The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1882-12-21
The COal.OiI Craze.

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The COaI-Oil Craze.
Excitement over the future price of
crude oil has caused an almost total sus-
pension Of drilling in the northern oil
fields, and it is thought that the report
OF operations for November will show u
lessnumber Of completed wells than for
any previous month in six years. Every
producer seems inclined to let his wells
take care OF themselves while he tempts
fortune on the arena of the oil exchange.
So many elements of chance enter into
oil production that it is but a step from
drilling to gambling on the market.
With the recent rapid advance in oil
there came a general rush for the eX-
change. participated in by all classes,
but led by the conservative oil pro-
ducers who had previously been averse
to speculation Most of these men had
often in former times dabbed in short
4 sales against their own production; now
| they come into the list and demand
/ equal facilities with the trained bulls
and bears. What the oil producer
wants he generally has, ii money can
4 buy it; and SO these producers iostled
out of the old exchange, have already
organized an OPP osition, the S]0,0O OF
stock necessary having cen subscribed
in three davs of the past week. The
number of shares in the old exchange is
limited to three hundred and they
are held at an enormous pre-
MUM. One thousand dollars is
va My offered for share whose par
value is $100 The new exchange has
five hundred shares of 800 each. IL
will 90 into operation in about one
month, and when the time comes there
will be lively sl1irmishing for business
between the older exchange and its
rival The brokers and spectators Of
the former institution have nearly all
become rich within the past few months
The regular charge for brokerage is
$250 per thousand barrels, and the
orders of some brokers will run into the
hundred thousands every day. A great
many of the regular habitues hold buy.
ers' options for the year bought at 81
to S5 cents which are now OF immense
! value. One of the luckiest of the cir.
j Gle of heavy spectators has nearly
! 300, 900 barrels on such options. His
profit on this oil will not be less thar
$3.50, 600, and may be much more. AL
| most everybody with spare cash seems
! to have embarked in the sea of specu
: lation. Clerks, mechanics, salesmer
/, and aa'eswomen, even laborers, arr
: known to have bought while the marke
was on the rise. The school superin
I tendent has found it necessary TO pro
, hibit the lady teachers from speeulating
in oil, on the ground that it destroyed
, their efficiency as instructors. The
professional gamblers find the quota
, tons on the oil market more enticing
/ than all the seductions of King Faro
and the town seems given over to a car
, nival of blind and unreasonable financia
! adventure
s Almost ever man one meets on th,
! street is a firm believer in "S2 oil,'
D and in the opinion of close Observer
there is a good reason for the belief
i, At the present quotations of refine
; oil So is fair price for crude. Tht
/. watchers point out that about $500
a barrels of oil are used daily to suppl,
@ that part of the world reached by Penn
7 sylvania petroleum. The stock abov,
e ground is but little over years sup
Y ply; and. by tho way, the oil mel
NJ DldeG ltllC III bit ltPpll
!. sent out by the United Pipe lines of tn
It quantity OF oil in tanks represented b,
D crude balances. There is widespread
|. belief that the lines have not got 30,
/, 600, 900 barrels, nor anything like tina
e amount, as reserve stock to dra,
Z from. Herein OIL men differ from tn
e ''lambs," who are led to the specuativ
e shambles. The old operators know yer
n well that huge tanks said to be full of o
II have from fourth to two-thirds of thei
3 depth 0 water to the bottom. Excep
e the officials OF the pipe lines. no ma
" knows whether oil is run into tan
It from another one or comes from th
n neighbaring wells Every tank of o
> that has ever caught fire "bois over,
e because of the water under the burnin
q oil. Whenever, therefore, the oil OF
orator looks out over the field he sec
rs big iron tanks, some full of oil, som
k filed with half oil and half water, somt
10 perhaps, nearly all water; he SEE
III thousands of wells yielding two or thrC
N barrels daily, and other Thousand
re abandc ned, and he pins all his faith 0
Dt market for crude oil that must take
" steady upward course. -BFWit0rd (Pa
s Cor. Pttiadelphia Record.
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~ AT,.o Darf;n,Yfo,, aud ILa