The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-01-12
BEATING AN OIL COMPANY.
Cincinnati Enquirer.


The Standard Oil Company has lately
been beaten by Mike Heating, Is years old,
messenger boy of the Western Union
Telegraph Company at Oil City. Mike
has been in the employ of the telegraph
| company since he was old enough to carry
dispatches. and nearly all of this time he
has been in the oil exchange of Oil City.
carrying messages to and from the brokers'
The large operators in petroleum sent
their dispatches in cipher The boy had
carried so many messages sent by the
Standard from its headquarters at Cleve
land that he had unraveled the mystic
characters, and could read them like a
printed page. just prior to the recent ex-
triardinary advance in the petroleum mar
ket, when the price jumped in few days
from so cents to $1.35, Heating carried
IA 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 ordered to buy everything.
Buy half million barrels Buy a
million barrels" BUY two million bar
rels, were the way these orders came in.
They were r1ddles to all but the brokers
who received them, and Mike Heating
VINO delivered them.
Heating knew something extraordinary
had been like stagnant pool for year
was already creeping up the scale. Orders
for immense blocks of oil were still com
ing from the Standards headquarters,
II ere time to lose. But what
could poor boy do without dollar in
his pocket? Heating went to one of the
largest operators on the floor of the ex-
change outside of the Standards agents
and told him he had a pointer" The
broker laughed at him The boys earn
e>tncss finally commanded attention, and
th broker agreed to his propositions,
winch was that the broker should furnish
money for deal" if he was satisfied
with the information, and divide the profits
equally. Then the messenger told the
broker what he had, and the kilograms lie
had been carrying from the Standards
Cleveland Office. The next message that
fell into the boys hands was carried secret
ly to the broker and translated. 1t was
an order to buy everything that was offer
ed The broker probably swallowed to
keep his 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 big deal was
in progress. He took everything he could |
get until he had round million barrels |
The market was already jumping fast, and
average cost of seventy-two cents. He |
was loaded to the guards. Orders to buy |
and orders to sell were pouring in from |
every quarter, and the excitement was be-
intense. The market was still bounding |
upward with the usual flutuations. Every |
time the price advanced q cent or declined |
a cent the broker saw profit or a loss of |
$4,000. He kept his head, however, and |
when the market scored above eighty cents |
he began to unload The STANDARD men |
were on hand to take everything, and he |
got rid of his oil at an average price of so |
cents per barrel. He had bought at 7s, and |
his profits were therefore eight cents a |
barrel or $4,000 in all. He divided even
with Mike Heating, the messenger boy
who had unraveled the Standards cipher |
according to agreement. 1t is well enough
to remember that oil tocuhed 81 30 during
his ten days squirt, and il the broker had
held on uatil the tep was reached the