Connecticut western news., 1880-01-07
An American Ruin.
ALADDIN s LAMP IN NORTHWEST PENNsYL' WANNA THE MAGIC CITY THAT AROSE UNDER THE WAND OF AN OILY MAGICIAN WIPED FROM EXISTENCE IN A YEAR.

vANIA THE MAGIC CITY THAT AROSE UNDER THE WAND OF AN OILY MAGICIAN WIPED FROM EXISTENCE IN YEAR.
 "In that seat there by the stove, ," said the conductor, pointing to man with patched pantaloons and slouch hat with lock of hair sticking through hole in the top" sitting there, with one arm on the oil cloth carpetbag with the black worn of, is one third of the population of the great city of Pithole."
 "Shall I introduce you? MT. John son, Mr. Perkins, etc. s
 "Then you are about all there is left in Pithole ?" remarked, as I sat down behind the man.
 "No, thar's twice as many as mo thar. The Fergasons snd Hunts, they gre thar yet. Pithole suits them they'r farm CTS. They are blowing up the streets, and raising potatoes and corn where the postofiee and opera house were. Stop off at Oilopolis with me, and I'll take you over to see the ruins, if you'll fur | nish the team"
 "All right, I'll do it," said, and in two hours the horses pulled me from | Oilopolis to the modern ruin of Pibhole. Palmyra and Thebes are justly cele- brated as very ancient ruins, but Pithole, Pa., is probably the grandest young ruin in the world. Here was great city which was founded, grew to opulence, fell, and whose streets are now onion and cabbage patches-all within fifteen years. Why, it took those slow.coach Egyptians two thousand years to make such ruin as this! Such is American enterprise.
 When did you come here 2" asked MT. Johnson, who acted in the capacity of both founder and guide to the ruins.
 I'm carpenter, you know" he said. ''I came here in 1865 to help put down the first we'll for the United States Petroleum Company on the Holmden farm. The country around here was almost uninhabited. The ground was stony, and the fields were full of pine stumps."
 Did you strike oil?
 "I should say we did. We struck how-er.' She threw thousand bar rels of oil into the air day. As soon as she flowed the speculators went off in the night and bought the farm of Tom Holmden at Q low figure. Lord !! when he came to see the we'll the next morning, didn't he feel bad, though p
 'What was the effect of the thousand. barrel well?" I asked.
 -kf Why 1t seemed to set the whols neighborhood crazy. The whole oil region turned out and came up here. Soldiers with pockets full of money, just discharged from the army, came pouring in with the rest. In fact Tom Holmden's farm, in less than forty-eight hours, looked as if it had ten circuses on it. You never saw such scrambling. And prices Why, you never heard of such prices. Twenty wells were under | way in week. Machinery had to be drawn through the mud from the sta- tion, on the Miller farm, four miles dis tant. Thousands of barrels of oil, worth $5 barrel, had to be drawn through the mud. Fifteen dollars ton for drawing coal. Ten dollars for taking one trunk. Farmers got ten dollars for carrying one passenger. Two and three dollars were paid for meals, and five dollars for bed. Dollars were as com- mon as nickels are now. Why, could maks $25 day carpentering. I got $650 for building a one-story building, and I did the work with four men in a day and a-half. I got $45 for putting up some shelves for a druggist, and did the work in thirty minutes. Nails were fifty cents per pound, and lumber $500 8 thousand. Farmers tore down their fences for miles around and sold them to the crazy operators. Great guns, how the merchants poured in and what prices they got; $35 for pair of boots, and dollar for drink of whisky. Fortunes were made and lost in day. Hundreds of wells went down and were sold at fabulous prices, afterward end. ing ID dry holes"
 "How were the wells usually sold ?'' I asked.
 "They were divided into six. teenths. Thousands Of soldiers, farmers, and business men were in. veigled into buying these 'sixteenths. Some made fortunes and more lost all. Spectators paid $500 for the refusal oi a sixteenth next to producing we'll, telegraphed to New York or Philadel- phia and made several thousand dollars in few hours. A sixteenth of 8 well often sold for $2O, 900 cash. Millions of dollars came floating into Pithole. Ho. tels went up like magic. Theaters sprang into being. Murphy built @ shanty, got dance woman by the name of Mme. Brignolia, and oil men would throw fifty-dollar bills at her feet Streets sprang into line. Within sixty days thirty pretty bar-maids were hold ing forth at a free and easy, ' First street, all in rude board room, 30 by O."
 When did Pithole eliminate ?'
 Well, she started in J une, 1865, an6 in June, 1866, she was full-Aedgec city, with 15, ,000 people, with criminals policemen, clefgymen, churches, schools and the third largest postoffica in tn. State of Pennsylvania. Why, Post master Hill had seven clerks, and tt get a letter, you had to stand in post office row for half an hour. We had s Mayor, City Council, and daily new papers," ....
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