The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1901-01-20

ono from the sailors standpoint. The fact
OF the matter is that til pond Is more in
tho nature Of lake Of mud than one OF oil.
But the mud is not OF the ordinary sort 1t
is almost as liquid as water still when an
an nor is dropped into It it holds vessel
as securely as II it were buried IN sand
iathoms deep But the worst feature Of this
mGd Is that IT sticks to everything It touches
and can hardly be washed of again. and
herein lies the old sailors aversion to IT
1t is not the purpose here to ssy of what
this mud is composed Anyone Interested IN
the matter must 70 there and determine for
himself. Whoever gets it splattered over
himself once, however. is likely to call It al.
most anything except what It really is. so
what is the good of it after all?
There is another thing along this gulf
shore which fer = long time has been a
mystery to those net initiated in naturs's
mysteries especially that of producing me-
Ioieum, hut which may now be made clear
since the fact is established that there is orl
in thiF part OF the land.
Every once in whilo somo old bo,tm,,
comes into Galveston, his lttlo vessel ioaded
Wl'h wax This wax so the old boatmon 4,
wcht to tell YOU. he has picked IN along ,bs
teeeees OF the gulf and the hay. Some
V'hes lie has melted It down into cakes Nm.
ot'-ReT he brings It In in rough rru1a
Jumps weighing from several ounces nm 4,
Severa' pounds. How or to whom ,bIs no..
mas been sod this writer has never .nonyrsa
ou' tina, 1t has been sold. and will be IsoId
again. is pretty sure. local n1per 80
or so ago, Just after few thousand nbn,d.
81 ms wax had been sold. contained In o..
PLANTATION of what It was, and how 4 came
TO be washed ashore In such large onsntit,e,
and the story ran about as foliowsi
Two hundred wears or so ago q ] snarish
galietn laden with doublpons and 'beesu, =,
was chased nv buccaneers in thS cn,f =,
Mexico The vessel was hard rlessed Rn,
the captain, rather than be captu1cd. N, nj.
s9ip close into the shore. sunk jit and bis
erfw and himself made their es{ap, n l,na
IN their boats This vessel. 50 H. WAS s,is
was hound for the Sranish sbttlemsr,s ~
|oriia. where the doubloorsI were 70 -
on the sold cry. and the bleswsx - ~
converted into handles for ne church
rhen the story wen, on to Sxplan how tb,.
wax found It's way to theL shore. Durlnr
heavy oasterly winds the bld hulk Al ~
bottom o. the sea in some iway shook ,tssIf
and loossned Up the bees%ax slowed in M
hold which, when liberated. rose to the sur
lace and then was driyen ashore bv ,hs
wind wy
That was the way the story won, n,
curse II was pretty story and the teller
81 en-, !, not saoW.as sieaTn from beeswax just
called It eeeswax ard Net it 60 al that But
Just new II IS only fblr 10 suppose that he
would know better ANA that he would chi,
= sierra ssasa.a!ly as IL would prove 10
.ae world that 'hers was pretty sure 10 be
49, S'lS'SIi sohe~Aeye not SO very far away,
w. - ,i,'n vas found. spd We are all o.
time Vn'"s AT tnis
~ .a, ! 'haf this so-called ''hseswax''
,n,'.., scare II rs further tart mai
49, OF poYnds Of L are washed ashore
s,o. the gulf coast every year And as
81 80, 5 lae ptoduct Of petroleum is Il NO,
- .'V 5000 proof that somewhere. near
y. s'reTm OF streams OF it gov into
q. sea laat Washes tho Texas eoastf
" =" "esF9sr this oil is good. 6aa or IN.