Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-14

lamp was diffusing an oder OF such peculiar
quality and pungency as to Immediately
attract our attention, and I have never lost
its connection with petroleum from that day
to this Mr.. Boggs took great pains
to explain it to us, how it came
up with the salt water from the rocks below.
He took us up again to the tank and showed
how he drew the salt water into the pans
from point near the bottom OF the tank In
order to prevent any of the oil on the sur
face from getting into the pans, and showed
us with tin dipper how they skinned the
oil off the surface every two or three days;
and then showed us two or three gallons of
the oil thoroughly separated and by itself
in large tin bucket which he kept for re-
csiving the skimmings of the tank. Then
he lit up one of the several large tin lamps
stuck around inside and outside the works
in order to show us what kind of light
it produced. The light was yellow and
showed poorly in the glare of day
but the odor was strong enough to indicate
something from the lower regions. He ex-
planned, "We soon get used to it, and it
saves great deal of tallow. We use it all
about the works for light and grease and
the men use it in the coalpit and some of
them take it home for lighting purposes. ("
Such was my personal experience with
petroleum some II years or SO before it ap-
peared at Tarentum and it was well under
stood all along that it had been known on
the Kiskiminetas from the time the salt
production commenced there.
1 was we'll acquainted with most of the
gentlemen IN Tarentum when attention was
attracted to it, especially Messrs. Humes,
Donnelly and Kier, named in Mr.. StohePs
article. have had many business transac-
tions with most of them and can heartily ap-
prove,,M Stofel's eulogy of their character.
And I well remember Mr.. Kier's refinery
on Seventh street Just east of the canal and
Grant street and his trouble with the neigh
bors, who did. not take agreeably to the
smell or get used to it, as MIR. Boggs and
his men had done.
1t Got Too Cheap for Medicine.
may also say that from nv own obser-
vation of its good effect as a, salVe and for
other medical purposes, +her in its crude
state or as prepared by Mr.. Kier, its excel
lent qualities in that line should never
have been lost sight CT The only reason 1
could ever see for its neglect as a remedy is
its cheapness. After brakes experiment
flooded the country with it, 1t got too cheap
to be respected by the doctors or to hold
its place on the shelves of the.druggist.
And it appears to me that Mr.. Stofiel was
careful in ascertaining and selecting his
have nothing to add or alter. His surprise
at the wonderful changes in the develop
ment and quantity and price and capital in
vested in producing aud handling an article
with so small an origin is quite natural
But almost equal changes have taken place
in the same time in the quantity, quality
and value of all our staple industries, and
hardly less has been the change which in the
same time has come over the state of
public sentiment regarding the social
status of the men who venture their capital
in such enterprises When Boggs and Peter
SON, and Kier and Donelly and others were
establishing and operating salt works and
nursing petroleum in its infancy on the
Kiskiminetas and Allegheny, and Thomas
BakeweIl, Christ Ihmpson and Fred Lorenz
were constructing and operating glass
works, and John Shoenberger, Lyon Shorb
& Co. and others were pushing forward in
the iron industry, such men were regarded
by the people Of their day as public bene-
factors, although they claimed and exer-
oised the exclusive management of their
own business and of employing and dis
charging their help at discretion,
THOMAS MELLON.