The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-06-06


Texas, have ceased to make infidels. 7, G IL
no longer discredited, that man NAV bo
digging potatoes and "strike oil;'' that tbo
girl Titled her lover because her father baS
struck it too; that in those regions the air -
composed of oxygen, nitrogen and-oil.
that men grow slippery as cells there away
and though neither ssfat," nor Mons
inevitable 'oily;" that they name tho ho are
''Oleaginous," and thel little maidens aKsyr'
osene." aei-
Cory is the name of a town on the PHI
adelphia and Erie Railroad. sumo f;f.,-
miles from Erie, in the midst of swami
ana 1t Is growing as rushes grow in danry,'
places. A railroad port of the oil region +
is q brisk, bustling, saucy town. an ann'
malous caroline, preserved in. and Inv n;I
Well, we started for Cory. and the train
Tor all those miles ran gauntlet of coon-
er-sh0ps and barrels, and meat trains with
barrels and halted at platforms barricadad
with barrels, and the passengers climbed
over barrels and made detours round bar
rels, and in and on those barrels and trains
and on your garments and in your nos.
trils, nothing but oil. If any body fancies
we are making smooth story of it. il
Isen't so much to be wondered at. for Ger
tainly it is well fabricated.
Cory looks like California, and the OIL
men look like miners, and there is a sort of
two listed way about every body and thing
and stranger of the least observation
would be sure he was on the edge of one of
natures miracles: gold, or diamonds. or
oil.
Oil Creek, so called this many a year.
was remarkable for nothing but dirty
film upon its surface, a way Nature had Of
giving hint, which nobody took but the
poor Indian" who dipped his blanket in
II ana wrung out the oil and it became pre-
cious. As Seneca OIL" as petroleum. as
rock-oil, it was the same unmistakabIe od-
orous article, good it is said for rheumatism
outside, fever and ague inside, and a hun
dred things beside.
b The story of its first successful working
familiar to most Of our readers, runs thus:
An unfortunate Eastern railroad conduc-
tor, who conducted his train into river,
the bridge being open, incontinently fed
Gbstt eoasit, &C., and found himself in In
Ola, and looking at the sacred wells there
away. Identifying the fragrance of the
India-oil with that of the dirty coating of
Oil Creek, he put, as the saying is, "this
and that together" and so like the fox
hound, he smelled his way to fortune
Inc damp depot whereto he conducted his
passengers having been fairly dried out of
memory by the fire of public indignation,
he ventured back, and the first thing we
know of him he was sinking shaft in the
miserable wilderness of Pennsylvania's
woods, and the great oil well anointed him
all over, as was Aaron's beard, with sue
cess.
Now, two THOUSAND wells have been
sunk; representatives of almost all nations
are congregated there, line of vessels has
been established to Europe, that are to be
covered with Oil from stem to keelSOn it's
lubricating properties have been recogni-
zed, its illuminating virtues are apprecia-
ted, and it is rapidly becoming one of the
important trades of oil, as in every thing
rSf oS No. To-
Beatitudes of the New Testament, did thew
ever find place in the price-current.-
Fortunes have been made there in day,
and many mau has been spoiled by pros
perity. Occasionally, scenes of the widest
excitement occur in that rude wilderness.
One day, the workmen who We're sinking
well had ceased labor, without reaching
the coveted article, when rushing sound
startled all within hearing. The pressure
OF the oil had proved too much for the
Trimmed crust, and there was column of
oil six inches in diameter and sixty feet
high. Pals, barrels, hogsheads, tanks,
were brought into requisitiOn; hundreds Of
men were running hither and thither, but
1t would not all do. There the fountain
was playing, and fairly larding the earth.
AT length, some executive mind proposed
to dam the lower end ola little rayine close
by, which certainly was far wiser than, as
most of them did, to d-n the wasting oil.
No sooner said than done, and, by means
of tubes, the jet was turned, the lap of ma
ture was filled, and hundreds of barrels
were saved from the improyised tank!
The flowing wells that deliver their own
oil form small proportion of the whole
number, and well they may, for nothing
more can be asked of them, unless an I'M
reasonable man should insist upon their
finding barrels. The wells fail, partially or
wholly, after time, but changing the VEN
a q inc friG oil f1,<~
play goes on. The penetrating properties
of this strange liquid are remarkable. 1t
will go through plank; people insist that it
will work its way through glass, and we
know that it has sometimes struck to mems
consciences. 1t is positively safe nowhere
except in tanks of iron.
There are as many theories in the oil re-
gion, as to its origin, as there are people,
but the majority incline to the belief that it
is not product of coal. One thing is APP
parent: whatever it is, there is belt or
river, II we may say so, at varying distan-
ces from the surface, extending from the
oil region of Canada, through the Keystone
State, to Texas, and the supply is undoubt-
eddy exhaustless. Altogether it was for
tunate day when the wealth of that region
was discovered, and the happy thought of
its uses for purposes of illumination was
struck out. There is nothing the world
needs more than light, and that afforded by
the oil, when properly refined, is clear,
steady and beautiful, puts out the sputter-
ing dips and the pickering ''moulds,'
and in effect, makes many a man the pre-
cious gift Of a good pair of eyes.
O
The NEW WAR Policy OF THE REB-
ELs.-The London Times of the 18th pub
fishes letter from its special Southern cor
respondent dated at Richmond, March 81,
which abounds in speculations, but gives
very few facts as to the progress of affairs
IN rebeldom. A refreshing part of the let
tee is an exaggerated account of certain in
considerable cavalry success in Tennessee
and an arrangement of the Federal govern
ment for want of "honesty, integrity of pol
icy in the exchange Of prisoners" The
writer concludes his observations on this
point as follows:
1t is impossible to resist the conviction
that every day of continued strife incrcas-
SEES the probability of the abandonment of
all usages ofcivilized warfare, that the ut
ter want of faith in Federal honor is indu-
cling many calm and temperate men to adj
vocate the most desperate and bloody style
of warfare as the true policy of the South;