The sun., 1897-05-09
4 Gas WE'LL ESTERPRIsE.
Eject OF the POissninE or Dog . Project
That Looked PromIsinE.

':Just to show you how little things have af-
fected some OF my big undertaking." said the
ex-boomer from Oregon let me tell you how
the poisoning OF a dog was responsible for the
whole history of a gas we'll in which was once
pretty heavily interested.
About the time we moved onto the ranch
near Drain, Ore, my boy Charles was very
much interested in chemistry. and was devoting
most OF his spare time to performing a lot OF ex-
periments In an old book which he had on the
subject. Ny wife became rather prejudiccd
against his experiments after he had frightened
Ham Song. our Chinese cook. into Mysteries by
appearing before him one dark night with
phosphorus rubbed on his face and hands.
and / also began to fear that he might
do himself some injury after ] found a
plant for generating laughing gas at work on
my library table afternoon. Ny feeling
against chemistry reached a head. however
when my pet deer hound ate up one OF Chariey's
experiments and died a result. After tina.
refused to buy a new chemistry book or any
search in that line to an old shack that stood
over the other side OF the cattle corral.
=" 1t was some time after this that we began to
natural gas under Drain. and half a dozen OF us
undertook to make an investigation OF the
subject. We found large quantities OF some
kind OF gas that bn billed up from the creek bed
nlI a hve gallon coal oil can with it in two or
three minutes at almost every point we tried.
lnd sbs, the gas burned with bright yellow fame
I got home the night after discovering these
fac facts put % 10y pride IN my p9eket and sroped
on the subject OF natural gas.
49,, ~ guess H. only marsh gas yop have found,
years there have been sawmilis on the creek
above where this gas occurs. and the sawdust
creek botom and that psodaees mash a the
statement. he got out the old book that / had
and showed me paragraph stating that marsh
gas gas, was ,t.p product ] Of the dscomposition OF
yP tina, in borns in some Msae place 9r have
cred. called natural gas which was thought TO
he merely n natural reservoir OF marsh gas. To
a man in my state of mind. this statement was
book had been published back in the seventies
somewhere. but spent the most OF that night in
drawing up the papers OF the Drain Natural
Inside OF month had charter and an in.
corporated company with one-half of its capital
stock paid up and had made contract with a
man named Gorbett tS sink hd wei well at So much
ports. stating that the formation OF the country
was superior. to that OF Pennsylvania, and proph:
course I R good deal Of real estate changed hands
while preparations to commence drilling we're IN
progress We iocated the well well across % eG ihe creek
S which Ds" we called so South Drain. ' We adver-
10 commence the sale OF lots when Corbctt be-
gan to strike difficulties. At the depth OF 500
and slate that choked the drills by tumbling In
above them. until we had 70 stop and case tn, the
this time. but in spite OF tine black outlook did
not lose faith. bet my son Charlie a new chem,
istry book that We would strike gas yet. i
Drain town site. and bluf1ed Corbett into sinking
the well TO n total depth of 702 feet. but 1t never
produced anything except salt water.
South Drain dropped back 10 Its original
value OF SS rs an acre, instead OF 800 lot. and
when undertook 10 fence IL in and cultivate II,
the one solitary man who had bought a lot and
built on 1t got out an injunction restraining mo
from closing up the public streets- Charley got
1t that explained the difference between marsh
gas and natural gas, and he is still In the habit
my presence