The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-07
THE GREAT OIL Elk e111n1n1

favorite topics" Of the big newspapers.
They ring the changes upon it. 1t is
an immense thing cry some. It is pos
sibly a humbug. or SELL" a craze say
others. Which is it? 1t looks as IL
there had been discoveries made of a
character to gender enthusiasm and
arouse expectations. There is excite
ment all over the great state and ever
Louisiana has caught the infection.
The oil gamblers are crowding in, and
the promise is for big things ahead.
The area of the oil field, it is supposed
now. will cover 10000 square miles-a
big field indeed. Beaumont is the CEN
tire of the furore, and it is not far from
the Louisiana line. and not distant
from the Gulf of Mexico. Whether the
area is so great as reported, or one
half, or o~ne-fourth, or one-tenth, it is
an important matter. 1t may do won
ders for Texas and make it greater in
manufacturing as in other resources. 1t
is impossible to do more than speculate
with the pencil now while the oil gam
blers are out there specializing in
chances. 1t will, we hope. turn out so
as to equal all hopes and calculations.
1t is known hat one great monopoly
in the United States, the STANDARD
Oil Company, and one is Russia, furn-
ishes the oil for the civilized world. The
Russian is owned by the rich Roths-
childs. It is stated that up to a few
days 6 there had been found in Texas
ia oil corporations. These companies
range widely in reported means-from
$4,000 to S., 900, 900. There is a vast
amount of none in this country and
hundreds of millions can easily be
placed in Texas if the oil are
genuine and will hold out. Whether
the oil shall prove an excellent illu-
minant or only good fuel, it will be
highly profitable if the supply is as re-
ported. The Savannah News says that
the South Atlantic and Gulf states
alone burn 100, 900 tons of coal in a veal
1t has been estimated. Oil it is said to
be from 20 to so per cent. cheaper than
coal, and by means of pipe lines and
tank steamers it can be transported
NASAS Nlio SooI. IL Io"-
est cost, it is practically sure, would be
sufficient to induce owners of mills,
locomotives, steamboats,, ETC., to change
their furnaces from coal burners to oil
burners. In their present developed
condition it is claimed the Texas fields
can produce 300, 900 barrels of oil a year
Three to our barrels of oil equal one
ton of coal in heating capacity; thus
there is at present an oil supply almost
equal to the consumption of coal in he
south"
1t was reported two or three DAYS
ago that a purchase had been made for
t h Standard Oil Company The &C
count is hat 10000 acres were Sc
cured by a legal representative Mr.. w.
J. McKie. The following is significant
that the purchase Of the Standard
Oil Company is SO located at or near
Port Arthur that the result will be that
it control every barrel of Oil TAX
en- from the field"
The New York Evening Post refers
to h "oil craze and thinks a great
deal of the bogus is found out there
now. When we read Of "oil compan-
les it is only lean that they organ
lie but are not actually producing oil.
We copy a paragraph from it's column
editorial that may arouse suspicion. 1t
says:
Out of ninteen companies whose
shares are advertised in the Daily
Morning News of April 23rd. not n
claims to have IN oil we'll. G Of
them say that they control lands in
fee simple, or by lease, near the Lucas
gusher," or in some other attractive
field Some of them, however. omit
to mention any particular field. Thus,
the United Oil Company Of Texas and
Louisiana" proclaims to confding in
vestors that it owns eighty acres OF
the best proved oil lands in h world
but it does not say where they are sit
uated. nor does it mention the amount
of its capital stock. Only a small
amount of stock is offered for sale at
rs cents per share, the parvalue being
81. 0 {. The excitement has not ex-
tended to the east in any marked de-
gree as yet, but it may be expected to
break out here soon. In Texas it has
assumed all the phases of a craze like
the tulip mania of Holland, the Mis-
sissippi bubble of France, the South
Sea bubble of England, and the oil
craze of Pennsylvania in the latter
sixties"