The age-herald., 1902-02-23

made and lost in land speculation than will be gained In five years in the oil bus iness there. It certainly was a lively time and almost everybody but the fel- lows who held on to the land too long profit ed.
 And some of these men will win out yet. Many of them have already formed oil companies for the working of the land they own, most reluctantly own. 1t is true, and they will probably recoup them selves by subscriptions to their cheap stock if they do not by the oil on the property.
 Patilo Higgins Idea.
 There isn't very much to say about Beaumont before the oil boom save what has already been said, that 1t was quiet lumber and rice town, with few we'll to-do men in 1t. There was a man named Patillo Higgins there, though, who was a student of geology and considerable of a hustler and who thought he saw signs of in the neighborhood.
 lr Nacogdoches county. a hundred miles away, oil had been struck before the war and good quality of lubricating and Illuminating oil had been found. With the drilling machinery they had then not more than the serface of the earth could be scraped through, and the deepest well went down only 324 feet
 After the war the wells were worked again, but the difficulty of getting the product to market discouraged the prin- cipal operators. and they deserted that particular field. It might be mentioned here that since the oil discoveries at Beaumont interest has been revived In the Nacogdoches field, and new wells are to be sunk there very soon.
 Despite the fact that Southwest ern Tex as was known to contain oil from the ex- perience of men who had been working In neighboring county, Beaumont wouldn't take Patillo Higgins seriously. It looked upon him as 0 harmless crank, and 1t laughed whenevr he went out on the prairie to study the ground.
 But by and by Higgins got one or two men interested in the oil notion, among them one Captain Lucas. who finally agreed to go out on a light ridge about four miles from Beaumont. known as Spindle Top. and bore into the earth at a point selected by Higgins as promising.
 Captain Lucas's Well.
 Beaumont looked on this venture as good joke and parties would go out to inspect the work and laugh at the work CTS. A few citizens were induced to take flyers in the venture though, and thus enough money was ralSeu 10 continue the work, but no one, not even Lucas, had much faith in the matter, especially when after days of work they got down LIDO feet into the bowels of the earth, and hadn't even struck the cap rock.
 One afternoon, after weeks of drilling on Spindle Top, Lucas and the men knocked off and went to supper. They were discouraged and worn by their work, and Lucas had seriously considered giving the thing up.
 Just as they were sitting down to sup per there came g. roar from the direction of the well, and rushing to the door the men saw a sight which filled their hearts with joy, and set them screaming with sheer happiness. From, the top of the well the oil was spouting over hundred feet in the air.
 It was coming out at the rate of 5000 barrels a day. and forming itself Into lake at the foot of the hill. It deded all efforts to stop 1t. and Lucas and his asso- ciates were in despair. They had hoped to keep it secret if they did strike oil. but they were not prepared to conceal gusher like this.
 Boomers Arrive.
 For nine days the oil gushed from the Lucas well, and on the fourth day the groat lake at the foot of the hill caught fire and lighted up the country for miles around. That was the last straw. All Texas knew then that oil had been struck at Beaumont and the excitement