Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-05-24
me- TIPPED rnn rUsE.
But Pennsylvania Jury Gave Hi
Credit Tor il.

But PcnnsJlvauia Jury Gave Him
Credit Tor it.
Yes" said the oil man to Buffalo
Express reporter, "thc love the people OF
Pennsylvania have for the Standard Oil
Co is remarkable for lis scarcity. The
big monopoly is hated from ono end of
tue state to the other. let me tell you .
story that illustrates this.
You probably know how the Stan
lari pipes rs oil through 10 tilewa.cr.
Well, there vas q man who lived on a
certain part OF one Of their pipe lines.
lie had couple Of wells. They were
little two.barrol affairs and, although he
sho' them and did everything he could
to increase the low, he was never able
10 pump more than two barrels day
from them. One night he was sitting in
his boiler house figuring out how long it
would b., at the rate he was going,
before he would land in the poor house
lie made 1t about three weeks, and his
proximity to ruin startled him. lie
began to hustle. He had to have money,
and the only way he knew to get money
was to get oil. He could get no oil from
his wells, aud he had nothing with
which to buy leases. He must have oil,
SO he tapped the Standards pipe line.
lie was an ingenious man, and waen
he bad made up his mind to make the
tap he studied out way TO make it that
was hard to detect. lie worked for
few weeks and got everything in shane.
Then he dropped couple of thunder
ing big shots into his measly little wells
and announced next day that he had
struck new reservoir of oil and that
his wells had begun to do Is barrels
day each. He enlarged his tanks and
sat down and saw 30 barrels of the
Standards property come TO him each
"a hours.
"Things ran along like this for six
months. People thought it mighty queer
that those two wells should Keep doing
10 barrels a day, and number were
sunk in that vicinity without results.
The Standard smelt mouse. They sent
plpeman after pipeman along the line,
but no one could find the tap. Their
gaugers would report such and such a
quantity of oil in a tank, and when the
oil got to the other end it would in.
yariably be short. The monopolists
were crazy, and our friend with the
two-barrel wells began to wear dia-
monds. Finally the Standard people
decided TO get at the bottom OF the
affair.
They were losing too much oil. Bv
this time the tap had been in successful
operation for a year. They sent Jim
Robinson, their head detective, out with
Instructions to find it il it took another
year.
Robinson worked along the line,
taking his time and doing things
thoroughly. Finally he arrived at our
trends wells. He got in rather late and
asked to be put up over night. He got
the mans pumper in good humor by
giving him big drink of whisky, and
then he intimated that he was looking
for good place to make tap. The
pumper was suspicious. 1t took good
many drinks to get him in proper shape,
but Robinson, who had the capacity of
a regiment, did the job, and the pumper
finally told him that the only way to
make tap was to make one like his
boss, which had been in successful
operation for year or more.
This was Robinson's cue. He waited
until morning and then had theswhole
outfit arrested. The tap was discovered
and il was shown that the company had
been robbed of an enormous quantity
of oil. That didn't cut any figure with
the jury, however, for they saw an
opportunity to soak tie Standard, and
they acquitted the Taper and censured
the company for placing temptation in
honest mems way and for keeping down
the price of oil. The Standard people
were wild, but that was all the good it
did them"