The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-07
KANSAS NEWS.
A Feature of OIL Speculation Is
the Ever Present Witch.
Pretends to Tell Where Under
ground Wealth Lies.
TENDERFOOT HIS FOOD
Superstition Aids the Man With
Mysterious Machine.
Making as Much Money as Is
Many Spectators.

Chanute. Kas., July THE witch
of the imagination is not half as
fierce as the witch of the oil fields.
The witch of the imagination is a Gre
allure intangible and not invested with
the power of collecting money, but
the witch of the oil fields is the man
who is after the money all the time
The witch is the man who says he can
ind oil by means of an instrument
They are so assertive. so apparently
confident, that they succeed in making
many converts and induce many peo-
PIE to put money into the theory.
There are several of these witches
in the Kansas field. and some of them
have reaped a harvest In an oil dis
trfct as large as this. covering an area
of millions of acres and with the larg-
est production of any state in the
union. there are many kinds OF graft
ers. but the witch is the man with the
tale which gets the nimble dollar out
of the pockets of the unwary Specu-
lstor- One of them at Chanute said
the other day that during the past
year he had located more than half
q dozen wells. and in every instance
his machine had showed the pros
pector where the oil was and the
owners of the land had reaped a har-
vest out of the investment Under the
was absolutely impossible to make a
mistake All you have to do is to
take the machine out in the field. set
1t up, and when it shows oil to drill
the ground. Just as simple as the rule
of three A machine. a piece of
ground and an oil well. Not that there
ts oil everywhere but that there is oil
wherever the machine says there is
oil.
Every capitalist who comes to the
Kansas field is the prey of the witch"
The witch feeds on tenderfeet as nat
urally as a kitten feeds on milk. The
tenderfoot is superstitious and ignor-
ant. The old experienced oil man
has been down the line and has
learned better But even some of the
old-times bite, because they know
there is no settled rule for finding oil
and that the drill is the one thing
which tells the tale
The instrument which these witches
use is very simple 1t is so simple
that il is deceptive. and serves the
very purpose for which it was intend
ed. 1t is very much like a farm jack
In appearance. There are no mystic
raouS wheels and cogS in it, no con-
fHsing rods and cranks, but a piece of
mechanism as understandable as a.
croWbar- But the spiel which goes
with the instrument is the thing. 1t
is the acme of scientific research. 1t
Is charged with magnetism from end
to end 1t is omnipotent and infaI-
Hble- 1t is all there is to anything
invited
take IL apart and see that there is no
trick to II. that it is not a fake" The
magnetic divining rod resembles a
tripod for camera more than any
tning else There is a little box at
the top and one of the legs is hollow.
SO the magnetic current can pass
through. but when the operator vraps
II under his arm and starts for the
neld he resembles an amateur photog-
rapher more than any other person.
A worcestershire. atheistic man cannot
discover the magnetism about the
thing, but he is assured that it is there
and he lets it go at that.
It would be astonishing to know how
much money these witches have ia
Ken out of Kansas within the year lust
past The vast area of oil territory the
large number of "tenderfeet" in the oil
business. the rapid development of the
oil territory, have given them an op-
portunity the like of which does not
happen often. They haunt the hotels
and when they have a prospective vic
tim on the string. first bait him with a
proposition to find location where he
viii be sure to get oil if he will give
them percentage of the output. If
this does not go then they agree to
md a location where there is oil for a
certain sum, and then this sum is re-
duced till it gets as low as SO They
work hard to get the victim properly
enthuSed, and when he is, the rest is
easy. The witch" takes him out to
the field, spreads out the les of the
instrument, ana, after as much gyra-
ton as a professional acrobat would 90
through, gravely informs the man that
he has not the proper spot. Then he
changes the spot, goes through some
more gyrations, the instrument un-
bends and reveals the location of the
precious fluid The investor has to do
the rest Some of the witches even
80 so far as to pretend to tell what
the depth of the oil sand is and how
far down it is and what kind of oil 1t
is and all that sort of thing. But the
majority of them content themselves
with simply giving &e location of OIL
Some of these people have made as
much as $4,000 in the past six months
There is man in St Louis who saws
he has a machine which will reveal the
presence of any mineral under the
ground This man made a contract with
a capitalist whereby he was to get sc5.-
600 and interest in several properties
for his time for one year. The capital
list paid $4,000, and after drilling several
holes where the machine showed the
presence of oil, gave up the job, and
the witch" sued him for the rest of
the money There is a man in the Kan
sas field who has q machine. and he
boosted the other day that he is max
ing more money than some of the oil
producers. It is not unusual for these
witches" to clean up $4,000 a year, be-
cause they are not only plausible but in
dustrious. It all depends on the amount
OF development work going on. and