the location for the socialist paper "Appeal to Reason" and we have had all sorts of notorious people either visiting there in connection with the plant or, making their names there. The late Eugene V. Debs, former socialist candidate for president, used to come there quite often, and school children were always hanging around him because he always had candies and stories handy. The plant passed into the hands of H. Haldeman-Julius in 1916, and Girard is now known as the home of the Little Blue Book. Up until I came to Arkansas last year I was on the editorial staff of the Haldeman-Julius Publications, and was private secretary to Mrs. Haldeman-Julius. The Haldeman-Julius Publications have printed over 100,000,000 Little Blue Books.

Perhaps next time I shall tell you something about the middle part of my former state.

COUSIN LORENE.