The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-17
WORK HAS CEASED
PROSPECT WELL OPERATIONS sUS-
PENDED FOB A FEW DAYS.
They Got Tired Of Wooden Casing and Pro-
posed Not to Monkey with It Any Lon-
ger-They will Now have Cold Steel to
Pierce the Bosom Of Mother Earth and
when It Touches the Blue Clay Things
will Hum-The Supposed Amount of
Money spent is Grossly Exaggerated
According to Jackman-

Yesterday morning the big wheel at
the prospect we'll failed to revoive- II
was not its fault It was at the old
stand ready to do business but there
was no steam 10 set II in motion and as
perpetual motion has not yet been
vouchsafed 10 a long expectant world
the big wheel quietly rested on its axis
The too toot OF the steam engine re-
nTained silent as the big wheel was still
and the knot on the big rope that marks
the official log OF progress toward
China remained at the second crossbar
from The top Of the tower. where Il
has been for several days In a word,
work had ceased at the prospect We'll
Boys put in their Saturdays vacation
from school searching the sand for gold
and many visitors from town went there
20 see what was to be seen The result
was that there was quite a crowd at
the prospect Well all day. Some wag
mailed a sign on the framework OF the
tower which said: NO smoking allow
ed here; il might cause an explosion OF
the natural gas" The boys did IL and
the old men smiled and shook their
heads.
assistant city engineer, that work had
ceased until such time as steel casing
could arrive from St Louis which he
expected would not be before Monday
noon. This steel casing was telegraph
ed for and the Missouri Pacific people
promised 10 rush IT through as quick as
possible. The city engineer and Mr..
Austin concluded that the wooden cas-
ing could never be set permanently
straight in that quick sand and they
decided 10 get steel casing. The wooden
casing was rather deceptive. They
would straighnen IL up or rather down
and be ready TO tackle the mysterious
blue clay but all at once a Missouri
Pacific train would come along jarrfng
the earth and the casing would go out
of plum again. II became question
of suspending operations on the Mis-
souri, Pacific road or getting steel cas-
ing and the latter means out OF the diff
ficulty was adopted
The steel casing will solve the matter.
1t will be heavy and the sand and cur
rent cannot sway IL. When they get
IL on the blue clay they will let the big
pile driver down on It and then a tor
rent can't throw il out of plum. When
this Is done look out for boring. Mr..
er earth a touch OF high life and the
only trouble feared is that they Will go
50 fast that the drill Will melt
Mr.. Jackman says that the people are
A lktle impatient but that If they knew
all the facts they would feel better dis
passed. He says there is not anything
like The money spent that the people
think there is. He says that the bulk
of the money spent so far has been in
material and not labor as Is commonly
supposed. Mr.. Austin's contract price
for boring is SIS per day while the next
lowest bid TO him was s55 per day.
II appears that very few eastern drill
ers would bid on the hole at all and
those who did made the sums enorrn-
Gus. One man had the audacitty TO
ask $500 for putting down a hole.
Eastern dr-llers are afraid Of Kansas
since the experience one Of them had
with gas hole in Topeka The con-
tract price for a hole there was $4,000
and the contractors sunk SO, 600 on the
job before the hole was down 70 the re-
quired depth. The Topeka hole never
amounted 10 anything. 1t Is hoped
that the wichita hole Will.
While the big wheel is still the pay OF
the men is stopped and hence there il
no kick coming to anybody. or course
the people do not like the delay. They
want to smell that gas as soon as posi-
bic and many people do not want TO buy
their winters supply OF coal until they
can buy the home product