The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-12
PRINCE OF SPENDTHRIFTS.
PACE THAT "COAL OIL JOHNNY,
 SET THIRTK YEARS AGO.

His Appearance at the oil Towns of
 Western nsyIvania-Conquest of
 PhiIadelphia-GambIing at Saratoga
 When All of His Money Had Been
 squandered.
 In the intoxication of suddenly ac- Quired wealth, three hundred thousand dollars in hand and an income of three thousand dollars a week from old and new leases on the Widow McClintock farm, John w. Steele resolved to reveal his opulence to the world, to see every thing In it, and by no means through a smoked glass. In his ignorance, for he could not do much more than write his name, says the Philadelphia Telegraph, he saw in the fortune only the oppor- tunity for personal display, and he suddenly burst with butterfly radiance into grimy Housewife, the nearest town to the old homestead, teaming with all conditions of men, honestly or dishon- estly bent on eating at Dives table or scraping up the crumbs of gold that fell around it.
 But for this young Croesus this town was but pent-up Utica. Thence to Ttusville and Oil City, and finally to Pittsburg, where he first found an orbit large enough to spread his wings. A fere chronology of his public acts com prehends his whole history. He ap- \ peared to the guests of the old Monon- gahela house in coat of blue velvet, giving the head waiter who had ush- cred him to a seat hundred dollar bill and his immediate servitor a fifty when he put down the soup, and sec ond fifty when the meal was finished, and that obsequious person asked: ''Is that all, sir?"
 His first public sensation was at a music hall when he stepped from his box to the stage and said to the black face comedian: Sing that again, and. here is thousand" From this resort he drove to the Sanitary Fair being held in one of the large halls, reaching the floor as some one was faking a pa. triotic appeal flor the contribution of one days income!" Here you are, sir and pushing through gasping crowd which easily parted he handed up five five hundded dollar bills What name, sir?'' Put 1t down to Coal Oil Johnny :" thus coining the sobriquet which was never effaced. He was recognized by Venango man. John, we want a soldiers monument in Franklin Steele searched his pockets. That is all the change I have," and he passed over twenty % eight hundred dollars It is said that, saving the monument at Girard, in Erie county. toward which Dan Rice contributed five thousand dollars, this was the first memorial raised in this state to the fallen heroes.
 Along his less reprehensible diver sioris were his princely gifts to concert saloon dancers and ministel perform ers, for whom he had a special liking Meeting Cool Burgess casually, he said: "You want something in that scarf" and taking him into Kelley's 1ewelry store added: 'Choosen Bur- gess was not 50 weak but that he could choose a fifteen hundred dollar dia- nond. A crowd of men followed him Into a Ninth street saloon. All the champagne you men can drink out of your hats" And when they had drunk put of and battered the tiles he
 
 pressed their heads anew at twenty dollars per-
 Being caught on Arch street in a rain sie spied a cab. ''trake me to the Gi- ard" "This cabs engaged. 2 "Is it ngaged now?'' showing a one hundred dollar bill into the drivers hand. II mink not" smiled the man. At the soor of the Girard, where a throng vas awaiting him, he thrust one thou and dollars into the astonished dri-
 er's vest. "Let me see better rig to- morrow" Wherever he went there vent with him Slocum and Teagle, { either suffering from their obsequious k Attachment It is to be said of them i. ossibly because they saw for their
 wn good diminished possibilities that hey endeavored to keep him out of the
 ambling dens He insisted, however, < Ind left over fifteen thousand dollars :. n the tigers nav. When Skiff and { saylord brought their minstrel troupe Concert Hall Steele became
 namored with its life. Here was E omething better than organizing a col red band in Locust street, giving It N eavy gold braided uniforms and solid & liver instruments the master # lii munitions of Majah Teagle.
 He was wearied of its sounding
 rasses' in front of the Girard. If x ou men will serenade me tonight I e kill back the show. Could ordinary lk hinstrel nature withstand this? New a r; and the thing they played most was cE Coal Oil Johnny Is His Name" and d hat earlier composition, Champagne F harlie." When the modern Titmouse # ppeared on the balcony it was to an-