The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-01-18
BURSTING OF TINE OIL BUBBLE.
sherim's Sales of OIL Lands and Effects
Fortunes Knocked Down with the

SheriH's Sales of OH Lands and Ehects
Fortunes Knocked Down with the
Hammer.
From the Cleveland 0sio) Herald Janua'y7.
On Saturday last the Sheriff OF Venango
county, Pennsylvania, wound up the existence
of several oil companies oy selling thelr euects
at auction to satisfy judgments against them.
Among these unfortunates were representatives
from all the leading cities where the petroleum
fever ragged TOR time, and some OF the compa-
nies knocked on the head by the Sheriffs ham
mer at one time figured largely in prospectuses
aud on the stock board.
One OF the more noticeable names is that of
the President Petroleum Company, which
"went itn chiefly on the strength OF its vast
territory, embracing hundred of acres, shaded
on the map as good borable territory and
dotted with "wellsD in a line with blowing
wells" on somebody olse's land. We believe
that on the many hundred acres OF the Pr1sl-
dent Company's land not a single paying well
We recognize among the other names those of
companies whose chief advantage lay in their
having a limited amount of land, but that
lying in an 'Oil basin," though subsequent ex-
ploratlons proved that the basin, if 1t existed
at all, was empty. Others claimed to be in a
district where the oil was light in quality but
large in yield, whilst others insisted on the
opposite advantage of smaller yield, but greater
density, and therefore greater value,
One Cleveland organization figures in the list
the Cleveland and Buffalo Petroleum Com
pany. This was at one time promising affair,
and actually paid dividend, but it is now
down among the dead men," along with its
Cleveland cOnfreres. Cleveland oil companies
were born late and died early. The oil fever
was long time reaching this place, ragged
furiOusly for period, and was soon over. OF
the many companies organized here but few put
down more than one hole, some did not reach
that stage, and none "struck lie" to the extent
anticipated
A recent sale of oil stocks in Pittsburg told
the story of deprecated value in few but peril
nent figures. Stocks that had been fought for
at eight to twenty dollars per share were sold
at one to five cents, and we're probably bad
investment at those rates. as the figure of the
ineXorable Sheriff looms up behind nineteen out
of twenty OF the derricks in the oil regions. Out
of more than one thousand recorded oil compa.
nies that existed in the opening OF 1865, the
number of companies in active existence now
is few.
The story of disappointed hopes connected
with the history of the petroleum mania is not
a new one. The experience of those who sunk
their fortunes in the dry holes OF Pennsyl
vania and Virginia is but a repetition of the
unfortunate spectators in "coppers,p and the
purchasers of shares in gold and silver '1eads.'
Mining of all kinds is lottery, In which the
prizes bear ridiculously small proportion to
the blanks. A few get rich by lucky dive
into the earth; more amass a fortune by a sklful
dive into the pockets of the gulible public:
whilst nine hundred and ninety-nine out of {.
thousand who expect TO get suddenly rich by
investments in mining or oil-boring, learn by
costly experience that "hope told fattering
tale,n which events failed to realize.