Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-04-26

but he managed to raise three .thous-
and dollars on note by promising to
give the lender one-half OF the pro-
ceeds. The three thousand sufflced to
put down three wells, two of which
We're profitably productive, while the
third was a gusher. 1t is said that
within year of the time he borrowed
the money Chanslor paid the man who
loaned it to him $17S,000 which repre-
sents a very good rate Of interest even
in California.
Chanslor and hispartner were among
the first prospectors of the Kern river
district They bought up as much
land as they could secure and were
among those who obtained land from
the Southern Pacific at $3.50 per acre,
which they would not part with for
less than $4,000 per acre. Chanslor
owns some of the finest wells in the
Kern river district and is in a fair way
to become one of the richest men in
the country.
There are hundreds of stories less
remarkable than this only in degree
going the rounds in Bakersfield and
the town is made with oil excitement.
1t is lively town nowadays in which
every Kind Of gambling game is run
wide open. Day laborers are receiv-
ing ten and twelve dollars for ten
hours work and hotel prices make the
Waldorf-Astoria seem cheap in COM
parison. Nobody in Bakersfield be-
lieves that the oil lands have reached
the limit of their real value as yet, and
great deal of land speculation is go
ing on. So we'll informed man as
Mr.. G. A. Garfield said recently that
100000 per acre was a conservative
estimate for the real value of the land
within the proved district. Should
the production of wells come up to the
estimates of the oil experts who have
examined them. the value of the ter
ritory already exploited will amount
to something like $500, 100000.
There is a side to the California oil
discoveries which renders them of wide
spread Importance. This is the prob.
ability Or the future development OF
OIL as fuel None of the oil taker
from the California fields is refined fol
Illuminating purposes, but a wide field
of usefulness is being found for it as 4
substitute for coal. for heating, anc
steam making purposes. Already the
Southern Pacific and Santa Fe rail
roads are using it in nearly all theil
locomotives in California as fuel
These two companies alone are using
a hundred thousand barrels of oil &
month fo. this purpose and the Santa
Fe road recently placed an advance
order for 1,250,000 barrels for futur,
delivery. In addition to this the SUI
ar beet factories and other manufac
turine plants of California are rapid.
! replacing coal with oil, and its use
for this purpose are likely to create
steady and strong demand for all tn
oil produced in the California fields 70
many years to come. The great diff
Guilty that has heretofore retarded tn
industrial development of California
has been the high price of fuel. Goa
costs on the average about $3.50 pc
ton. Under present conditions oi
sells at from $1.0O to SLIPS per barrel
and $3.50 worth Of oil will do the worl
of Ton of coal. and in the opinion o
many persons will do it better thai
the coal itself. The oil market, there
fore, promises to make it's own marke
and to prove of the greatest import
ance to the whole Pacific coast regio
in encouraging its industrial develop
ment and making ii one of the grea
manufacturing centers of the Unite
States.