The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-07-06

well, saw that things We're comm lGy
way | seat out my Invitations TO
friends in New York, Boston, Philadel-
phia, P;ttsburg, HaTi isnurg, Buffalo.
Rochester, Syracuse, Elmira, Scranton
and dozens of other cities and towns,
includin, of course, kolzoIno and kala-
mazoo- As fast as steam and rail could
fetch my guests they were on hand.
The whole country was simply black
with people tockin to the Lickshingle
celebration The Paris exposition of
1900? 1t went he in it Ny guests
kept pourin in
"In the meantime my oil wells and
Gas wells and turpentine wells kept
comm in by twos, by threes, by dozens,
by troops And every one Of 'em was a
spouter. Il shorter, Il Nesuvius | never
saw so much oil Oil was everywhere.
1t was spouting sky high. 1t was film
the valleys. 1t was greasin the uni
verse More sightseers kept comm.
hotels, boardin houses, farmhOuses,
opera houses, meetin houses, school
houses, were full and overfowin. And
| lily oil wells kept comm in. Every -
minutes | struck oil. Such an oleagi-
nous era the world had never seen.
1.-The next day was the Fourth OF
| July. The last of my wells reached the
| pav streak and came in with a roar like
| Niagara. and yet with a harmonious
sound, and, listenin closely, you could
| detect in the noise Of the cscapin oil
and gas the strains of Yankee Doc
die
It was suggested to grandfather that
it must have been a magnificent specta-
Gle to see these scores and hundreds 81
wells srOuting their product to heaven
/ why, that was no spectacle at all
mat wasn't what I had prepared for
| lAy tens of thousands of admlTln
+ friends It was this whole aggregation
and confederation touched off with
| iiery homb--this world of oil on fire
! that | had invited them there to behold
! and marve! at
The next day. as l said, was to be
the Fourth of July. Like the man with
the cattle On the thousand hills, l as
semb!ed NY friends on the mountain
tops to witness the grandest, subllmest,
most awe inspirin illumination and
| fireworks that ever was or ever Will be
beheld until the m0rnin stars sing to-
gether
my thousands upon thousands Of
friends were crowded together on the
hills tiptoe with expectation | had my
trusty shot gun charged, from which |
was to shoot hlaZin balls into one Of the
spoutin wells and thus ignite the whole
ball of wax. so to speak 1t was con-
ception worthy of the greatest brain
that ever throbhed AerXoS. Alexander,
Casar-none Of the old boys-was ever
stirred with such a gigantic thought
And it was all my own The fever Of
expectancy rose in my friends on the
hilltops until | could hear their pulses
beat like trip hammers The alr was -
heavy with hush that an eagle got stall
al in it and fell strnsglin at my feet
An ea.Ie-the bird OF ffsccom, The
bird Of the Fourth Of JulyF Was it al
omen! l slivered
Il took from my poet d BIT Of pa
per upon which had scrubbed sos.e
notes and jotted down some statistics
from which l proposed maxim W
remarks suitable to the occasion L1dEe
of my surprise Of my Amusement. ot
my horror. 10 find il the first GLANCE AZ
my data. that in the eXcit t!neut and
patriotic fervor Of the occasion We had
actually allowed tn Torrth Of J1ly e
slip by. and that il was then adu;,t the
10th. No wonder the ca=le fell 10
wonder shiverel The discovery para
lived me. I was eJl1 was numb
xras ilarrifi,z,1