The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1901-07-27

Experiences Of an American OIL Drill
ier en- tire frrs~s6dy.
From The Pssrsburx Leader


Errawsddy. in Burmah- Is not very
the Allegheny Approaching from
the river the green Of the trees Is
snrmounted By forest OF oil derriekz
exactly Ike the ones that disngure
50 many Western Pennsylvania lands
eapes. for they are built By Western
Pennsylvania men The Burmah OH
company seeks its skilled labor in
this country. and s. c. Sampson.
drilier. whose home is in Pittsburg.
is one Of the Americans who has been
in the employ Of the company for q
long period Mr. Sampson. who went
10 Burmah for the first time in 1856,
is home AZ present and tells Of his
| interesting experiences ON the IRA
Eaddy.
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
present seaport. It is quite a typical
oil town. for there are about $50 wells
in the neighborhood. and in the town
there are about twenty Americans
They are in the employ of the Bur
nah Oil Company. which is Burmese
corporation. though the head Of the
company is in Glasgow.
Mr.. Sampson says that drilling in
Burmah is much like drilling on San
dy creek. except that in America he
would have someone to do most OF
| the heavy work for him and out there
he had 10 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 boil
ers. and seem TO do that kind OF work
very we'll But they can only do the
rough work, unskilled work about Inc
engine or derrick, and the white man
in charge has to work very hard.
The country is under British rule.
and English is spoken a little in the
larger towns. but everywhere else 1t
is necessary to understand a little
| Burmese or Hindoostan in order to
get about comfortably Mr.. Sampson
has learned so much Burmese as per
tains to oil wells. and can tell his
4 men how he wants a piece of work
done; but he has no knowledge OF the
language in general.
The coolies who work about the
wells are either Burmese or Indians.
The Burmese are a yellow race, thick
Tipped. while the Indians are darker
and with more delicate features.
Handsome? Well no. | couldn't
call them that said Mr.. Sampson.
They are too dirty for that. but their
noses are small instead of fiat, like
the Burmese. and their lips are thin
ner. They never seem to learn much
about machinery. They don't have
the ambition TO go into any sort of
business enterprise; if they have
enough to eat they are satisfied; they
don't need much in the way of cloth
ing.
But they are dirty lot. They
have epidemics of cholera or small
pox there every once in a while. and
there are lots of lepers. No one
thinks much about these things there.
Over here a smallpox patient viii
cause a panic; but in Burmah people
i GO round among smallpox victims and
never worry about it at all. IL they
| catch it they catch il, and they can't
guard against it very we'll. The Brit
ish government tries to enforce quar-
antine but the people are so dirty
there is no use in it. OF course. we
all got vaccinated The Burmese peo-
pie yaccinate their children; they do
il with the virus from sick people.
aud. of course. il gives the children
a mild attack: II Kills a good many of
them
And there are lepers everywhere:
nobody minds them at all. though they
are horrible to look at, | have been
among them and rubbed clothes with
them.
While | was out there stayed
pretty steadily at work. and didn't
travel around much. | didn't go hun
ting at all. though there is plenty OF
game not very far away. There are
wild elephants fifty or sixty miles
north of our place. A friend OF
mine shot several of them. and a
/ tiger and several cheetahs. A chez
tab is kind of small leopard. and
there are a great many of them in
Il Burmah
/ And there are plenty of snakes,
too: we have those in the town where
| lived. Yes. some of them are big;
1 | killed a milk snake ten feet long:
but it is the little ones that do the
harm. Cobras and vipers are only
four feet long or so. but they are two
inches thick over almost their whole
i length: about three inches nearest
the tail, which tapers down to point.
i They have a 1Iamond-shaped head.
aud they are very poisonous.
The cobras have a hood that they
swell up when they are going to bite:
but neither of the snakes gives any
warning before it strikes; there is
10 rattle. nor anything like that. II
Won step on a cobra ii bites you: and
Il it draws blood you win be dead in
twenty minutes, and nothing can save
| -ou Thirty thousand people die in
india every year from snakes and
Wild animals. and the British govern
ment offers standing offer of e15.-
100 for the discovery OF an antidote
Cor the eobra's bite That is enough
TO tempt any man. but the reward
| ,oes unclaimed.
There are white ants there. too.
They keep eating away the timbers Of
The derricks. The only thing you can
10 is 10 keep replacing the timbers as
fast as they eat them
The soil out there is the meanest
ever drilled in. There Is so much