The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-28

Cured yesterday but he got his infor-
; nation from a no less reliable authori-
" than the man who has a tip every
Saturday for the last four months that
, Governor Morrill, will change the po-
lice commission the next Monday NOR
ming
Enviabie as the reputation OF the re-
porter for the gas we'll is for truth and
veracity the above fact strengthens Il
and the public can regard the facts
set forth as follows as being entirely
( truthful and relia BILE.
The drillers resumed work. There
Is not much reason TO doubt that. Now.
then. if that part OF the story is correct
why isn't it all correct. The drillers
quit work Immediately afterwards. Is
there. in the light of the facts involved
in the history of the well. any reason
to DOUBT that. Nobody Will deny but
what that is a probable statement.
If. then. you believe that why isn't il
logical TO believe that the remaining
part of the story is correcJ2 The Am
erican people are too prone 70 doubt
the statements OF other American peO-
pie, and especially the people of Wich-
ita.
But. 20 the point, During the few
days the well was not being worked
some evil minded kids of unworthy
sires stole five or six torpedoes from
the railroad company. dropped them
down into the well and pulled their
freight.
Yesterday morning when the drillers
went TO work-the word work Is used
advisedly although. doubtless, the pub
lie viii feel inclined TO doubt il. Well.
when they went TO work. or play work
l. IL
the public taste and refinement, the
drill was inserted into the hole. the lev
er was pulled and down il went with
velocity of twenty miles a second.
There was a tremendous noise heard
and the earth trembled. A blaze of
blue fire assembled and following that
came little pink balls of fire for all
the world like soap bubbles blown from
a clay pipe. These little balls fioated
around the interior OF the shed undis-
turbed. for the drillers had fled from
the building in great terror, thinking
they had penetrated the upper crust
Of that scrfptural lake of fire and brim-
stone-talked about so solemnly in or
thOdOx pulpits. What caused these
pink balls of fire is quite a mystery
and the only plausible reason given
for their existence so far is that there
was a little gas at the bottom of the
well which when ignited and shot up
ward formed bubbles in the water of
subteranean lake No. and blew out
the top of the hole. The blue fire
cannot be so easily accounted for and
hence ii is the source of a great deal
of speculation.
The people at the we'll think il is a
valuable find and so do great many
other people. What the people of
Wichita have wanted for a long time
is blue blazes that would not be too
costly for utilization. The blue blaz-
es Bill Tiger raised were entirely too
expensive as they cost about $4,000
while the gas well blue blazes have
cost so far only about $4,000 The
Eagle mans informant thought they
would make a very superior article Of
ammunition for skyrockets and sug-
sests that a company ought to be
formed at once to manufacture il in
order TO be ready for the Mckinley
Olney campaign trade this coming
fall He thinks the drillers ought not
to go any. further with their work but
that the remaining $4,000 in the gas
well fund should be donated to some
company as a bonus to utilize this
strange blue light - the manufacture
of pyrotechnics. PyrOtechnics are
what the people of Wichita want most
of anything as they have a fine field
for them, being in the exact geographic
center of a Populist section of coun-
try. The pink balls of fire could be
condensed so that when the explosion
of a rocket occurred in the air they
would expand and fall in nice showers
over the green trees.
The well was down exactly 1920 feet
when the blue light was struck