The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-12-18
COAL OIL JOHNNY.
The Famous Spendthrlft ls Enjoying
Life out In Nebraska.

The pyrotechnic career of the active
| speculator 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
may be 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
reckless, irresponsible, drunken and
pernicious spendthrift when young.
His present home is a. Lincoln,
Nebraska, and the story Of hoy he
came to go there, and how he got the
money on which he is living to-day, is
just as romantic 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 general public was
concerned-a realizable entity, and
| passed into history some thirty years
ago, the present generation hardly
know him as more than name assocl-
| ated with many wildly fantastic stories
of amazing prodigality, and perhaps
| without some such publication as this
to rescue him from oblivion, in lit.
tie while more the myth finders would
| fall foul of his name and argue him
out of real existence.
AS it is, however, every one knows
| something about Coal Oil Johnny.s 8
falling into the immense wealth of the
Widow McCiintock, when, as her
| adopted son, he inherited her oil pro-
| ducing lands in Western Pennsylvania
| in March, 1862. This sudden acqui-
| sition Of enormous wealth turned his
head, not all at once, but speedily.
| He wished to find in enjoyment OF it
| an intensified consciousness Of its re-
ality, but was too ignorant to do 50 in
| any intelligent way. He married the
| daughter Of one Of his workmen, and
| she taught him to write his name In a
laborious, mechanical way, and that
| was all he ever learned. of the art and
| mystery Of letters.
Only few months after his mar
| riage he came down to Philadelphia,
taking with him boon companion
| named Slocum, whose assigned duty
was the carrying Of his money and
paying it out as he chose to squander
it. The life Of prodigality and un-
| controlled dissipation into which he
plunged was so wild as to be almost
beyond belief. BE ordered champagne,
| not by the bottle, but by the basket.
he gave a S., 900 diamond to a negro
minstrel for singing song that pleas.
ed him. He frequently bought car
riages and the teams attached when
he wished to ride few blocks, and
then presented them to the drivers.
On one occasion he wagered a bottle
of wine that he would spend, actually
paying out "for fun" and not giving
away, $4,000 day for sixty days,
and won the bottle. At another time
he received large sum Of money from.
the rentals on the farm when he was
on the street and quite drunk. Il was
in bank notes, as he always required
it, 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 raid on an
annie orchard. His coat could not set
well on him, padded with money as he
was, and he was disgusted.
Just then he caught sight Of q bank,
and, rushing into it with the airy for
mality Of "Here, take care Of this
| damned stuff forSme lisa nuisance,
dumped the whole pile before the re-
| ceiving teller, and went away before
that functionary could take breath or
gather his wits sufficiently to give any
evidence 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 unable to do so. And, he de-
| cided. to hunt it up would involve
| more trouble than it was worth. Its
loss did not worry him at all.
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, seeming his
| downfall, were pressing him. He mort
gagged the farm for large sum and
plunged afresh into even wilder ex-
trayagance and more reckless dissipa-
tion than before, but with less to go
upon, and the end came quickly. His
| mad career was over.
After a short time Of abject desti-
tuition, in which he was deserted by
all who had preyed upon him, he went
to work driving the Girard House
stage, in which guests were carried to
and from the railroad depots. Soon
he wearied of that, and somebody
paid his fare back to Oil Creek, where
he obtained employment as a freight
handler at the depot, in which capaci-
ty he earned $25 a month. That was
| not enough to support himself and
family, and there was nothing more
| remunerative that he could find there
to do.
His wife raised by the sale Of her
jewelry sum sufficient for the trans
portation of the family out to Nebras,
ka, and there, in Lincoln, Coal Oil
Johnny settled down. Theywere very
poor, but managed somehow to live,
for Johnny was willing worker at
any labor be could procure. Real
izing the evil fortune of such limita-
tion as had been put upon his capaci-
ties by his ignorance, he took care that
his son, a bright lad, should receive
as good an education as was attaina-
BILE under the existing circumstances.
When the boy was old enoughlhe OBJ
tained employment as e ticket and
freight agent at the Ashland, Neb.,
railroad station, and there his father,
Coal Oil Johnny that was, plain John
Steele, works steadily and patiently
for the railroad company, under, his
sons direction, handling freight, tax
ing care of the station and 80 on.
Ill