Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-12-17
rEditori.I corrn.rSna,ncsoft the rIAprr.1

to The PHbIIe--Extent OF Lhe Oil
RegIon.-.CrOWds OF People.
Editorial Ioorresp6ndenCsofths Of the LEADEH.1
The most hasty trip through the Gil re-
gious of Pennsylvania, especially through
the places, such as Franklin, Meadville,
OIL City, TitusviIle, and other points, where
the interest of oil msn most do gregate,
viii convince any body that there is a
species OF insanity, not yet chronicled, per-
hsps, in the books of your modern Hippo
crates, known as aoil on the brain" It is
certain that the disease is rapidly spread
ing and nothing will cure it except such
phlebotOmizing Of the pocket as will make
men content TO follow the old highways of
industry, foresight and tsUt, which in.almost
all legitimate occupations lead at least to a
competence Of this worlds goods. The re-
markable fortune whichhas attended many
who have embarked on the troubled oils of
Pennsylvania, has stimulated tens of thous-
ands into the belief that their cup can also
catch golden showers, if they can manage
to get it turned up.
The stranger who touches the border Of
the enchanted ground has his cTedulous
ears filed with stories, strange and excit-
ing, of how this man or that woman, once
poorer than poverty itself, by some fortu-
nate dispensation of of Fortune for oil
diggers believe more in luck than in Pro
videnee) have been made rich beyond all
conception. Men who five years ago, wore
butternut homespun and hoed the barren
hills Of Oil Creek through summer for a
scanTy EuUsIsIencs through winter, now
sport broadcloth, buy blocks of houses in
Meadville, Philadelphia and New York,
invest in National Bonds, dress their
wives in siIk, send their daughters away to
school, are pointed out at hotels, on the
streets and on the cars, as the lucky MIR. So
and SO who is worth his hundred thou
sand, his million, two millions or five mil
lions. Or, perhaps, Mr.. Stranger, who is
diposed TO be fast if he had the money,
is regaled with stories of q certain young
fellow, green boy, who once took pride
in tilling the barren hills of his native
farm and who took delight in his simple
country girl wife and her one child, now
leaves vile and child at home, while be
riots in sin in Philadelphia or New York.
If Mr.. Stranger has not become entirely
possessed with the mania for becoming
rich in q short time, his insanity is per-
fected by tales moro wondrous than any
by which the Moor won the esger-hearted
Desdemona. He hears how lands are
bought he'd for q few days, sold to some
company, and fortunes realized without
touching the soil with drill, or even. to
use the language of oil men, 'ismelling for
oil" I would not imply that even the
msjority Of the tales he hears are untrue.
They are mostly true. Thsmen who have
been made moderately or enormously
rich by oil are nany. But yet this is the
currency dealt out to the curious stranger
so soon as he comes within the magic ring.
Of course all this begets the oil fever,
madness IN the blood and bones, and, ul-
tinnately, poverty or riches.
The petroleum interests of Pennsylvania,
as well, indeed, as Of the whole country, are
now fast passing through an ordeal, which,
on the rhnin,tcannoy pur regard as pre-
Judicial to the interests of the business. |
The great absorbing maniais to get uch, |
not by actual developments of the territory,
but by speculating In what are as yet mere |
afancy" stocks. It is a very common
thing when.men say, 'G don't want to put
down well all I care for is to buy some
land and then sell # to somebody else at
higher figure, and thus save my own fin
gers from being scorched, and leaving the
purchaser either to repeat the operation or
go on and deyelope theterritory." All most
all the lands bought and sold at the pre-
sent time are taken up wholly with this in
view, and not with the intention of sctnsl
development. I have travelled over a
large portion of the territory but lately
bought or leased, and find that the pro-
cess Of eputting the land in the market" is
already far in advance of anything had |
supposed. The process is very simple, and, !
for the benefit of the uniniateG, will state
the usual mede Of operations. The refus-
al of land for sixty or ninety Gays Is OBJ
tained, with the agreement tbAt,at the end |
Of that time, q certain sum VIII be paid for
the land If it is bought. Some times a
bonus is paid for the privilege. The land
is then in the market. Tho Ensn who has
this refusal then sets himself, to work to
make bona fde sale of the land, within
the time allotted him. He goes to New
York, OF Philadelphia, or Pittsburgh, or
or Cleveland, OF Chicago or
Buffalo, or some other place, and, by means
If maps and drawings to show the relation
If the lands TO other lands Of known value,
sndes7ors to make sale at an advance upon
what he has contracted to pay in case he
purchase the land. This plan has been
adopted recently on the hitherto unoccu-
,ied lands on the Allegheny, French
Jreek, Sugar Greek, and the numerous
great and small, of an three
treams. As an illustration of the rapidity
With which the work has been done, I pre-
ume that within the last two months al
most every acre of land, from the mouth of
sugar Creek to its head waters, distance
f more than twenty miles on the main
ranch, as well as on the tributaries of the
anne, has either been leased or aput into
larket.p A large portion of these lands
Ill ha hon,o,ht rrithir, -thn nat ni, rrnnl.a |