The Portland daily press., 1866-11-29

charged a toll equal to one half the carriage of
a single barrel, many of the unreasonable
and unprincipled fellows not only. refused to
pay the paltry charge, but broke down his gates
and committed other depredations upon his
property. Disguised with his enterprise, the
proprietor made an arrangement to turn over
the road at large sacrifice to the Town Coun-
Gil, by whom it is now run, and moderate tolls
are collected without special annoyance. He
evidently consulted wisdom to better purpose
in the transfer than in the original project, for
already the rails are laid to the village, the
gravel train is fast doing the work OF ballast
ing, and by the first of next month the travel
Ter wishing to visit this important oil region
will no longer need insurance upon his vital
organs and viscera to protect them against the
corduroy" but will be able to enjoy com
Portable ride in the cars to the place of his des-
tination. Hundreds of horses and men now
engaged in the transportation business between
the present station and this village will find
their occupation gone, though many will find
enough to do in conveying oil from the wells
to the depot,-an average of perhaps one mile.
Eight months since when wrote an article
for your columns upon the hazards and uncer-
tainties of oil mining and of the Oil business
generally, it was my misfortune to wake up
whole platoon ofinterested parties, not in your
city and State only but even in a neighboring
oil district of this province, all of whom agreed
that was not only totally ignorant of the sub
ject upon which 1 wrote, but entirely at fault
in my estimate of the prospect opening up to
those who had invested their money in such
speculations If remember correctly ex-
pressed willingness to abide the decisions of
time, and allow the "logic of events" to settle
the points in controversy. That logic has al
ready done its work. The present collapse in
the oil business affords more triumphant
than pleasant vindication of the predictions
then uttered, and shows that thosewho regard
ed my cautionary remarks were wiser than
those who blindly rushed into the vortex, and
sunk their money in speculations which in
very few instances have yielded the slightest
return.
At the present time the sale of oil lands is
as difficult as it would be to get stocks taken
in an oil company in your city, and think
could not use any illustration that would more
appreciably set forth to youT citizens the
dulness of real estate operations in this re-
gion If such be the condition of OIL lands, it
is not difficult to estimate the condition of
those who have invested largely in, expecting
to make money out Of the sale Of, Uilldge lots.
Boutwell,, where "corner lots" were held at
fabulous prices, is now confessed to have been
"played out" SO far as all speculation is con-
cerned, and this playing out process has served
szl,s
those who expected to reap rich harvest in
fleeing the "aats" Some of the wells at B.
are producing satisfactorily, though the gen.
eral feeling, think, is decidedly against that
and in favor of this locality as an oil produc-
ing district
The collapse in the oil business has been
produced by the ruinous decline in the price
of crude OIL In December last it sold for SO
per barrel, gold, and was quick at that high
figure; to-day it is difficult at this place to real
ize 81 so at the tanks, and sales at even 81 are
reported This decline has resulted from the
large amount of production and supposed
large excess of supply over all demands to be
made the present season; though I think this
excess is greatly exaggerated, and that the
daily production is not one-half what it is put
down at in the estimates. The striking of new
wells, producing from ninety to one hundred
barrels daily, being things of almost weekly
occurrence, has had the tendency to beget
feeling in the minds of purchasers that, by
holding off, they would procure supply at al
most any figure, and the fears of producers
that, in consequence of accumulation, they
would soon be unable to sell at any price, have
contributed to precipitate the very state of
things which they most dreaded.
But the evil will work its own cure. Scores
of small wells have already shut down, while
few new ones are being sunk. The oil surplus
will soon be exhausted or greatly lesi ened, and
the new refneries going up at various points
WILL in a few months create an increased de-
mand that will be sure to prevent large accu-
mutations in future. For the present the oil
business may be considered at rest,--as held in
it will awake, and the almost
exhaustless supplies of the oleagenous fluid
entombed beneath the stratified rocks of this
extensive plateau will yet be brought forth,
and its exhumation will afford employment
for thousands, and return rich profits for wise
ly invested funds
An important invention is Just now being
tested by the Grand Trunk and Great West
ern Railway Engineers, which, if successful,
will prove of the highest interest to oil pro-
ducers. 1t is an attachment to steam boiler,
as well as portable, for using petro-
leum for fuel, and the inventors claim that a
twenty-horse power engine may be operated
with one gallon of oil per hour, and that a
train of twenty cars may be run forty miles
with twelve gallons, worth, at "a per barrel,
only torty-eight cents This attachment, which
is not expensive, is now being applied to an
ocean steamer at Montreal, and will soon be
fully tested. Its success is not doubted by
practical scientific men,
Inc recent elections in the States have graf
lied thousands on this side of the boundary.
who watch with nervous interest all that is 90
ing on among your people. They show that
there is very little danger of any man plav;np
The tyrant and usurper to the extent of riding
rough shod over the liberties of an INTELLIGENT
people, and of cheating them of the just and
legitimate fruits of the great baptism of blood
through which they have so recently passed
Ihose OF your people who have imagined that
all the radicalism of the country was confined
10 New England have greatly erred, for it is on
y necessary to become moderately acquainted
With western sentiment and Western news
papers and political lectures, to satisfy per-
ION that Massachusetts, even is a highly com
ervative State when measured by some of the
,reat and magnificent commemorative which
make up that portion of the "Great Republic
Known as tire North
Speaking of Massachusetts reminds me of
Ter two newly elected colorad ,nnnnhoru &C