Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-01-26
The Man With The Lantern.

lone of the greatest terrors OF the
oil regious," said John Morganthaler
of Titusville, lis the Man with the
Lantern He has been the cause of
more needless confiaorations among
oil wells than anything else, and has
cost the regions millions of dollars.
He is usually an employee about the
wells, and nine eases ont of ten a man
of experience and intelligence, but he
will persist in taking the chances in
paying a visit now and then to some
gas-enveloped tank, carrying his
lighted lantern with him. The result
isn't always disastrous, but that is not
the fault of the Man with the Lantern.
Usually an explosion results. If de-
structiye fire does not follow that, the
fact will be without precedent
Sometimes the cause of fire OF this
kind will not be quite certain at first,
but it only needs roll call of the en-
ployees Of that particular property,
and the taking of an account of the
tool house stock, to ascertain the
cause. There will be one employee
short, and the number of lanterns 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 oc-
casi0ns 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
never dies in the oil regions. He will
be sure to walk again short time
after he has disappeared once
The Man with the Lantern first APP
peared in history in 1914 1t was at
Marietta, Ohio. Nobody knew what
petroleum was in those DAYS, but in
digging we'll out there once, oil was
discovered. 1t was called fossil oil
by the local savants. There was much
gas with it. A lot of the oil was col
lected in a 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 widow and six small children for
his sudden TRANSPORTATION. He ma
teralized with the beginning of opera
tons in oil twenty-five years ago and
lIIo oISdu up pdLIUIOu Will uOuDUltSS
continue to walk abroad as long as oil
wells last.
1.-The Girl with the Oil Can, whom
of course, you have heard of, seems to
have a mission on earth similar to that
of the Man with the Lantern, but her
being confined to the domestic hearth,
of course, does not concern the oil
trade in a business way. But, speak.
ing of the Girl with the Oil Can, do you
know where she is first mentioned in
history? Way back in 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 having FASTENED her fire with
coal oil, with the result that has since
become painfully familiar. 1t was
through that careless act of hers that
her adopted son. John Steele, was left
fatherless and motherless on a cold and
cherries word, with only 50, 700 a day
coming in from the McClintock wells
for him to keep the wolf from the door
with. Everybody knows how Johnny
got along. His fortune disappeared
as quickly as the oil can which gave it
to him.