The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-05-25
duct, the water of the creek being used

| for power
On the slope, away up the creek, the
Oldest inhabitant has just pointed out
the plain little house, and yet as pre-
tensions one as the locality boasts.
Thar he says, "wus tn place whar
Coal-Oil Johnny lived, an that wuz th
biggest darned fool we ever had in tn
oil regions, b'gosh ~
So that was where the merry-hearted
boy, knowing nothing positively about
his pedigree, except who bis mother was,
found wealth beyond his dreams, and
exchanged sound sleep and sweet con
tentmeDt, with hard fare, for the de-
lusive complacency of uncounted rich
es. In that grim valley, where with
his team and truck he wrought hard
earned living for himself and his wife,
there Fortune came, and as if to COM
pensate him for the sarcasm of his
birth, showered on him a rain of gold.
Coal Oil Johnny went by the name
of Steel, which was the nearest any
one could come to his paternity. In his
clod life, digging and delving over on
Fence Creek, where he was born, he
had never unearthed the treasure of
knowledge. He never had paper TO
sign. If he had. it would have been
done with "his mark" and, as for
recognizing himself in print, it was out
of the question. But after the Widow
McClintock, who had land without
measure along Oil Creek, took him to
bring up, Johnny Steel was, as a gen
tleman says who knew him life long,
the happiest boy on the creek, singing
aud whistling about his work, always
merry as bird.
Oil was struck and the widow Nc
Clintock's hundreds of acres went up
to marvellous value. Those were the
days when man could lease 100 acres
of land on OIL Creek, organize a com
pany and float its shares in New York
for million. The fever was at its
height. "Oil Oil!' and men who all
their lives had struggled in those rocky
solitudes and waste places against beg
gary found themselves opulent Gold
poured into the Widow McClintock's s
tenacious Scotch fingers, and she
bought an iron safe, which she kept in
her bedroom. There WIS nearly
S3OO,0OO in it one morning when the
widow got up to build the fire and get
breakfast. She poured on a quart or
so of crude petroleum and didn't know
it was loaded, and 6reviter, the widow
deceased.
Johnny Steel woke one fine morning
and they told him he was a Cresus.
4 Then the tempters took him in charge,
and Mephisto named Slocum under
took to show him the world and its
u mysteries. His eIoapades in all the
cities- of the Union have gone into his
tory. People can 5tell you how in
Philadelphia he bought team and
coach, had man to drive him. around
for an hour, aud at the erd of il. gave
him the establishment. They can tell
You how in the Quaker City, while on
a spree, he bought a hotel, the pro
; prietor of which refused to harbor him
It's the talk along the creek that be
} left the wife of his bosom iu Rouse
! vile, unwept, unhonoied and unstrung
5 while he went on scattering his. wild
| oats and his thousands with equal pro
? fusion.
"There's moth n shows how big {
fool Johnny Steel was, says the village
blacksmith, or some other dignitary
$50 plain as what happened at aboul
7 the windup of his business. On one ol
: his toots he left at theDuncan House il
Oil City-a hotel that's tore down now
!, "a trunk iul of clo'ts. Wen he'C
r been the grand rounds, and his money
an companions had left him, he go
,. hard up for suit o cloes. He hap
pened t think O that trunk. SO b,
: went back, an twas there yet, an in ;
g vest pocket he found certified checl
e for some sez $4,000. some seq S2O,
9 900. Anyhow, you kin see how igno
8 rart he was. He took the paper dowr
g to the clerk an asked him what it was
5 The money, with interest, was in thu
g bank in New York all right, an he go
o 1t an spent every dollar of it on biz
: bat"
But charitable people will tell you O
another side of Johnny Steel's nature
! that he never let human being 20
hungry or unhappy if a thousand ol
so would do them any good Ant
! when all the glamour of dissipation
e had worn away and false friends hat
lett him, Coal-Oil Johnny came bacl
to housewife penniless, divested o
e his gay raiment, donued his jeans ant
cowhides, got team and set to worl
b III the old rut to feed and clothe thos,
D who were dependenton him. He livet
0 down the scoffers, grew great callous
e es on the hands through which fortune
0 had slipped, learned at night to reac
e and write, aud, with the memory o
a millions, struggled day by day simpl,
> 10 make man of himself. And h
!, did it. Finally he got place as bag
n gageman on the railroad, and to-da,
e holds a railroad position in the ia
t West. Five years ago he wrote to tn
d Meadville Tribune a vindication o
a himself, pleading youth and ignoranc
s as excuse for all his folles.
e A man who sat on a tumble-dowl
l. derrick, whiting stick, said yester
e day: "There's only one thing that
IS lay up as a credge agio' Johnny Stee1
g used to live over to Shakele Jville, tn
Il other side O Utica, where Johnny
d mother lived. She's by name Mrs
y Emmons, now, an many's the day
r washin' she's done for us. Now
h Think he couldn't "a done no more
d set som'n aside for her, whatever els
Y. he done" Aud so Johnny Steel ha
y passed from the quiet precincts Q
r Housewife, ard has become a memor
h aud a marvel. There are those lei
|. who speak good word for him, thong
N he spoke few for himself. An ol
s, resident of Titusvile, where Johnn
r worked for the railroad, said he use
fe to play billiards with Coal-Oil Johnn,
pit who double discounted him. One da
he he ventured to remark "Johnny,
IN wish | played the game you do"
a Johnny's only answer was, "lf
Il had cost you as much to learn it as
s has me, you probably would" "and
W added the narrator, "lhat's the on
10 | ,unri I ,yar bao,l h;,s, ca. l.