The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-11
TOLD BY AN OIL SCOUT.
His Experience With Good Parson Who Objected to Drilling on Sunday.
 LLnr1.., thn NEn aIlr, .rt1,r, pnrt :.

Objected to Drilling on Sunday.
 [From the Washington Postl
 oil Scout Joe Morton from the Penn sylvania petroleum fields, drifted into
 Washington last night to see the sights
 of the nations capital Morton is in
 the employ of the Standard oil com pany, and his headquarters are in Pitts
 burgh. He Is one of the oldest men in the oil business, and in his time as an oil operator Drought in," as they say in the oil districts, some of the gushers that have made the western Pennsyl- vania fields famous. Last night he went back to the time when the old Bradford, Pa, field was opened up, and told this story,
 After the rush for drilling territory which followed the opening up of the Bradford field, I was up that way and found that the only piece of ground at all promising looking, which had not been leased, was garden patch, the property of a Methodist minister of Bradford, the Rev. MT. Walker I be- lieve his name was, and as 1t struck me there might be oil under the clods of this land, leased it. According to the terms of the lease he was to get monthly rental and an eighth interest in the oil output of the well which was to drill. I had never done business with a preacher before, and as didn't know how to handle them, had no end of trouble with Walker Of course my program of work on my well included Sunday drillng-all oil wells are drilled on Sunday, the same as any other day didn't know how this would strike Walker, for I had heard he was crank on Sunday observance and the head of a society for the prevention of Sabbath dissertation, an organization which had given the saloon keepers of Bradford no end of annoyance. I didn't care much how 1t struck him, however, as there was nothing in the lease agree ment to stop Sunday work at the well, so I went ahead.
 "It was almost o'clock Sunday morn- ing when the preacher discovered that his property was being made the ground of the rankest kind of Sabbath dissertation, and when he did come into possession of this interesting piece of information he acted with energy. Tn less time than 1t takes to tell 1t he was at the well and stirred up nightly. What do you mean?' he gasped. My property--Sun- day I tried to reason with him, but it was of no use. He wouldn't lis- ten to reason and alternately tried threats and entreaties to induce me to shut down the we'll for the day. Of course I wouldn't do 1t, and he con cluded to go into the courts, That af- ternoon I was arrested for Sabbath breaking and taken before a magis- trate, but the magistrate was not in sympathy with the aims of the preach er's society, and when pointed out that drilling at an oil well on Sunday was a work of necessity he discharged me- Then Walker tried half dozen other plans to stop Sunday work at my we'll, one of which was an offer to bribe me and my men, but none of them worked. At last he concluded to sell his interest in the we'll and started out to get purchaser. He could find no one who was especially anxious to buy him out, however, and at last sold his | holding for a COW in order to get it off | his hands,"
 "How is the well?' was asked. "Get any oil?"
 "Yes," replied Morton. "The well | came in a gusher It was on Sunday | too, that we got oil. The | greatest strike ever made"
 "How did the preacher take it?" ask