The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-07

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 sertions, but without success. By hard
 work he had secured a little farm, and
 when confronted by financial difficult ties he deeded it to a brother, who sub sequently refused to deed it back.
 Long naturally resented this injus-
 tice, and after stormy interview with
 his brother he decided to try his for tunes in another state. He went to
 Crawford county, Ohio.
 During his stay there the county ex-
 perienced an oil boom, in which Long
 and his forked stick cut quite figure.
 Finding few who would believe in his
 strange power and having no money of
 his own, he gave his services for little
 or nothing. He worked hard to accu-
 mulate money to put down a we'll for
 himself, but fortune was reluctant to
 smile upon him. He claims now to pos-
 sess the secret of pool of oil three
 miles wide and little over mile long
 in the Ohio field which he hopes some time to test and of which he has told
 no one the location.
 While in Ohio he learned that his pre-
 diction made to a neighbor in this coun-
 ty twenty years ago had been verified,
 and he returned here. His predictions
 since then have been accurate and pre-
 else, and he is now beginning to enjoy
 the local fame he has so long sought.
 At the Kamer well, drilled on ths Sam
 Gadbury lease, a mile. east of Jefferson the grizzled old oil wizard said there
 would be no oil, and he was right, not withstanding two small oil-producing wells in the immediate vicinity and that oil men confidently predicted this par ticular well would be gusher. On the Harry Carroll farm, a. mile and half west, the wizard located a we'll for the Manhattan Oil company, although there was not an oil well in a radius of several miles from there, and it was situated in wildcat territory. Long not only said it would be a good we'll, but stated the exact depth that oil would be encountered and within a few inches the thickness of the oil- bearing rock or sand. He positively
 states that this well is on the edge of a great oil pool, which is little to the southeast.
 This wildcat well located is now mak- ing one hundred and fifty barrels day, and the same company is putting two
 more wells on adjoining leases, and olLCl SolIPdl dlC pCiH6 dltiCStCO IO the field, which, it is believed is des- tined to outrival the famous Peru field.
 All this comes about through the ef- forts of the oil wizard, who was jeered
 at and considered a lunatic twenty
 years ago for predicting that there was oil within the boundaries of the state.
 The faith Longs farmer friends now have in him is shown by their eager
 ness to drill an abandoned well two
 hundred feet deeper as directed by the wizard
 The Manhattan Oil company drilled a we'll on the Knox farm, four miles north of Jefferson, near the wizards home. He predicted that it's production would
 be. greater than any well in the state.
 The company experienced great difficult | ty in putting down the we'll, and final ly abandoned it after reaching the reg | ulation depth, when 1t was strong | gasser. Drilling stopped two hundred | feet short of the wizards required limit, | and now a movement is on foot to drill the we'll two hundred feet deeper, as | Long strenuously contends and his fol- l lowers believe that it will result as he predicts. On many other wells he has gratuitously volunteered his predictions with great accuracy.
 1 Long Is sixty years old and bache- I Tor. Although he was born in Indiana, | he can speak English only brokenly and 1 prefers German. He admits that aside | from being able to locate oil wells he is | the most ignorant man in the country, | being unable to read or write and know | ing little of the outside world.-Terre l Haute 0nd) Telegram to the St. Louis | Post Dispatch.