[Autograph Letter, Signed, by the Chamberlain, South Dakota, Newspaper Editor Regarding His Printing and Publishing Investments]

Chamberlain, S.D.: December 19, 1891. Very good.. 6pp. on octavo leaves. From a gummed pad of letterhead paper, with leaves joined at top edge. Previously folded, light tanning. Accomplished in hasty, but legible scrawl. An amusing and spirited letter from George R. Owen, the editor of the Chamberlain, South Dakota, newspapers to his recently visited cousin in New York, composed on his attractive, personal letterhead. The missive begins by announcing the author's safe return, declaiming his happiness to be back in the South Dakota climate (!!), and relating the discovery of a new artesian water source, which, "will irrigate hundreds of acres and means (truncated) sixty bushels of wheat per acre, DEAD SURE." He then moves on to discussing his own newspaper and printing business, in which he is transferring much of his interests from papers to the production of blank books -- "Am now going to put about $4000 more into the blank printing business exclusively. It is a big business -- THOUSANDS of dollars worth of them used in a year...." Of course, he cannot raise the cash locally ("I have the reputation here of being a 'rustler'") and asks his relative to loan him the $1500 or $2000 extra he needs, while also blaming the tight cash market on heavy local investment in the construction of a Black Hills railroad bridge. The letterhead, which takes up nearly half of these smallish sheets comprises a map of South Dakota with Chamberlain in bold, and the titles of the newspapers of which Owen was editor in varied fonts. An enjoyable snapshot of late 19th-century wheeling and dealing in rural South Dakota. (Inventory #: 3012)