Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-12-27


and the agent too, 'Walk into my parlor
says the spider to the fy..' Some quiet fell
low sitting off to himself, here and there,
looking throu1l his poke book to see if he
has money left 70 pay his bill and get home,
he's 'been in and wishes he hadn't"
Then the town is full of people; you can
hardly get through the crowds standing in
front of the hotels and restaurants and news
paper offices, some talking loud. some button
holing each other, some trying to take it in
like am doing, and the news boys pushing
through-Here's your Oil Review! Morning
Drill, Sir? Stores full, banks doing
driving business, editors happy, new houses
going up on every hand new telegraph and
telephone wires being stretched, everything
in rush. and SO it has been going on here for
four years. The village of 500 people has
grown to be city of 5000, and still growing
No hard times been felt here, they say, and
don't expect it, plenty of money sir, wouldn't
live anywhere else but in boom town. Yes,
yes, thinks I to myself, l have been there.
Backward roll backward time in thy flight,
make me a boomer again lust for one night
Well, may be it will last, and may be it
time will do for me.
HOW THEY DO IT.
Still this is big thing here, no mistake
about it, Hundreds, yes thousands Of wells
in this valley and the valley beyond these
ridges extending for mi les on both sides in
West Virginia ana Ohio, more wells are being
drilled, the men working day and night. A
days work here is "a hours and no Sunday, at
night by the jets OF natural gas which come
from nearly every we'll, the city is lit up by
great flames of it which flare foot hig h
without lamps, at every corner, two great big
ones in front Of my hotel burn all night and
ley and over on the hills by flames yards
high, getting rid of the surplus gas so the
hands can see and work without suffocating.
In the houses fire costs only $3.50 month
and light % cents, aud they are piping it to
Pttsburg, 100 miles, and then it is to be sent
on to Philadelphia, 800 miles from the Big
Moses, the greatest gas well that ever WAS
struck, the roar of which was heard 10 miles
before it was confined, deafened every one
who came near it, Workmen had to wear cot
ton in their ears. The ground shook as though
in an earthquake, and when it took fire it
burnt up the derrick and the whole rig and the
flames shot up in the air 125 to 200 feet and
people living in a house 600 feet off could not
hear each other talk and had to move away.
The company offered 81 900 to any one who
would devise plan to control the immense
rush of gas which was finally accomplished
and a strong company was formed which
spent 81, 400 900 in piping the gas from the
Big Moses and other contiguous wells under
ground to the cities.
At each we'll there is a small $50 barrel
tank to gather its Oil. These, when full, are
measured by gauger and an account kept by
tile we'll number. The Oil from these small
tanks is pumped nto5 large iron tanks, hold
ing 30 GOO barrels each. From there it is CON
stantly being drawn to great pump house
here where there are boilers heated by gal
and two huge pumps with the capacity OF
1000 barrels an hour, one stroke of these big
pumps draws the Oil In and another starts il
out on its long underground journey hundreds
of miles to the seaboard cities of Baltimore
and Philadelphia. The pumps are so power
full that the Oil is propelled 50 miles from
here to another pump station, and so On via
Pittsburg, every 50 miles another station till
it reaches the seaboard. After leaving Pitts.
burg the pumps. tanks and pipes are all on a
much larger scale in order to accommodate
the oil coming from the Pennsylvania oil
fields, the whole being under the control of
the Standard Oil Company, said to be the
largest monopoly and the richest corporation
probably in the world. Not an oil we'll is
started here OF any where else that's is not
taken in and the oil handled by this company
and the system is so perfect that any person
here who may have no more than an eighth
interest in a 2-barrel we'll can go to the cash.
ier's Office here once month get his balance
from the Pittsburg office by telegraph and gel
his check in few minutes.
WHERE THE OIL IS FOUND.
The Oil is found in a porous rock, some
times strata Of small gravels about the SIZE
of pea, about 400 feet below the surface OF
the Ohio river bottom here 1t is known
among all Oil men as ''sand'' and the drill
after going through about fifty feet of soil
must cut through almost solid rock and slate
which strata has different names, until il
strikes into what is known as the big
Injun" sand where the Oil is found, if found
at all. The drillers, as [ have said, work
night and day and have become SO skillful
that they accomplish this distance of nearly
500 yards in the heart of old mother earth in
from 20 to- % days if there is no accident
Often, however, the drill sticks fast away
down out of reach and sight, the wire rope is
broken and then commences long and tedi-
Gus time of Fishing for the heavy tackle,
weighing L don't know how many tons, an
expensive job it is too for the drller gets S.
a day, and his assistants $3.50. Generally
| the fishing is successful and the tackle recov-
cred, but often, after long and weary days of
fishing, the we'll with its expensive iron cas-
ing the tackle and all with the labor and the
rent has to be abandoned and somebody is
hurt.
Now Dear VINDICAToR you and your read
ers have both sides OF the Oil BOOM | don't
advise an investment. but with these lights
before you if you want to come here and try
it you will find plenty Of company, and the
chances are that is all you will find. But
I NAT oI,i