The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1903-07-25
WATCH the HEAD DallLERS."
l;N-GOv. HOgg Gives Some
Timely Advice to Prospec-
tive Oil Operators.

Welsh Journal
The following interview with ex-Gov-
Iiogg was published in the Galveston
News during the ex-governor trip through
the rice and oil belts of Louisiana and
Texas last week. and should be read and
carefully considered by every person who
is DESTROYS of seeing the Welsh field
thoroughly developed. Similar conditions
exist in this field and will exist in all new
fields as long as the DIR llers allowed to
he tempered with by che trusts agents:
..Whenever you find that Guffey x Galley
have bored for oil and, after abandoning
such wells, continue to pay lease money on
the land, you can come pretty near being on
the safe side if you buy land as close as
possible TO such a weil,' was the advice
gwen by Ex-Governor Hogg to party OF
friends this morning. ''Guftev 4 Galley
have never been known TO open up new
iicld,' continued the eNchief executive,
s.and do not believe they ever will. Take
the Sour Lake field, for Instance. They
had a lease there large body of land.
They bored and ostensibly abandoned the
field. Some friends of mine purchased the
land subject to the lease. They then
brought suit against Guffey * Galley to alb
rogate the lease given. The matter was
gotten in the courts and the head drIiler for
that firm, when he was placed on the stand
was forced to admit that he did not bring
in oil we'll because he had orders not l."
do so, and not because he could not have
done so. In this instance the lease was
Cancelled by the courts.
s.Ol we'll drillers all pretty much
alike, too. Unless one watches them like
a hawk and unless the person having the
drilling done has very good working idea
Of oil wells he is very apt 10 get the worst
end of the deal. Take the HoSg Swayne
tract Oh Spindle Top, for instance. When
we bought this trac; were toll that II
was out Of the oil territory. We hired an
experienced driller to sink well tor us.
Some of my colleagues were suspicious
from the very jump and there was not
minute when the rotary was working that
we did no, have som one at the well
watching the progress At the depth or
something over goo feet there was Il flash of
oil out Of the we'll. Instead of stopping to
bail the driller proceeded to put more
pressure and sent the drill further down.
One of my colleagues was exasperated at
this and it was only by hard work that we
KEEP. him from acting like he felt. But
enough oil had escaped from the we'll 10
convince us that there was oil to be found
on our land. The driler sent the we'll
deeper and deeper until 1910 feet was
reached, when the oil shot out of the we'll
in an instant and we then knew that not
withstantlinr any assertions that were made
we had our land proven. do not believe
that we would have developed this well had
it not been for the fact that when the
eusher did come in it came without warn
ing.
.sTake the case on Arnold mound, in
Brazoria. There we have a well that is
flowing 20 barrels per day of oil that we are
selling for 81 per barrel. Our field man
there was Underwood, who has learned all
there is to know about the oil business.
He knew what to be found. When
the log of the we'll showed that depth
where he expected the oil to DE found was
reached he insisted upon stopping drilling
and then bail. The driller would not
listen to this. He sank his pipe as deep as
the contract called for and then pulled up
stakes and left With the aid of some
green hands Underwood managed to pull
would be found, and now we have we'll
lowing 20 barrels of the finest oil in Texas. !
believe the output would be 100 barrels a
lay and perhaps more if the we'll was not
crippled one.
81 know of we'll authenticated cases
where we'll ,lrillers have turned operators |
md have made fortunes by returning to
,banIone,l wells they had put down five or
en- years before and then develop them. |
Such instances common that they |
ire almost the rule, not the exception.
Elm this connection my observation has
auuht me that deaf men are always honest
men. If they not as straight as die
hey learned their crookehness before they
became deaf. See the point?'
What Kin. Peter Didn't Say.
Chicago Tribune.
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