, 1886-06-01
SAW A NATURAL GAS WELL.
A Passenger Calls His Fellow Traveiers'
Attention to a Wonderful Sight.

Attthtlpn 10 a Nonutffui 'fkht
Never saw a natural gas well?' in
quired a talkative passenger, as the train
sped along in the darkness and through
the oil country; you neve saw a gas
well? You ought to see one, especially
one on fire. Beats all the fireworks ever
got up. Something funny about these
gas wells too. All of a sudden
they'll start up in a flame, flare two or
three times way up to the sky, and then
stop as quick as they started. That is
the effect of spontaneous combustion.
Guess | know more about the nat
ural gas well business than any
other man in the country. I've
studied EN-, sir, for many months, and
have EN- down fine. Let me see it is now
9:3S o'clock. AT $40 a spouter is due
over in the valley there, and if you keep
your eye peeled in hat direction mebbe
you'll sec it on fire.
AT once all the passengers seated them
selves on the side of the car next to the
valley and looked i~ntently for the prom
ised display. The gas well expert sat
down across the aisle, took out his pipe
and filed it as he remarked:
Il study these gas wells as astrono-
mers study the heavenly bodies, and l
can tell to a minute when they're going
to burst. Look - aow-she's a-com-
= lgl
And sure enough, way down in the
valley, seemingly two or three miles
away. there was n burst of flame,
quickly followed by two or three more,
and then all was darkness again.
Wonderful, wonderful exclaimed
one of the astonished passengers; "the
grandest sight l ever saw" echoed
another; marvellous, simply marvellous"
chimed n third.
"Oh, that's nothing said the expert,
"wait till you see one of these wells take
fire and flare out in two or three direc-
tons, AS if the flames wanted to lick a
clean spot off Of the face of the earth.
They're worth looking at, l tell you.
Lemme see. where's my note book? Oh,
here it is. Only 10 o'clock-say, friends,
if you'll wait eleven minutes you'll see a
horizontal fiarer a little farther up the
road. She's due at 1916 o'clock. |
figured her all out to-day"
OF course the passengers were willing
to wait, and thoy began to look down
into the dark valley, anxious to see the
great flarer. Soon n word of warning
from across the ailse caused every eye to
open wide with expectation, and express
sions of amazement came from a dozen
lips as two dozen eyes beheld a shoot of
flame which sprang up out of the dark
ness, darted this way and that three OF
four times, and then disappeared with n
blink.
Didn't l tell you l had it down fine?"
exclaimed the man with the pipe. They
can't any of EN- get away with me on
the gas well business. I've studied EN-
through and through. But say, friends,
l get off at the next station. I'm a poor
man, and my family at home is hungry.
Can't you do something for me?'
The hat was passed around and filed
full of quarters, half dollars, cigars, and
whisky bottles, more or less empty, and
the whole dumped into the lap of the
grateful expert. De-
Thanks, gentlemen, thanks said he;
lust tell your folks at home that you've
seen the great horizontal flarer up in the
oil regions, and that Bill Cooper, the
great astronomer and geologist of the
bds VIII country snoNeu IL 10 you.
Good night"
After his departure the passengers be-
gan telling of the great mystery they
had seen, and to wonder how Bill Cooper
could so correctly calculate the appear.
ance of the flames of fire.
I'll show how it's done,r said a druIa.
mer who had been seated in the rear part
of the car. and who had not as yet taken
any interest in the proceedings. I'm
show you how the trick is Gone. Has
anybody got n match?
A match was produced. The drummer
seated himself on the opposite side OF
the car, took out n pocket mirror, held il
up against the window. and told the
passengers to look out into the valley il
they wanted to see another flarer. The
match was struck and held before the
mirror, and 10 and behold, there was an
other flaming gas well in view of the
beholders.
I make n horizontal %flarer," said the
drummer. striking another match, "all |
have to do is to blow gently on the flame
of the match and there you have it. /
travel over this road every week and
have seen Bill Cooper before. No,
there's no use asking the conductor to
back the train up to the last station. He
won't do it, and if he did you wouldn't
catch Bill. He's down in the valley by
this time, fishing for more suckers
Chicago Herald.