The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-04
STOP! TREsPAssERs ARE SHOT.

STOP! IRESPASSEkS AXE SHOT.
:---------..
porter thought. but he had now gone too far to
retreat He felt his way around the derrick
room until he discovered a loose board Still no
sign of the guards. Quietly he pulled off the
board and slipped into the room In the dark
ness he heard curious drops of liquid about
him. He stopped down and touched his hands
on the floor. He felt oil everywhere--on the
walls, on the timbers and on the machinery.
The we'll had flowed He crawled- out of the der
rick-room through the loosened board. The
storm that had been gathering all the evening
was on the point of breaking. He Mapped to
touch the bushes Of the clearing and again felt
oil Guided by his sense of feeling he followed
the greasy fluid down the clearing until it be-
strayed over everything in an unusually strong
flow. just as he stepped back into the woods
rifle flashed from the bushes on the other side of
the derrick, and he heard the bullet cutting
through the underground. He darted off
through the woods, stumbling over logs and
scrambling through the underbrush to where his
horse was tied. In moment he had swung
himself into the saddle, and was galloping
through the bushes for the highway. While he
ran through the graveyard two more shots were
fired after him.
The storm now broke nell its fury. To seek
shelter was out of the question. AS he galloped
past the church he looked at his watch and found
the time 11:30 He knew he must reach Pitts
burg within two hours or news about the oil we'll
would be too late for the press The distance
about twenty miles. Up hill and down
ravine over bridges and through swollen streams
he urged his galloping horse The rain all the
time kept falling in torrents. The rattle and
crash of the thunder was incessant All was
black as Egypt except when flash of light
ming lit up the road for moment Once he lost
his way, and travelled half hour before he
found out his mistake A churck clock was
just striking the half hour Of when he drew
rein at the cfice. In little more than an
hour afterward the mystery of the Mount Nebo
oil-well was cleared up in the columns of the
newspaper and it's true value known to the
public.
When the Oil Exchange opened in the morn
ing there was the greatest anxiety manifested
in the trade. The report of the we'll in the
paper dropped like a bombshell among them.
There were the uneasy, restless signs that
always porteud panic. From the opening the
market began to scale downward. The lazy
buzz of the preceding afternoon had developed
into deafening roar The marble floors and
wainscot seemed to vibrate with the succession
of atmospheric waves. Crowds of eager men
FASTENED up the gilded stairway. The Hobbies
were packed with mass of humanity oblivous
to all surroundings, intent only watching the
invisible but wildly audible thing called "the
market The walls were fringed around the
Hobbies with men standing on chairs to see over
the heads Of the crowd intervening between
them and the nickel-plated bull ring" Boys
were rushing to and fro between the telegraph
room
ing mob at the rostrum The ticker within the
bull-ring was buzzing its song of Joy and dis
tress to the multitude of tape-watchers in all
parts of the city Everything in motion was full
of excitement except the clock on the wall. It's
great pendulum swung backward and forward
unheard. but the placid face of the dial was not
unseen. Many an anxious glance was turned to
the tardy movements of those steady hands as
they approached the hour of 8. As the long
hand of the dial grew gradually more exactly
io,rjor ord vhoo CHI her
horizontal the wildness and confusion increased
The yes increased in volume until great shout
went up. and the crowd scattered from the bull
pen as if an explosion had taken place. The
market had closed almost cents lower than it
had ruled the evening before. The last three
hours of the day it had not dropped quarter of
a cent, though, showing that the Standard had
come in to sustain the market The panic caused
by the newspaper article had doEe its worst
The scene that afternoon about the Mount
Nebo mystery was almost as striking as the one
in the Oil Exchange. Where all had been 81
lence and gloom the night before was activity
and sunshine The placards marking the dead
line glistered white from the trees at the edge
of the woods. Round about couple of smol-
dering fires beyond the dead-line sat and lolled
oilscouts and oil-operatorS from different rarts
of western Pennsylvania. All day they had
kept arriving .Ay 3 o'clock the strip of woods
that had been deserted the evening before was
peopled by almost a hundred keen spectators
The Professional Oil-scouts' Association of the
Thorncreek region, was represented in Goodwin,
Cappeau, Upper and Murphy. From loosely
constructed shed telegraph instrument clicked
necessarily; the scouts had brought with them
in the morning a complete Office Every action
about the derrick was closely watched. Nobody
ventured beyond the deadine to examine closer
but the watchers prowled about the limit like
coyotes around prairie campfire. A few hun
dred yards further down in the hollow saloon
had blossomed out in the morning, and did
rushing business. The mineral right to eighty
acres of land. across the highway from the well,
previous it could have been bought for $500
Other purchases OF land were made at the same
rate. A week afterward an oil community had
sprung up.
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