Daily Republican., 1883-01-01
nEKNEw THE ClPmER.
A Messenger boy Makes Fsrsy
ThO0sand Dollars.

ThOasand Dollars.
The Cincinnati Eaquirer In recent
Issue says:
This Standard Oil Company has late
ly been beaten BY Mike Heating, six
teen years old, . messenger boy of the
Western Union Telegraph Company At
OIL City. Mike has been in the EN-
ploy of the telegraph company since he
was old enough to carry dispatches,
and nearly all OF the time he las been
in the OIL Exchange at Oil City, carry.
ing messages TO and from the brokers.
Tho large operators In petroleum send
their dispatches i'll cipher. The boy
had carried 80 many messages seat by
the Standard from ITS headquarters AZ
Cleveland that no had unraselled the
mystic characters, and could read them
like o printed page. just prior TO the
recent extraordinary advance in tie Pc
troleum market, when the price jump
ed IN tow days from fifty cents to $l.-
IS, Heating carried q number OF teie-
grams 10 the Standa ards brokers, order
Ing them TO buy large blocks OF OIL
The monopoly had lad its plans 10
boom the market, and Its Oil City brOk-
ers were ordered TO buy everything, -
"Buy half q million barrels" buy D
million barrels" Buy two million
barrels" were the way these orders
came in. They were riddles TO ali bat
the brokers who received them aud
Mike Heating, who delivered them.
Heating knew something extraordi
nary was soon to happen. The market,
which had been like a stagnaLt pool
for Q year, WAS already creeping up the
scale.
O.ders for immense blocks of oil
were still coming from the Standards
Headquarters. There was no time TO
lose. But what could a hoy do without
a dollar iu his pocket?
Heating went to one OF the largest
operators on the floor of the Exchange,
outside Of the Standards agsnts, and
tod him he had "pointer."
The broker laughed ut bin. The
ooy's earnestness finally commanded
attention, and the broker agreed to his
proposition, which was that the brok-
or should furnish money for a deal, :"
if he was satisfied with the informa-
tion, ami divide the profits equally.
Then the messenger told the broker
what he had, and OF the kilograms he
had been carrying from the Standard y
Cleveland office. The next message
that fell Into the boys hands was car
ried secretly to the broker and trans
lated. 1t was an order to buy every
tuing that WAS off red. The broker
probably swallowed to keep his heart
down. Auy way, he went back to the
Exchange AID began to buy.
He saw the Standards agents buying
right and left, and was satisfied big
deal was in progress. He took every
thing he could get unit! he had round
million barrels. The market was al
ready jumping fast. and his million
barrels rad been secured at an average
cost Of seventy-fve cents. He was
loaded to the guards.
Orders to buy and orders to sell
were pouring In from every quarter,
and the excitement was becoming in-
tense. The market was still bounding
upward, with the usual fluctuations.
Every time the price advanced a cent
or declined cent the broker saw
profit or loss OF $4,000. He Kept his
head, however, and when the market
scored above eighty cents he began to
unload The Standard men we're on
hand to take everything, aud he got
rid of all his oil at an average price OF
80 cents barrel. He had bought at
II, and his profits were therefore eight
cents barrel or $4,000 in all. He
divided equally with Mike Heating.
th. messenger boy who hal unrayeled
the Standards cipher. according to
agreement. 1t Ia we'll enough to re-
member that oil touched SIS during
this ten days sDrrt, and it the broker
had held On uLiil the top was reached
the profits Of the two would have been
SG3O,O0O. 1t goes without saying that
tho Standard Oh Company has a new
cipher and one messenger boy is out u
"a job.