Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1897-11-25
4 GAS WELL ENTERPRISE.
b.Ieet Of the Poisoning Of Dog on
Project That Looked Promising.

''Just to show you how little Things
have affected some of my big undertake
inys, " said the ex-boOmcr from Oregon,
"let me tell you how the poisoning OF
dog was responsible for the whole his
toy of a gas we'll in which was once
pSotty heavily interested.
about the time we moved on to the
ranch near Drain, Or, my boy Charles
was very much interested in chemistry
and was devOting most Of his spare
time to performing u lot Of experiments
in an old book which he had OH the SUBJ
ject. My wife became rather prejudiced
against his experiments after he had
frightened Ham Song, our Chinese COOK,
into Mysteries by appearing before him
one dark night with phosphorus rub
bed on his face and hands, and | also
began to fear that he might do himself
some injury after / found plant for
generating laughing gas at work on my
library table one afternoon. My feeling
against chemistry reached head, how
ever, when my pet deerhound ate up
one of Charleys experiments and died
as a result. After that refused to buy
a new chemistry book or any more
chemicals and banished all future re-
search in that line to an old shack that
stood over the other side Of the cattle
corral.
at was some time after this that we
began to discuss the possibility Of there
being deposits of natural gas under
Drain, and half dozen of us under
took to make an investigation of the
subject. We found large quantities Of
some kind of gas that buEoled up from
the creek bed when we poked about
with sticks. We could I'LL five gallon
coal oil can with it i'll two or three
minutes at almost every point we tried,
and the gas burned with bright yell
low flame that emitted considerable
light and heat When / got home the
night after discovering these facts, /
put my pride in my pocket and CROPPED
my way down to Charley's shack To
consult him on the subject of natural
gas.
'''I guess it's only marsh gas You
have found, was his verdict. You see,
for the last 80 years there have been
sawmills OH the creek above where this
gas occurs, and the sawdust FROM them
is probably decaying all along the creek
bottom, and that produces marsh gas.
''When asked him for authority for
his statement, he got out the old book
that / had refused to replace with
more modern work and showed me
paragraph stating that marsh gas was a
product of the decomposition of wood
under water. Then the next paragraph
caught my eye 1t went on to say that
in boring a well, in some place have
forgotten, q large body of gas had been
discovered called natural gas, which
was thought to be merely natural res
ervoir of marsh gas To a man in my
state of mind this statement was con-
elusive. Itook no notice of the fact that
the 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 Gas COM
pany.
"Inside of month had charter
and an incorporated company with one
half of its capital stock paid up and had
made Il contract with man named Cor
belt to sink Il well at so much per thou
sand feet. We had two so called experts
go over the ground and published their
reports, stating that the formation Of
the country was superior to that Of
Pennsylvania, and prophesying the dis
covery of oil as we'll as gas. OF course,
a good deal of real estate changed hands
while preparations to commence drill
ing were in progress. We located the
well across the creek from Drain, plot
ting a town site around it which we
called South Drain. We advertised ex-
tensively and were just about ready to
commence the sale of lots when Corbett
began to strike difficulties. At the depth
of 500 feet he ran into alternate layers
of quicksand and slate that chOked the
drills by tumbling in above them, until
we had to stop and case the we'll. My as
sociates began to withdraw about this
time, but in spite of the black outlook I
did not lose faith. bet my son Charlie
a new chemistry book that we would
strike gas yet. l bought ont the other
interests in the South Drain town site
and bluffed Corbett into sinking the
we'll to total depth of 7O2 feet, but it
never produced anything except salt
water.
South Drain dropped back to its
original value of SIS, ~ IN acre, instead
of 500 lot, and when undertook to
fence it i'll and cultivate it the one sol
itary man who had bought lot and
built on it got out an injunction re-
straining me from closing up the public
streets. Charley got his new chemistry
and showed me the place in it that eX-
planned the difference between marsh
gas and natural gas, and he is still i'll
the habit Of smiling whenever the latter
is mentioned in my presence. New
York Sun.
prlnc. RnrIs