Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-12-08
A MESSENGER BOY gEAKES sic, 600
IN OIL.
He Read the Cipher.
From the Cincinnati ENQUIRER.

From the Cincinnati ENQUIRER
The Standard Oil Company, the only concern
IN the world that is powerful enough to compel
the combined trunk line railroads to do its bid
ding demanding and receiving from them rates
which made opposition impossible and crushed
cat every rival, has lately been beaten by mes
senger boy. In the history Of the Standard
this Is the only time 1t has ever been outwitted.
Tom Scott. when alive and president of the
Pennsylvania railroad was Outgeneraed by the
Standard. Vanderbilt and his allies were not
match for Rockefeller, and they were compelled
to allow him rebates which enabled him to
build up the greatest monopoly the world
has ever known. When he got ready he
laid a pipe line of his own from the oil
regions to Cleveland in one direction, and
from the oil regions to the seaboard In another
direction, and then told the trunk line man
ayers who had enriched him that they could 90
to tnat place where the worm dieth not and the
fire Is not quenched But this man with his
millions has been outwitted by Mike Heating,
sixteen years old, messenger boy of the West.
ern Union Telegraph Company, at Oil CITY.
Mike has been in the employ of the telegraph
company SINCE he was old enough to carry dis
patches, and nearly all of this time he has been
in the Oil Exchange at Oil City, carrying mes
sages to and from the brokers. The large one
| rators In petroleum send their dispatches in
cipher. The boy had carried so MANY messages
sent by the Standard from its headquarters at
Cleveland that he had unraveled the mystic char
| acters and could read them like a printed
page. Just prior to the recent extraordinary
advance IN the petroleum market, when the
price Jumped in few days from fifty cents to
s1.35, Heating carried number of kilograms to
the Standards brokers ordering them to buy
large blocks Of Oil. The monopoly had laid its
plans to boom the market and its OIL City brok-
ers were ,u, ordered to buy every thing. "Buy
half million barrels, 'buy a million barrels
'buy two million barrels" were the way these
orders came in. They were riddles to all but
the brokers who received them, and Mike Keat-
Ing, the messenger boy who delivered them.
Heating, although mere boy, knew something
extraordinary was soon to happen. The mar
ket, which had been like a stagnant pool for
year, was already creeping up the scale.
Orders for Immense blocks Of Oil were still COM
Ing from the Standards headquarters. There
was no time to lose. But what could boy do
without dollar In his pocket Heating went
| to one Of tho largest operators on the door Of
| the Exchange, outside OF the StandaFd's agents,
and told him he had q pointer" The broker
laughed at him. The boys earnestness finally
commanded attention, and the broker agreed to
| his proposition, which was that the broker
should furnish money for "deal," II he was
| satisfied with the information, and divide the
profits equally. Then the messenger told the
| broker what he had, and of the kilograms he he'd
! ueen carrying from the Standards Cleveland
Office. The next message that fell into the boys
hands was carried secretly to the broker and
translated. 1t was an order to buy every thing
that was offered. The broker probably swallowed
to keep bis heart down; any way, he went back
to the Exchange and began to buy. He saw
| the Standards agents buying right and left, and
was satisfied q big deal was In progress. He
took every thing he could get until he had
round million barrels. The market was already
jumping fast, and his million barrels has been
secured ct an average cost Of seyenty-two
cents He was loaded to the guards,
Orders to buy and orders 70 Dell Weee pouring