The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-08-15

IN the land OF the car q few years
ago well was struck that was a mod.
ern deluge Of oil, pouring forth loo, 900
barrels per day for 40 days and 40
nights until 100000 barrels in all had
seen the light, but the Lucas gushe1
and some Of its neighboring wells are
by far the largest ever struck in the
western hemisphere. Prior to the ad-
vent OF the Lucas well the record hold.
er was the Mathews well, which was
good for 10000 barrels a day. The
Texas wells are consequently not only
the most difficult to care for from the
tankage standpoint, but there are other
complications. Ordinarily when new
fields are discovered the United Pine
Lines, a corporations that has hun
dreds Of mammoth tanks and hun
dreds Of thousands Of miles of pipe
lines. extends its lines to them at once
and pumps the oil away as fast as it is
produced. storing it in its tanks or
selling it to its alter ego, the Standard
Oil company.
Texas, however, does not love the
Standard Oil company and has enacted
certain laws designed to prevent 1t
from doing business in the Lone Star
State. When the laws were made, no
one had any idea that in q very short
time Texas would possess some of the
greatest oil wells in history. and now
that she has oil in large quantities to
sell the Standard does not seem at all
in hurry to violate the states un-
friendly statutes by purchasing it.
STANDARD agents declare that the oil
has little value, owing to the fact that
but small quantity of Illuminating oil
may be extracted from it, and the oil
trusts valuation seems to be about 20
cents per barrel. Large quantities of
the Beaumont petroleum. however,
have been sold for 35 cents per barrel
for use as fuel on rice and sugar plan
tat1ons, steamboats,, railroads and in
manufacturing establishments. The
oil is said to be better oil for gasmak-
ing than the Lima oil. and it is expect
ed that its byproducts will successfully
compete with those of the Ohio and
Indiana oils.
Producers here are not disconnected
by the attitude of the Standard Oil
company, because they know that that
company will sooner or later take a
business hand in the Texas game.
Tankage sufficient to store 100000
barrels of oil has been erected since
the Lucas well was struck, and there
are pipe lines to Port Arthur and the
sea, two facts indicating that the oil
will be disposed of to some one, Stand
ard or no Standard. In fact, there are
those who claim that despite its al
legged GOODNESS the Standard is already
doing business here under one of its
numerous aliases, a theory not at all
improbable.
AT 35 cents per barrel the Beaumont
oil sells for exactly one-third the price
received for the product of the Brad
ford oiltield-S1.05 per barrel while Ii
ona oil is worth $1.20 and Ohio, Ind-
ana and Kentucky oil about "A cents.
Colonel j. Nj. Guffey, the most noted
oil producer in the United States and
the leading spirit in the Democratic
party in Pennsylvania, is one of the
principal owners of the Lucas we'll and
has thousands of acres of other terri
tory leased near it. He and his asso-
GATES have already expended fortune
for tankage, pipe lines, etc, and if
Beaumont proves to be pool. but little
money, perhaps none. will be made.
The boom here has been over for some
time, and the majority of those who
bought land or leases at boom prices
have undoubtedly lost the money in