News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-01-05
THE MAN WITH THE LANTERN.
An Individual Responsible for Much
Destruction in the Oil Regions.

zone of the greatest terrors of the oil
regions said John Morganthaler of Ii
tusville, sis the Man with the Ian
term He has been the cause of more
needless CONGREGATIONS among oil wells
than any thing else, and has cost the re-
giOns millions of dollars. He is usual
ly an employee about the wells, and
nine cases out of ten a man of expert
ence and intelligence, but he will per-
sist i'll taking the chances in paving a
visit now and then to some gas-envel-
oped tank, carrying his lighted lantern
with him. The result isn't always dis
astrous, but that is not the fault of the
Man with the Lantern. Usually an ex-
plosion results. If a destructive fire
does not follow that, the fact will be
without precedent. Sometimes the
cause of a fire of this kind will not be
quite certain at first, but it only needs
roll call of the employees of that par
ticular property, and the taking of an
account of the tool house stock to ascer-
tain the cause. There will be one en-
ployee short, and the number of Ian
terms will be less by one. Then it is
known that the Man with the Lantern
has been walking. Oh, yes The Man
with the Lantern always disappears on
occasions of this kind, and instances are
rare where even as much as piece of
his ear is ever found. But he is not
dead. The Man with the Lantern nev-
er dies i'll the oil regions. He will be
sure to walk again short time after he
has disappeared once.
"The Man with the Lantern first APP
pcared in history in 1914. 1t was at
Marietta, Ohio. Nobody knew what
petroleum was in those days, but in dig
ging we'll out there once oil was dis
covered. It was called ''fossil oil' by
the local savants. There was much gas
with it. A lot of the oil was collected
in cistern. One night the Man with
the Lantern came stalking on the scene,
but the pyrotechnical wonders and
splendors that were displayed in that
vicinity for days and nights as a result
of his visit failed to compensate his wild
ow and six small children for his sudden
TRANSPORTATION. He materialized with
the beginning of operations in oil TWEEN
ty-tive years ago, and his dread appari-
ton will doubtless continue to walk
abroad as long as oil wells last.
"The Girl with the Oil Can, whom,
of course, you have heard of, seems to
have mission on earth similar to that
of tho Man with the Lantern, but she
being confined to the domestic hearth,
of course, does not concern the oil trade
in business way. But speaking of
the Girl with the Oil Can, do you know
where she is first mentioned in history?
Way back i'll the early days of Oil Creek.
The Widow McClintock, owner of the
great McClintock Farm, was the first
one of whom there is any record of hay
ing hastened her fire with coal oil, with
the result that has since become pain
fully familiar. 1t was through that
careless act of hers that heradopted son,
John Steele, was left fatherless and
motherless on a cold and cheerless world,
with only 81, 700 a day coming in from
the McClintock wells for him to keep
the wolf from the door with Everybody
knows how Johnny Steele got along.
His fortune disappeared. as quickly as
the oil can which gave it to him."