The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-31
FREDDY'S INTERCOLLEGIATE
HE DRANK a QUART OF 1T AND THEN
WAS CALLED AWAY FROM HOME.
Remarkable story Told i'm the Oil
Exchange by n Broker tn an limo
cent Young New Yorker.
New York Times.

New York Times.
The big bell of the Oil Exchange at Oil
City, Pa. ~interrupting with its brass note
the unfinished business of the day, scat
tered the ringside- But instead of hurrying
off for suburban or out-of-town homes the
brokers gathered about the windows, APP
parently awaiting some event of which
they had whispered and whose shadow had
been discerned in the s~hadowless room by
those skilled in reading the signs of such
things.
The man who had been trying with the
full vigor of sound lungs TO sell three for
IS crossed to one whose white hair was in
contrast to his youthful and sad face.
Harvey he asked. what's Frank
Bowen up TO now?'
"Oh, it's his same little game" Harvey
replied. "a practical joke. You see. there's
a young writer visiting him from the wicked
Isle of Manhattan. He's confded in Frank
in an unguarded moment that he thinks
there's miles of unwritten history and ro-
nance kicking about the oil regions and
that he is going TO write it. So Frank told
him that the exchange was the best place
to get it. The boys commonly talk it after
business hours. So Franks brought him
here to get some unwritten romance"
"Unwritten romance?'
"Unwritten romance-the romance of the
Gil regions. Wen give it to him at first
kand."
The two joined the others about Frank
Bowen and his pale young guest from the
wild isle of Manhattan" The face of the
host was grave. He might have been as
sisting at a funeral. For a time the talk
was general. Finally some one spoke of
Th0 daQT0nc a In fh0 m M n rIN nf nifrn-
glycerin for the shooting of oil wells. Har-
vey Rathbun seized the remark as a long
awaited cue.
Ibid l ever tell you fellows of how little
Freddy Blake swallowed a quart of nitro
glycerin and was called shortly afterward
to his heavenly homer" he asked, with a
deep and wicked look at Bowen.
The eye of the stranger glittered. He
was now to hear unwritten history. Fur
lively he prepared his cuffs to serve as
notebooks.
Drive ahead. Harvey" chorused the
group.
Slowly and sadly Harvey began:
1T was long in the eighties, some time
when the Ball lease opened up big. You
remember the time, Frank. They put down
a test we'll and got a big strike of oil. You
know"-he explained to the stranger
after a well has been drilled to the bot
tom down through the earth, they pour
many Quarts of the powerful explosive
explode it. This prepares the well for
production.
PRELIMINARY FACTS.
well. as the Ball lease opened big,
they decided to have a shooter on the
ground all the time, so that the wells could
be shot, as they call it, when they were
finished with as little loss Of time as pos
sible. John Blake was a we'll shooter. To
him the manager of the lease went with a
liberal proposition that he live on the lease.
Blake hesitated.
"You see.' he said. we we'll shooters
are liable to be blown into hell at any mo-
ment, and l don't want to be separated
from my family any more than is abso-
lutely necessary. If you'll put up a shanty
on the lease FOR the ole woman I'll Go it,
Blake was a good anon of the best
itate.
That's how little Freddy came to live
on the Ball lease. For a time all went well
with the Blake family. Little Freddy
played about the lease enjoying his coun-
try living. He was a reA knowing little
cuss. and seemed greatly interested in his
fathers dangerous calling. Why, the lit
tie fellow would dig holes in the ground
and shoot 'em with his fire crackers.
Me wants 20 be a we'll shooter, like
papa he would say.
One fine morning, Blake had a number of
wells to shoot. For this he had big quan-
titles OF the explosive stored on the place.
He had shot a couple of wells and was
hneeInS at a WelSlde lowering the tin
tubeful into the hole, when a heavy explo-
sion occurred away down on the other end
of the lease: Blake was alarmed. So much
of the stuff was about that he feared a
big accident. He started off. Forgetting a
can that was half full that he left on the
derrick floor. Blake found that the ex-
plosion was nothing but some nearly empty
cans IN the woods, and was returning to
the we'll he had been working on when he
saw Freddy approaching.
me thirsty Blake heard him saw as
he raised to his Inns the can his father hal
left there.
Blake shouted. but Freddy didn't seem
10 near. When his agonized father got UP
to the we'll Freddy had drained the can
OF its nitroglycerin;
lisped.
you've done IL now, Freddy his father
groaned, you're a living torpedo
Blake picked up his son and started on
q run for his shanty. Then. realizing that
the slightest jar would set his son off into
bits, he stopped. Freddy wriggled In his
arms.
peated.
BE stillr roared Blake. MY son.
you're a living torpedo. and the slightest
he said.
AT last Blake got to his shanty. How
he got there he never knew.
"'Freddy's swallowed a pin of nitro
glycerin,' he told his wife.
she reached for a long stick that to
Freddy stood for moral suasion.
You wicked boyv she cried. I've a.
big mind 10 whip you hard
For Gods sake, do nothing Of the
kind! shouted Blake. He'll explode IL Won
do
UNCERTAIN THINGS.
by this time the news of Freddy's con-
dition had spread all over the lease. The
men there gathered at a safe distance from
Blake's shanty. They wanted TO show
their sympathy. but they didn't dare ven-
ture on anything more than a distant ex-
preston of It.
You see. it's this way explained one
OF them. Nitro is unsartin stuff, a small
boy is-unsartain. but the two Of them to-
sether are-unsartain.'
However, they were willing 70 telephone
to Oil City for a physician from the lease
office, and this they did. "A stomach pump
and a physician was their message.
While poor Blake and his wife were wait
ing for the uoctor they had great trouble
in keeping Freddy still.
Me wants TO shoot a WE'LL he kept
saying.
FINALLY his father promises that he
should If he would only keep quiet and lie
still. After that he lay quite still with an
angels smile on his lips. Out on the grass