The Cecil Whig., 1883-01-20
HE KNEW THE CIPHER,
A MESSENGER BOY MAKES FORTY THOU
SAND DOLLARS.


The Cincinnati Enquirer, in a recent
issue, says:
The Standard Oil Company has lately
been beaten 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 dispatches. and nearly
all of the time lie has been in the Oil
Exchange at oil City, carrying messages
to and from the brokers. The large op-
orators i'll petroleum send their de-
spatches i'll cipher. The boy had carried
SO many messages sent by the Standard
from its headquarters at Cleveland that
he had uDravelled the mystic characters,
and could read them like printed page.
JUST prior to the recent extraordinary
advance in the petroleum market. when
the price jumped in Il few days from fifty
cents to 81 30, Heating carried number
of kilograms to the Standards brokers,
ordering them to buy large blocks of oil.
The monopoly had its plans to boom the
market, and its Oil City brokers were Or
dered to buy everything. buy half a
million barrels" Buy a million bar
rels, Buy two million barrels" were
the way these orders came in. They
were riddles to all but the brokers. who
received them and Mike Heating, who
delivered them.
heating knew something extraordinary
was S, on to happen. The market, which
had been like stagnant pool for year,
was always creeping up the scale.
Orders for immense blocks of oil were
still coming from the Standards head
quarters. There was no time to lose.
But what could a boy do without a dol
lar in his pocket?
Heating went to one of the largest op-
orators on the floor of the Exchange,
outside Of the Standards agents, and
told him he had pointer
The broker laughed at him. The boys
earnestness finally commanded attention,
and the broker agreed to his proposition,
sbich was that the broker should fur
nish money for IDEAL" if he was sat
i>tied with the information. and divide
the profits equally. Then the messenger
'old the broker what he had, and of the
kilograms he had been car, ying from the
Standards Cleveland office. The next
Message that fell into the boys hands
vas carried secretly to the broker and
translated. 1t was an order to buy
rerNthing that was offered. The broker
'r'baby swallowed to keep his heart
own. ANY way. he went back to the
Exchange and began to buy.
He saw the Standards agents buying
ght and left, and was satisfied big
'eal was in progress. He took every
ming he could get until he had a round
"illi"n barrels. The market was already
umping fast. and his million barrels had
'een secured at an average cost of seven.
five cents. He was loaded to the
guards.
Orders to buy and orders to sell
n"nring in from every quarter, and the
'xcitement was becoming intense. The
market was still bounding upward. with
he usual fluctuations. Every time the
price advanced cent or declined cent
The broker saw profit or loss of S10,-
300. 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 all his oil at an aver
age of so cents barrel. He had bought
1t %, and his profits were therefore 8
cents barrel or $50, 900 in all. He d.
vided equally with Mike Keating, the
messenger boy, who had unraveled the
Standards cipher, according to agree
ment. 1t is we'll enough to remember
that oil touched sl35 during this ten
lays squirt, and if the broker had held
m until the top was reached the profits
# the two would have been 5000 900.
It goes without saying that the Standard
Oil Company has q new cipher and one
messenger boy is out of q job.