Arizona republican., 1902-02-28
FROM BRAKEMAN
 TO MILLIONAIRE

One who only few years ago was q brakeman on a western railroad and is now worth mere than a million dollars. is stopping at the Fifth avenue hotel.
 Aside rom smoking long and dark cigars. the c1ly expensive habit of John A. Bunting. formerly railroad Crnploye. is the maintenance of one of the handsomsst private cars in the world. It is a better coach than any which. as q brakeman. MT. Bunting had ever coupled to an engine.
 He arrived here in an ordinary sleep because his family could not come with him, and travelling alone. even in q palace on wheels. is not mere com fortable than barn. according to his way of thinking.
 MT. Bunting wishes to deny that the foundation of his material prosperity Sl7O loan on a cheap watch and q mortgage on forty acres oi cheap land.
 The common story is that he fore closed the mortgage, and in day or the real estate spouted riches.
 He is stoutly built. and has fiorid complexion. His well set shoulders show that the exercise of staying the tendency of freight cars to run down grade. is an excellent means of phys ical development
 He wears blue serge suit. d bril- liant opal scarfpin and several unos- tentatious diamond rings.
 In the pursuit of q livelihood Mir. Bunting has travelled extensively in the United States. His father was a property owner in this city. and at one time a member of the board of alder men.
 Mir. Bunting remembers that as a boy he saw Commodore Vanderbilt at tending to his ferry interests on Staten Island. He went to the Pennsylvania oil fields and then went to the Pacific slope.
 There he enga aged in railroading and went through every branch of the ser Vics-brakenan. fireman and engine driver. He denies that he ever tended water tower at Tucson. Ariz.
 Watching water run into a tank and cut again would not have been an oc- cupation to the liking of Mir. Bunting. He became president of one of the western reads and later q contractor.
 Mir. Bunting received q legacy from the estate of his father which enabled him to have q working capital He went down to Kern county. California. to bore well for water. Owing to a. misunderstanding about the terms he did not proceed with this enterprise.
 His attention was called to the pos abilities Of there being oil in Kern county. He found that gas came from certain streams. and that it burned with a steady flame. Shale was seen ?nd there were traces of bitumen on the surface.
 With the assistance of several friends 1.2G0 acres of land were purchased and the pr0SpeCtOrS began work.
 Boring an oil well is business which cannot be done on the shoestrinE basis said MT. Bunting. and that is why that story about the watch and the mortgage is ridiculous. It takes about S2O.O00 to come in on an oil well. We struck quantities of oil sand satu- rated with ? per cent of oil and began pumping.
 1T do not think much of the gushers. Gushers are mostly gas. That's what makes them Gush. We just pumped steadily 25O barrels a day or so.
 There was a doctor I knew. a friend of mine. I let him have 160 acres of land on his note at s10 an acre. Wasn't sure whether he would pay for it or not. He did and made million.
 Mir. Bunting does not like to talk q bout himself. When he speaks of the remarkable vehicle constructed for him DN b well knOWn company ne becomes enthusiastic.
 He is sorry that he did not bring iJ with him. The next time he comes to New York he says that he certainly shall travel in his own car.
 There seems to have been several misapprehensions about the affairs of Bunting. and the one which has caused | him more annoyance than any other | is the narrative of his sending in his card to the superintendent of the l Southern Pacific railroad and receiving 1 the response that there were no va Cancies. ''Nacancies," exclaimed the oil man. | according to the story, 'I don't want q | job: I wish to buy a, private car" As to the car itself. however. Bunt- | ing enters no denials. It has an ob- | servation platform, parlor finished in !