The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-30
THE WANDERING OIL MAN.
Soldier of Fortune Who Searches the Worlt
for q Strike.

for . Strike.
The oil man Is the real Bedouin Of the
world. He is a greater traveller than the
Arab Of the desert ever was. says the
Barletsville correspondent Of the Kansas
Citv Star. Go to Pennsylvania, to Texas.
to California, to Japan or to any other place
where there are oil wells and you will find
the same faces, you will hear the same talk
Of working barrels, pulling rods and
all that sort Of thing.
4 man who would drop down In Rangcon
to-morrow-and Rangoon is ION the road
to Mandalay, where the flying fishes play
or into Kurosaki or into Tamaluipas might
expect to find old man John H. Galley. John
Markham, j. c. Mcdowell, Hugh P. Braw-
ley The. Barnsdall
1t gets into a mans blood. He follows
the derricks and the screech Of the shackle
rods naturally. He can't help it. Take
the case Of John H. Galley. There Is man
who IL ulti-millionaire. He needs no
more OF this worlds goods. He has an in
dependent fortune. Yet II an oil field
should be discovered tomorrow in HAM
chatka OF in the snow and ice. John H.
Galley would he one of the first men on hand
and he would have the second or third
derrick erected In tne neid.
John Markham is another Of the soldiers
OF fortune. He toiled and sweated in the
swamps OF Louisiana and Texas, drilled
improbable holes. spent his money and
came to Kansas. Then he went to the Terri
tory. Before that he had been all over the
world. And he knows things. He knows
what the East Indians drink in Rangoon
to quench their thirst. He knows how they
live in the temperature Of 120 degrees in
the shade and he knows other things which
have helped him to success.
Jon McCready. canny Scot, has drilled
wells for the Japanese Government and has
drilled wells for the Standard Oil in japan.
He has been all over the world. this driller
He knows the size OF pipe, the size Of the
casing and the cost of the well in every oil
field in the world.
times called Windy Bill. He has manu-
featured powder for the United States feet
in the Mediterranean TO salute President
Loubet of France, and he has done other
things Of note. He has certificates Of honor
from the Khedive OF EgyPt0he drilled
in that country and got into trouble thereby
and he is also an officer OF lodge Of honor
of the Sultan Of Morocco.
Bill Allen is another Of the globetrotters.
He has been in Mexico and in India He
can give you the formation Of the wells in
Upper Burma or the wells in Chelsea, Okla,
with equal facility. And 1t Is all one to him
where he is. 80 long as he is putting down
the holes.
Dick Fowler is another. He has been
the West Virginia fields and the Ohio and
Indiana fields, and he can spin yarns by
the hour. He knows how the glycerin
man at Bradford was blown up and how
the other gycerin man escaped, how the
springs Of one Of the slycerhh wagons were were
fellow had his springs three inches to the
right and thus saved his life.
Hugh Brawley has been with the oil
companies in Pennsylvania. Texas and
Kansas for more than ten years Now he
around the world In the oil business.
John T. Gaffey Is another one of the globe
trotters in the oil business He has been
in the kyack fields Of Alaska, In the Beau
mont fields. in the Louisiana fields, in the
tune in Cali 'ornia and retired-temporarily.
| No man who has ever got the fever
| in his bones retires from the oil business
Thcre il. also. M. L. Lockwood-his real
T. scds sna e. in He
| Is an old man IA years go, grayheaded,
| and with son old enough to vote two or
three times. and yet he is still following
the flag OF adventure, still after the pot
Of gold which grows at the rainbow's foot.
It goes that way in the oil OIL, business t1 rs
same man at Half Moon Bav, you meet
the same man a Santa Ma Marie and I'd then then
dslay.s Young and old, freshman and
postgraduate, saint and sinner, all the oil
men follow the same road, and wind up at
| the same place at last.
They all hope some time or other. some
where in the 9ame Of life, to make a play
against the Standard" Most OF them
are too polite to admit It, but that is the
hope which inspires them to clint, the
ing for oil. always looking for oil, and al.
ways looking for oil where the , Standard
dream OF oil In places where the curb is
on a nonoroly: where they will get ret, a! ~. I,,
for their. money It Is TIE pathetic side
wears wanderinr over the earth search
ing for a place where the mailed hand can
not reach. They have not found 1t yet,