The age-herald., 1902-02-23

and one day made a thousand dollars myself while I was getting dinner. 1 bought a piece of land for $15,D00 and while I was eating dinner a fellow came in and offered me S16,o00 for it. 'I took 1t and few days later he got s50,OOO for it. Then a fellow held it too long and when the smash came he couldn't get $1OO for 1t.
 NO description of those times would be complete without telling something of the way folks had to live in Beaumont during those days. Hotel room was very valuable but ycu could get acconmoda- ton by paying liberally for it But you couldn get a thing to eat in the town unless you consented to be robbed for 1t.
 You had to pay a tip for every arti- cle of food you got, and a waiter wouldn't look at anything under a dollar. l have had to pay $1 for dinner and s5 to wait CT to get 1t.
 But I will say one thing for Beau mont During all this excitement rever saw a robbery or an assault. There were no gun fights and no trouble of any kind, although men went nround at all hours of the day and night with their pockets full of money
 Strike of Four Brothers.
 There are many stories of big strikes in the oil field in Texas, and one of them Is very much like the other. These strikes have all been made by men who were early on the scene, who got the land on Spindle Top as close to the Lucas gucher as possible, and who proceeded to dAll for oil without wasting their time In land speculation
 The story of the four brothers from Chicago is one of the most interesting of them all. They were all performers and conducted an entertainment bureau in Chicago.
 One of them happened to be in Texas at the time of the oil discoveries and he | hastened to Beaumont. He wired the others to send on all the savings of the four at once. and they did so without hes itation. When he asked them If they had any instructions to give, they sent back l this dispatch:
 Don't bother about details. You are | on the ground. Play ball. Be careful on | first base, but play ball.
 And he did play ball. Those four broth CTS now own several gushers on Spindle Top, and arc said to be making an enor- nous amount of money. They are among the most succe ssful of all the oil operat ors in the new field.
 The Outlook.
 It was in April, 1901, that the land spec ulating game had the bottom knocked out of 1t. It came about in this way. All the lard about Spindle Top had been bought up and was being drilled for oil. Of course there was much beating around for the sources of the surply of oil in what was supposed to be a huge basin under Spindle Top, and as oil indications had been found at Sour Lake, away to the Northwest of Spindle Top. naturally the belief was that the main stream ran in that direction. Between Spindle Top and Sour Lake the Bullock survey. or as 1t is locally known, the Bullock League, lies. and this property was gobbled up in small sections at fabulous prices. For tune after fortune vas made on this land in Beaumont street speculation, as 1t was regarded as morally certain that big finds of oil would soon be made on 1t.
 One of the principal wells sunk on this land was the Kelly-Kiser gusher. Hut the Kelly-Kiser well proved a dry hole and was deserted. and 1t was agreed that a mistake had been made about the di- rection tho oil stream ran.
 If the Kelly Kiser we'll was a dry hole, every we'll on tfe Bullock survey must be dry hole. 1t was figured. and that land which had beer held at anywhere from s50, ,00 an acre up in places, dropped down to almost nothing. And of course tho folks who happened to own 1t at that particular moment lost their money. The driIliuE has shot out in every d..