New-York tribune., 1901-06-02
BEAUMONT QUIETS DOWN.
THE GREAT OIL BOOM HAS GONE
ASTRAY, PERHAPS IN SEARCH
OF A MARKET
OF A MARKET.

Beaumont. Tex. June (speciaD.-Beaumont's
great oil boom has gone astray. and a fortune
awaits the man who will bring it back TO the
crooked path streets of this aspiring village
The thing overdone at the start. and now
hundreds of spectators hang dejeetedly around
the Crosby House and the little pine shanty known
as the Oil Exchange, where were the centres Of
excitement d month ago.
Three elements of uncertainty have knocked the
bottom out of the boom-narneIy. the extent OF the
oil sands the question of market for so vast a
quantity of fuel OIL and the attitude of the Stand
ard Oil Company. And not the least of these is the
Standard Oil conundrum. Wiseacres assert boldly
that this and that and the other thing are the
handiwOrk of the Standard. but one wiseacre diff
fereth widely from another in his statements and
surnlses and the truth OF the situation refuses
reveal itself
Except for those who got in at top prices. it is
lust as well that speculation has been killed The
situation was perilous. Now il can work itself out
on legitimate lines. There is a greater production
of petroleum in sight here than the world has ever
known and fresh successes at the drill tend TO
firm the estimate that the Beaumont field will
start with a production of from four hundred
thousand to five hundred thousand barrels a day.
Fortunes? Why, such flow means wealth untold
some time But for the present the man who
owns a black vomiting well that at the turn of a
valve will throw a six or eight inch stream OF
oil a hundred feet in the air. can, if so minded.
amuse himself the public by turning the geysers
on. After you have caught your hare it is well
10 have a fire and pot to cook it with An oil
field without market is almost as bad as no oil!
field.
CAPITAL NEEDED NOW.
So it comes that the Spectators are detected
Money is not to be made here in the way that most
people started cut to make it in the early days
OF the excitement The heavy capitalist is the man
who will win out At present prices IL requires
$4,000 TO $4,000 10 bore we'll Hundreds OF
thousands will have 10 be expended before any
large proportion of the product can be disposed or
More than four hundred corporations have been
formed for the ostensible purpose Of producing and
dealing in Texas oil. Many Of them are legitimate
and have fair prospect of success Others were
created solely for the purpose of floating the stock
and their have been sold all over the United
States.
The trick was easily done. Twenty-four hours
are enough under Texas laws in which TO create a
full fedged corporation and get it fairly under way
in business. This, too. Notwithstanding the fact
that the Lone Star State is famous. or perhaps
notorious for its rabid anti-corpOration statutes
A single instance of this rapidity of action will
suffice Two men from Colorado landed here on
the evening train one day in the height OF the BOOM
That night they corraIed rice farmer who had
lands to sell and at midnight were deep In maps
and title deeds, BY the next evening corporate
charter had been secured. the property acquired.
officers elected. stock placed on the market. and
flaming advertisements placed by telegraph in all
the leading cities of The country
usually consisted OF options or leases on lands re-
mote from the proved oil district The advertise
ments judiciousiy worded. When distances
from the gushers were too great figures were
avoided and whe2 small enough TO be stated safe
Iy they given for the sake of euphony in feet
rather than miles II sounded better TO say that
the Sure Thing Company had acquired tract
Il 900 feet from the Lucas gusher than to put IL
bIuntly that II had option on an acre or two,
with unsearched title. three miles from the
nearest we'll Title deeds. by the way. usually
express distances here in ''varas, the vara being
Spanish unit Of measure equal to about thirty .
four inches.
SOME FASCINATING FIGURES.
With legitimate companies also the rapidity with
which things were accomplished was one of the
fascinating features of early transactions. In one
case a well just outside the 'gusherr district
showed marked symptoms of oil when the drill
had reached a depth OF five hundred feet.
prominent young oil man got forty-eight hour
option on the well for $4,000 He formed a
pany had the charter filed. and all the details OF
organization effected marketed the stock and
closed the deal inside the forty-eight hours. The
project was considered good gamble and buy
ers of the stock fairly tumbed over another in
their efforts to invest. Ii is now known that the
drill Is several hundred feet below level of the
as dry as tiuder box The company IS a legitt-
mate one. however. with strong men in it, and
they have determined 10 carry the drill down
= 500 feet, or InOre than double the depth of the
Lucas well. if necessary
have profted enormously by the excitement. Money
has flowed into the town. The two banks have in
bv a trust company At times as much as 81 5n00Ol
in cash has passed over their counters in a single
Every form of Industry has prosDered to an un-
heard of degree-the butcher the ba ker the livery
keeper and the hack driver. Buildings are being
rushed through 70 completion The postal clerks
and the telegraph operators have been over
the town ard spoil tts streets seemed to centre in
Sse1utnoht ~ was a rich harvest while il lasted