The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-12-15
COAL OIL JOHNNY RICH
HOW RE STRUCK IT LATE In LIFE

So 900 at "a time be bumped Lot OF
uoEes snto the stands ot "A Failadel-
phia Bank Cashier Just 10 Get Rid
of i,--ae Forgot it all, But When
he was Poor Again, and Was Por-
ter, The Bank sent Him lis Cash.
The pyrotechnic career of the active
Spectator known as Coal Oil Johnny
is not ended, as most people have for
long time supposed According to
the New York Sun Johnny is very
much alive, in pretty good condition
physically, and in quite comfortable
circumstances. And shocking as it
NAV he to those accustomed to hold
ing him up as horrid warning to the
Young the fact seems beyond dispute
that his good financial plight to-day is
the direct result of his having been a
reckless. irresponsible, drunken, and
pernicious spendthrift when young.
His present home is at Lincoln, Ne
braska, and the story of how he came
to 90 there and how he got the money
on which he is living to-day is just as TO
mantle as any of those other stories
which were told about him years ago.
He is known as John Steele. and he is
healthy and happy head of family.
As he ceased being-so far as the gen
eral public were cOncerned-a realiZa~
BILE entity. and passed into history
some thirty years ago, the present gen
Grafton hardly know him as more than
a name associated with many wildly
fantastic stories of amazing prodigali-
ty, and perhaps without some such
publication as this to rescue him from
oblivion, i'm a little while more the
myth finders would fall foul of his
name and argue him out of real exist
cnce.
AS it is. however. every one knows
something about Coal Oil Johnny's
falling into the immense wealth of the
! Widow McClintock, when, as her adopt
ed son. he inherited her oil producing
lands in Western Pennsylvania in
| March, 1862. This sudden acquisition
! of enormous wealth turned his head,
not all at once, but speedily. He wish
ed to find in enjoyment of it an inten-
| sified consciousness of its reality; but
was too ignorant to do so in any intel
| Iigent way. He married the daughter
OF one of his workmen, and she taught
| him to write his name i'm laborious,
mechanical way, and that was all he
ever learned of the art and mystery Of
/ letters.
/ HOW He SPENT THE MONEY.
Only a few months after his mar
riage he came down to Philadelphia,
taking with him u boon companion
named Slocum, whose assigned duty
was the carrying of his money and pay
/ ing il out as ne chose to squander it.
| The life of prodigality and uncontroll-
ed dissipation into which he plunged
| was so wild as to be almost beyond be-
/ lief. He ordered champagne, not by
! the bottle, but by the basket. He gave
a $1,000 diamond to a negro minstrel
| for singing a song that pleased him.
| He frequently bought carriages and
the teams attached when he wished to
ride a few blocks. and then presented
! them to the drivers.
| On one occasion he wagercd a bottle
of wine that he would spend, actually
paying out "for fun" and not giving a
way, $4,000 day for sixty DAYS, and
won the bottle. At another time he
received a large sum Of money from
| the rentals ON the farm he was on
/ the street and quite drunk. 1t was in
| bank notes, as he always required il,
checks being objects of suspicion with
! him, and when he had stuffed it into
his pockets they bulged out like those
| Of an urchin after a raid on an apple
orchard. His coat could not set well
on him, padded with~aoney as he was.
and he was Disguised.
Just then he caught sight of bank,
and, rushing into it with the airy for
mality Of: Here, take care of this
| damned stuff for me; it's a nuisance
| dumped the whole pile before the re-
ceiving teller, and went away, ere that
functionary could take breath or gath
er his wits sufficiently to give any evi-
dence of the deposit And when Coal
| Oil Johnny, as John Steele was by this
time known, tried, in brief spasm OF
| sobriety. to remember where he had
/ left all that money, he was quite una
/ bic TO do so. And, he decided, to hunt
it up would involve more trouble than
/ it was worth. It's loss did not worry
him at all.
| HIS ONLY LUCKY INVESTMENT.
/ Suddenly his wealth came to an end.
| He had succeeded in squandering even
more than his vast income, and was
| in debt. Of course he had been plum
dered mercilessly right and left, but
had literally thrown away several for
/ tunes, and creditors, scenting his
| downfall, were pressing him. He
mortgaged the farm for a large sum
and plunged afresh into even wilder
| extravaganza and more reckless dissi-
| patton than before, but with less TO go
upon, and the end came quickly. His
mad career was over.
After a short time of abiect destitu-
ton, in which he was deserted by all
" no had preyed upon him, he went to
work driving the Girard House stage,
ia which guests were carried to and
from the railroad depOts. Soon he
Uearied of that. and somebody paid
/ his fare back to Oil Creek, where he OBJ
tanned employment as a freight hand
Ter at the depot, in which capacity he
earned S25 a month. That was not
enough to support himself and family,
ard there was nothing more remuner-
alive that he could find there to do.
His wife raised by the sale of her
jewcIry sum sufficient for the trans
Dortation of the family out to Ne
braska, and there, in Lincoln, Coal Oil
Johnny settled down. They were very
poor, but managed somehow to live.
for Johnny was a willing worker at
any labor he could procure. Realizing
the evil fortune of such limitation as
had been put upon his capacities by
his ignorance, he took care that his son,