The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-08-31

PHILADELPHIA, August Is, 1876.
Not the least wonderful pest in this
great Exhibition is the vast number Of
things it has brought together, interest
ing beyond all power of description, and
yet seeming to have no direct connection
with the great Exhibition itself: In a
former lstterI remarked that there were
buildings on this ground the names Of
which Afforded not the slightest indica-
ton of the uses to which they were ap-
piled; eonversant as I am with the fact,
I never realized the full extent of its
truth till entered this morning the
building of the Empire Transportation
Company. I had passed il day by day
for nearly three months without ever
'suspecting that it contained an exhibi-
ton as rare and curious as any on the
grounds. The building itself has moth
ing to distinguish it from an ordinary
freight shed, such as you might find be-
side any railroad track. It stands at the
end sof the Marrow Gauge Passenger
Railway, and you might reasonably sup
pose that it was part of the company's
works; but once inside and the illusion
is dispelled, you find yourself at single
bound transported to the midst of the oil
region. Its mountains tower above you,
its vs1lies are beneath your feet, and
around you are the paraphernalia and
gear of boring, hoisting, carrying, stor-
ing, delivering, and all the multifarious
operations that belong to the history of
Petroleum. Wells are being bored, en-
gins are pumping, trains of cars loaded
with light freight this is intended for
joke,) are rushing along at lightning
speed, bearing the oil from the noun
tains to the sea, there to be carried over
mighty oceans and across desert sands,
till at List it may be found adding soft
er lustze to the palace of Haroun at
Bagdad, lighting up the deep gloom Of
the sacred sepulchre at Jerusalem, or
feeding the eternal flame that burns on
Vishnu's altar .on, the sacred plains of
further Ind. The rise and fall of oil
cities and towns reads more like romance
than reality. In the spring of 1865,
Pithole was name unknown; in ninety
days after it was city of $4,000 inhabi-
tants, with post Office, water works, gas
works, and all the working parapherna--
liza of frst-class metropolis, and in
ninety days more the bat and the owl
were fighting for precedence in chambers
where. the kings of speculation had laid
themselves to repose on beds of elder
down, and INDUCED in feasts which
would hare shamed the gluttonous BAN
quets Of Caligula and Heliogabulus.-
Here the whole system Of. delivery is de-
veloped. Hundreds of miles Of pipe are
laid from the oil producing regions to
the point of railroad delivery; at each
oil well the company has delivery tanks,
they check the amount received, and
these checks are negotiable as bank notes
for the amount named on their face.
The Eastern fable of the king and the
cobbler was more than realized in the
history!of Coal Oil City, Titusville, and
Pithole. Fortune, in her widest freaks,
never INDUCED in more startling vagaries
than she did among the oil wells. Poor
wretches whose lives had been one unre-
mitting scene of poverty and suffering,
suddenly found themselves transformed
into nlillionaires with world wide fame
and in unlimited bank account. Coal
Oil Johnny became representative
American Prince, and two years after the
discovery the daughters of parvenues
and teggars, loaded with costly lace and
covered with diamonds, might be seen in
Paris, Vienna, London, and St. Peters
burg, hobnobbing with the sons of the
noblesse, who traced their lineage in an
unbroken line to Pepin The Little and
the Lord of the Iron Mace. But 1 must
stop somewhere, so I break off right
here, with the special injunction to the
centennial visitor to be sure and see the
oil wells.
Only few yards to the north of the
Empire Transportation Company's build
ing is another structure which seems to
have escaped the attention Of all of the
centennial visitors. This is the exhibit
of French engineering, and is known as
No, l20. This deyelopes the whole sys-
tenn of bridges, acqueducts, water works,
viaducts, light houses, dry docks, and in
concentrated form gives you better
idea Of the miracles of modern engineer
ing than can be got by years of study
from the books, while it may not be quite
so attractive as the beautiful pictures and
statuary. For the great purposes Of life,
for its absolute. uses and realities, this
exhibition is second to none in the Cen
tennial grounds.
The judges have all performed thei.
duties, and now the contestants are on
the ragged edge to find out what the de-
cisions are to be. The sphynx itself was
not more profound mystery, and il
seems to be the policy of the Centennial
Commission to keep the knowledgf v
the awards back to the latest poss,
moment, and it is hinsed from very =
BILE sources, that we are to be kept ii .he
dark till November. Imagine the feel
ings of 4 first class interviewer who had
the honor of being kicked down stairs