Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-15
BURMAH NOT A PARADISE.
Experiences of an American Oil Drill
err on the Irrnwaddy.
From the pfttshury leader

Experiences of an American Oil Drill
err on the Irrnwaddy.
| From the Pittsburg Leader.
Except for a cocoanut palm here and
there and good deal of bamboo about the
houses, an oil town on the 1rrawaddy. in
Burmah, is not very different in appear
| ance from one on the Allegheny. Approach
ing from the river the green Of the trees is
| surnounted by forest of oil derricks, ex-
| actly like the ones that disfgure many
western Pennsylvania landscapes-for they
| are built by western Pennsylvania men.
| The Burmah Oil Company seeks its skilled
| labor in this country, and S. c. Sampson,
| drller whose home is in Pittsburg, is one
| of the Americans who has been in the en-
| ploy of the company for a long period. Mr..
| Sampson, who went to Burmah for the first
/ time in 1896. is home at present, and tells
of his interesting experiences on the IRA
waddy.
| The town of Yenang-Yat, in which Mr..
| Sampson has been working, is in lower
| Burmah, on the Irrawaddy river, 700 miles
| from Rangoon the nearest seaport. 1t is
| quite typical oil town, for there are about
| 100 wells in the neighborhood, and in the
| town there are about twenty Americans.
| They are in the employ of the Burmah Oil
| Company, which is Burmese corporation,
| though the head of the company is in
| Glasgow
| Mr.. Sampson says that drilling in Bur-
| nah is much like drilling on Sandy creek,
| except that in America he would have
| some one to do most of the heavy work for
| him and out there he had to do it himself
| The coolies do not seem to be able to learn
| how to run well themselves, though In
| dams fire and take care of the boilers, and
| seem to do that kind of work very we'll
| But they can only do the rough, unskilled
work about the engine derrick, and the
white man in charge has to work very
! hard.
rha &c Itch, r,,1n oyd
| English is spoken a little in the larger
| towns. but everywhere else it is necessary
| to understand little Burmese or Hindoo
| stan in order to get about comfortably. Mr..
| Sampson has learned much Burmese as
| pertains to oil wells, and can tell his men
| how he wants a piece of work done; but he
| has no thorough knowledge of the language
| in general
| The coolies who work about the wells are
either Burmese or Indians. The Burmese
| are a yellow, thick-lipped race, while the
| Indians are darker and with more delicate
| features.
'Handsome7 Well, no, I couldn't call
| them that" says Mr.. Sampson. "They are
| too dirty for that, but their noses are small
| instead of fiat. like the Burmese, and their
| lips are thinner. The Indians working on
| the wells are of the class We call bumpers
| over here. They never seem to learn much
! about machinery. They don't have the am
| bition to go into any sort of business enter
prise; if they have enough to eat they are
satisfied; they don't need much in the way
| of clothing.
But they are a dirty lot They have
| epidemics of cholera or smallpox there
| every once in while, and there are lots
| of lepers. No one thinks much about these
things there. Over here smallpox patient
! will cause a panic; but In Burmah people
go around among smallpox victims and
never worry about it at all. II they catch
1t they catch it, and they can't guard
against it very we'll The British govern
ment tries to enforce quarantine, but the
co G
course, We all got vaccinated. The Burmese
people vaccinate their children; they do 1t
with the virus from sick people, and, of
course, it gives the children mild attack;
1t kills a good many of them.
And there are lepers- everywhere; no.
body minds them at all, though they are
horrible to look at. 1 have been among
them and rubbed clothes with them.
while I was out there 1 stayed pretty
steadily at work, and didn't travel around
much. didn't go hunting at all. though
there is plenty of game not very far away.
There are wild elephants fifty or sixty
miles north of our place. friend of mine
shot several Of them, and a tiger and sew
eral cheetahs. A cheetah is a kind of
small leopard, and there are a great many
of them in Burmah.
"And there plenty Of snakes, too; we
have those in the town where l lived. Yes,
some of them are big; killed a milk snake
ten feet long; but it is the little ones that
do the harm. Cobras and vipers are only
four or five feet long. but if they bite you.
1t is sure death. These vipers are only four
feet long or So but they are two inches
thick over almost their whole length; about
three inches nearest the tail, which tapers
down to a point. They have a diamond
shaped head, and they are very poisonous
THE cobras have hood that they swell
up when they are going to bite; but neither
Of the snakes gives any warning before it
strikes; there Is no rattle, nor anything
like that. If you step on a cobra it bites
you; and If it draws blood you will be dead
In twenty minutes and nothing can save
you. Thirty thousand people die in India
every year from snakes and wild animals
and the British government offers a stand
Ing reward Of f15,0O0 for the discovery Of
an antidote for the cobra's bite. That is
enough to tempt any man; but the reward
goes unclaimed.
There are white ants there, too They
keep eating away the timbers Of the der
ricl1s The only thing you can do is to keep
replacing the timbers as fast as they eat
them.
1.-The soil out there is the meanest I ever
drilled In. There Is so much blue clay, and
so much water comes into the hole that
you have to keep putting down pipe to keep
But the country is something like des-
ert there; 1t is very dry. We have three
months winter there, when the Temperature
does not get lower than 90, and nine months
hot weather. W hen it runs up to 100 in the
shade. There is no rainy season there
Down in Rangoon 1t rains pretty steadily
through three months in the summer; but
we only have occasional showers in that
time up where We were.
I'VE only. work eight hours a day We
work from 6 to 10 in the morning and from
j to In the afternoon. From 10 to / we
rest and stay in the shade. It is too hot to
work BY 1 it begins to cool little 1
wouldn't want to live in that country all
the time. 1t is too hot. 1 have not vet dahs
cided whether shall go back again or moi
l would never go because 1 liked it. 1t
would only be for the money there Is in
it."
Use of Nettles.
From Longman's Magazine.
Nettles are as rural remedy highly cal
culated, I should say, to make the patient