The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-02
Fabulous Prices Paid For
Lands and City Is CroUd-
ed With Investors.


Texas. heretofore remarkable as the
biggest state in the Union, ana the hsme
of the tough cowboy, has a new future
before it, The announcement th-t Its
plains may rival South Africa's diamond
fields, and that its swamps are yielding
gold quartz, would scarcely occasion RI
creduIity among those familiar with the
wonderful revelations concerning lis re-
sources within the past rev me nths.
1t has been revealed that tle a g s.
salt deposits in the world lie on is coas-;
that it has an inexhausti5le supply of
pure sulphur; that the surface only has
To be punctured to provide natural ga.
Iron has been discovered, AMI Oh la
been found in quantities sufficient to sup
ply the world
Cattle grazing, yellow pine numbering
and rice cultivation its leading indus
tries, already seem to belong to the past,
and the state is likely to be r~Vo.utiOn-
lied commercially and industiially In a
flash, almost. Land speculation is boom
ing at a rate that almost rivals the rise
in Northern Pacific stocks; people are
pouring in by the thousands, an capital
is coming by the millions of dollars.
OIL WELLS DID 1T.
Take for an Illustration what wcn@ers
have been worked by the di-covery Of
oil since the first Of the current year. Gas
wells or blow-outs, and oil springs lave
been regarded as freaks of nature along
the Gulf of Mexico coast for years, and
the fact that their presence poiate1 to
untold wealth beneath the sod seems 10
have impressed itself upon very few.
About dozen years ago an cd farmer
living four miles from the town of Belu-
mont sunk a we'll to set drinking water.
The gas came up in such volume that he
finally lowered a barrel to act as a rezer-
voir and stuck a pipe in the bung hole
Then he laid a line of pipe from the well
to his house and used the gas for fuel
purposes. He imagined he was a pretty
shrewd sort of a fellow, too but now
he looks upon himself as pale green
numskull. In 1898 a man, whose cogno-
men didn't fit him, for his name was
Sharp, bored the well for oil. II went
down 500 feet and gave it up. Then a
Pittsburg firm after awhile hired a drill
Ter, who bored 800 feet further, and the
oil well is now the famous Lucas oil
gusher, which is worth over O,UOO, CO.,
and pays at the rate of $4,000 day. 1t
has the record of filing the largest oil
tank in the world which has a capacity
of $1,000 barrels, in less than twelve
hours. The land around It, which used
10 sell for as low as 50 an acre, is, now
worth more than that a square foot. One
acre sold last week for SIS, co., This lies
within 200 feet Of another gusher, the
Lone Star Crescent. Four acres, 400 fe5t
to the east and south of 1t, sold for
$780,
BOOM AT BEAUMONT.
The town of Beaumont, which had O
population of 120C0 and relied upon lum-
Der to furnish the most Of it's trade, now
has a floating population of $1,000, and
everybody is getting rich. People are
even paying a dollar a night for the |
privilege of sleeping in tents. One res |
taurant keeper whose stock in trade con- |
sisted of four tables, a dozen hard boiled |
eggs and a ham, cleared over $4,000 in |
April The front yard of the leading |
hotel has been cut up into stalls six by
four feet and each space rents for so |
a month. The proprietor Of the barber |
shop in the hotel sold out his lease to an
oil company, which wanted his room for
an office, for $1,000 He then built a
frame shanty which cost him 800, and
before he had occupied 1t sold 1t for
$3.50 Hacks, surveys and almost any
kind of a vehicle that will hold three
people besides the driver have been
brought by the dozens from Galveston,
Houston, Port Arthur, Sabine and other
places and the drivers are taking in Sc
a day on the average by hauling specu-
lators to and from the oil field which
surrounds the old farmers we'll
W. II. Mcdonald, the well known St.
Paul attorney, who has recently re-
turned from a four weeks stay at Beau
mont, in talking of the oil discoveries
and his observations, says this
Although there is excitement there it
is hardly fair to speak of 1t as the oil
craze While the prices of land have
advanced fabulously and fortunes are be-
ing made in a day, the spectators and
investors are about the sanest lot Of
men 1 have ever seen. The people of
Texas are not losing their heads, either,
and there is an absence of the greed
for profit that might be expected under
the circumstances. For instance, the
leading hotel the Crosby house, only
charged me $3.50 a day when they were
turning people away by the score. Men
are sleeping in the Railways and every
corner in the house that will contain a
cot, but they are not being overcharged.
Its bar does a business of 81, 800 in twenty
four hours, but drinks are still sold two
for a quarter.
BAR STANDARD OIL.
The Standard Oil company has It's
agents there but the land owners don't
want to sell to it. The trust laws are be-
ing rigidly enforced against it. and the
attorney general is investigating the
oil companies as fast as they are being
formed to see If the Standard Oil trust
is back of them
Then take the crowd Of spectators.
There are no gamblers or confidence men
among them. The laws of Texas pro-
hibit card playing in any form, and there
are no games going on. No one seems
to get drunk, and I did not see a fight
or an angry dispute while I was there.
Men carry tens Of thousands Of dollars
in their outside pockets, yet I never
heard a robbery reported. Compare this
condition with the scenes of a mining
camp, and I think you will agree that it
is remarkable.
"Of course there was more or less wild
speculation, but the scenes in pont of
excitement would not compare with
those on change at either Chicago n,
New York when there is a c5rner on
wheat or railroad stocks are beng kited.
Option dealing, which was fast and
furious, has about run out now, and
man must be found with the gooss on
him when he makes a deal now. For
tunes were made sometimes In a few
minutes. Here's one story heard, which
shows how rapid the action was A MAJ