The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-12-25
BEGGARED MILLIONAIRE,
The Romance Of Poor Young Man
easy Come, Easy GOr-ExemPlia-
cation of the Old Adage.

easy Come, Easy Go''-ExemPlia-
cation of the Old Adage.
Last week brief item chronicling the
the sale of the Steele Farm, on Oil
creek, for taxes due the Government,
started on its voyage on the sea of news
paperdom. The paragraph will doubt
less be read by many without second
thought, but those few lines might
easily form the text for discourse as
lengthy as the moral law. 1t is hardly
an exaggeration to state that wherever
petroleum is known, the name of"John-
ny Steele" the young prince of Venango
county, has been heard, while the ac-
counts of his apparently boundless and
reckless expenditures, were told in hun
dreds Of papers, from the New York
Herald down or ND. Soon after the sale
of the farm, the closing act, brief his
tory of the same may not be entirely
without interest, which the Crawford
Journal thus narrates:
This farm, more generally known con
the creek" as the widow McClintock
farm, is Immediately opposite the flour
ishing little town of Housewife, and
was among the first ofthe oil producing
farms of the valley. Early in 1863, the
Van Slyke well on this farm, was
struck, and flowed for some time ut the
rate of $500 barrels per day, and sever
al wells yielding from 200 to 500 barrels
were struck at subsequent periods. Be-
sides these, there were many smaller
wells, and the territory, though sadly
is still regarded rs among
the best in the Oil region. In 1864,
widow McClintock died from the effects
of burns received while kindling fire
with crude oil. At this time, the aver
age daily income from the landed inter
est of the farm was 1900, and by her
will the property, with all her posses
sions in money, was left, without re-
to her adopted son, John w.
Steele, then about twenty years Of age.
In the iron safe where the old lady kept |
her money, was found Sl50,000, two
thirds of the amount in greenbaeks and
the balance in gold. Mrs. McClintocll
was hardly cold in her coffin before
Young Steele, who appears to have had
nothing naturally vicious i'll his compo-
,itiOn, was surrounded by a set of yam
pyres, who chung TO him as long as he
lad dollar remaining. The young
head was evidently turned
~ his good fortune, as has been that of
many an older man who has made his
pile in oil" and he was of the impress
ion that his money would accumulate
90 rapidly unless it was actually thrown
way, and throw it away he did. Many
# the stories concerning his career in
Jew York and Philadelphia SAVIOR
trOngly of fiction, and would not be
redited, were they not so we'll anthem
icated. Wine. women, horses. faro.
md general debauchery soon made u
wreck of that princely fortune, and in
..euty months Johnny Steele squandcr-
ID two millions of dollars. Hon. John
Morrssey, NJ. c., event through" him
It faro to the amount of 100000 in two
nights; he bought high priced turn-outs,
md after driving them an hour or two
gave them away; equipped a large mill
,trel troupe and presented each member
with diamond pin and ring, and kept |
about him besides two OF three men
who were robbins him day after day.
He is now filling the honorable position
of doorkeeper for Skiff and Gaylords
MINISTRIES, the company he organized,
and is, to use a very expressive but not
classical phrase, completely
played out
The wealth obtained by those who
worked so assiduously to effect Steele's
ruin, gave little permanent benefit to
its poSSessors. The person most brazen
and chiefly instrumental in bringing
about the present condition of affairs,
was the notorious Seth Slocum, who
hung around this city several weeks last
summer. He was worth at one time
over 500, 900, which he had "captured'
from Steele, aud laid aside for a rainy
day, buI when the latters money van
ished, this amount soon took unto itself
wings, and he is Mt present known
among his old associates as Il dead
beat" At last accounts, Slocum was
incarcerated in the Jail of a neiShboring
county for various breaches of the
peace, and was unable to obtain bail in
the sum of $500. Exemplitcations these
of the old adage, 'easy come, easy CO."
or the other, "fools and their money are
soon nartcl"