The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-10-06
the Latest Oil strife.

elsewhere IS on the formula which eStab
fishes the difference between the mpsb.
room and the toadstool-you eat it: If Won
hive 1t is mushroom, II you die it is a
toadstool. III you strike oil YOU have
bored in the right place; if you don +
strike oil, YOU haven't; that's all 1t Is
very simple. | saw to-day a man who
found that he had bored in the ripht
place, and he had just made the dis
eovery. l feel justified in saying he was
drunk with Joy. He is now dronk with
the worst whisky outside of Washing
ton. Yesterday he wanted TO sell his
claim for -. 900. An hour before he
broke the earth's crust, and when it was
certain that the oil in some quantity
would be reached, he offered to part with
his risk for s., 800. No takers. When
that hour had expired he had tapped a
reservoir, or ''the belt AT 500 feet, and
the liberated oil spouted in torrents into
the tanks and air. He is now worth
$4,000. He had eaten mushrooms
But | am anticipating The first thing
/ saw on my arrival in Franklin was the
apparent excitement about oil Frank
lin and Oil City have been quite over
Swallowed in the oil specul alton by that
wonderful 300 barrel well ut Garfield.
So | was rather surprised to hear that
Yesterday strike was made in Gran
berry Township, near here, and Just
such a remarkable flow discovered.
Following everybody else, l got a
buggy after some difficulty, and started
for the scene of excitement. 1t was al
most opposite the town over the river,
but it was roundabout way of -,
miles TO reach it. The livery man 3D.
monished me 70 keep the horse out 0fthe
oil in the road, rs il would take the hairoif.
This road was q Wild, rocky, croo9d,
wicked road, and was marked with
greasy pipes here and there, which
Seemed TO creep down from the man
tain like endless. shiny blacksnaks-
through the bushes. under the slerieT
maiden-hair ferns. beneath blackberry
briar and the tangled wife-grass. anpng
the guarded scrub oaks and the nch
gollen-rod finally plunging underline
road and disappearing over the bluG on
the other side Far below they som
nected with the great iron tanks BESIDE
the railroad track These iron ppes
have been connected with the sea-beard
recently, and the pump stations. at con
Venient distances, force the oil 10 cease
its own way to the Eastern refinervand
places of shipment. When | resehed
the top of the bluff | saw the tallder-
hicks dotting the fields on either side
and the smoke and steam aud walking
beam told of activity. 1t was where the
road beyond was blocked up by horses
and vehicles that the attention was dl-
rectcd. There was a small farm house
on the left In the family garden-Pateh
a gang OF men were busily at work put
ting up an immense derrick. In the
family barn-yari one had Just been
erected, and workmen were getting IN
the machinery. In the corn-iieldbeyond
the garden stood a derrick about nindy
feet high. There was another one Just
like it this side in the cats, and this
derrick was black with oil from bottom
10 top. This was the big well where
the strike was made yesterday, and the
blackened derrick was the mark OF the
oil-spout that shot eighty feet into the
air.so unexpectedly.
Ny horse in a fence corner, / plunged
through the oat stuhble 70 join the look
ers-on, and Suddenly found myself over
shoe-tops IN oil-mud. The flow hal
flooded the whole neighhorhood and
lefeit sticky and disagreeable. There
was a curious scene here. The corn was
trampled IN the mud; the oat shocks
thrown down; the fences were half
destroyed On the grounds were streEn
ends Of WORKOUT ropes. joints of iDn
pipe, rails AID odds and ends OF ride
machinery There was n furnace a
steam boiler mounted between the corn
rows, and the stalks wilted with the heat
or were trampled under foot. No one
noticed so small a thing. The place
looked Ike 4 battlefield where a battery
had been worked The machinery was
still There Is no need of machinery.
The oil is glad enough to come up and
be run in. The pipes simply connect
with the casing of the well and run off
there through the corn, where they
empty into two great tanks. You can
hear the roar of the escaping gas as it
blows of the dark oil into the tanks, now
ceasing, now Gprgling, now making a
rushing noise like the escaping steam OF
a locomotive You can climb up the
little ladder and look over the top az the
haIf-illed tank into the dark, creamy,
siekening oil within.
This is what ! vas doing when heard
a shout down the road and sew the
crowd jumping over the fences iEto the
opposite field, here in the clover was
another well, and it seemed 10 be a cen
erof excitement. / followed the rest,
and pell-mell we went through the corn,
over the broken fences and into the
clover field \ dozen sleek and oily
looking Spectators were dabbling IN
some sand | didn't know what the
sand was, but l gathered up handful
very carefully and examined it very
critically. They took me for a speeu-
lator and waited for my opinion. had
never seen any such sand before, but
everybody has very decided opinions on
such matters. They wanted mine and L
risked it:
Il think it is very good sand, said |.
s"First-class, said a greasy little man
with aprancing voice. i say it IS good
sand and it's to be a two-hundred barrel
well or nuthin'.'
He appealed to me and | examined it
very critically again. for began to real
ize that in some way or another a good
deal depended upon my answer. Not
knowing how far my opinion might go
unqaestioned | concluded to stick TO my
first guess: ''It is very good sand.
This seemed to satisfy the greasy little
man with a prancing voice. So a few
minutes later / asked red-headed re-
porter what that sand was, anyhow lie
cast upon me plying eye;
eWhy. it's the third sand, you know. y
us it2'' said /" Il thought it was
the first"
l would not advise any one to 90 near
such places till he knows all about them.
Perhaps he would have explained further,
but there was a scramble of workmen in
the derrick and general shout of ssthere
she goesr' And sure enough there she
did go. For the two heavy four-inch
pipes that connected the head of the we'll
with the tank and which bent like bow
with their own weight suddenly straight
ened out and throbbed and trembled
with the escaping oil and gas and water.
Even this vent was not enough. The.
stuff spouted up around the iron tank
that had seemed to fill the hole, drench-
ing the workmen with oil and scattering
the crowd. They had struck oil. Then
the spectators and reporters and oil men