Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-10-06
Petroleum-the Old in the New.

Perhaps never in the worlds history
has there occurred a 8 in which an
article known from time immemorial,
and counted as being of too small value
to have any influence whatever, has all
at once become one of the forces which
sway the commerce, and almost the
destinies of nations, to an extent so
wonderful as is actually true in regard
to petroleum. Its progress, its develop
ment, the grasp which it has on the
welfare, the politics and the destiny of
various countries, above all others, of
our own, deserve a careful study. A
few words in relation to one feature of
its history are all that our present space
will allow; we may recur to it at another
time.
When we look into the columns of the
various daily popers, and see with how
much care the petroleum column is
worked up, how its daily, and sometimes
hourly, fluctuations are studied and
quoted, and when w read a little
further and see what enormous amounts
of the crude article are brought to the
sea-ports-New York, of course, chiefly
and what immense shipments are
made to the very ends of the earth (for
China, on the opposite side of the globe,
absorbents) J, VIC find it difficult to real
ize that all this is only a thing of yester-
day, as it were. And yet that is
strictly true. Forty years ago the
word petroleum had no existence in
currnet language. 1t is q compound
term meaning simply rock oil; it was in
the dictionaries, but it was not known to
people in general. And yet the article
at that time was on sale, in the large
cities, and occasionally in smaller
places. But it was in very small guam
titles, and was disposed of by the ounce
Very probably the entire stock on hand
in the city of New York could have
been held in a few five gallon ans.
Those who are old enough to remember
as far back as 1910 can possibly recall
a very bad-smelling medicine to which
perhaps they were subjected. 1t was
called Seneca Oil, and was 'sdreadful
good for the rheumatic, " being fortunate
~, in most instances, used externally,
though not always. 1t was understood
to be brought from the ''Seneca Nation"
in the Southwestern part of the State of
new 1Ork; ueuC0 lS name. seneca OIL
was simply crude petroleum, and it is
on the instant recognized that it came
from the immediate vicinity, the very
border of the region which has within
these later years r%evolutionized the world
with its oil wells.
But in going back to Seneca oil do we
touch the early days of petroleum. Not
at all; and we shall never touch them.
No glimmering light shines back so far.
When the fires fell on the Cities of the
Plain, in the circuit of Jordan, at the
northern end of the Dead Sea, the COM
bustible material which insured the de-
struction of Sodom and Gomorrah was
crued petroleum, the ''slime PITS of the
Vale of Siddim. Later still, petroleum,
in its viscid form, served to make water
tight the cradle of the baby Moses. But
both these instances are relatively of
modern date; for perfectly untold ages
before that time petroleum had served
to aid in preserving the Egyptian dead
from decomposition, for the very Oldest
of all the mummles yet brought to light
reveal its presence. And how early in
the experience of the human race its re-
markable proprieties were brought into