The Washington herald., 1909-05-23
loNTINUED - sUNDAYl
HIS s5OO,OOO WAISTCOAT.
Cost Him a Share in an OF Wei.
Says the OIdtfmer.

Cost Him n Share in an OF WeIIs
Says the OIdtfmer.
Il was 50 prosperous IN 1852 as to bs
able TO have two vests" said veteran
newspaper man TO q New York Sun re-
porter. "and one Of those vests cost ne
! 500. 900. Solomon in al his glory never
put up as much as that, 1 believe. for
his whole wardrobe. could get q vest
every bit as good as that now for $50.
This happened in Oil Creek 81 the
early days OF petroleum. I had wan
dered over there in 1862 I was only 4
kid. but ! had saved SO About that
time the flowing oil wells were beng
struck Men who were poor one day
were finding themselves miInonaires tbs
next I suppose there are good many
people cut there yet who remember jim
Sherman When first net jim he hadn't
as much money as I had. but he had
lease on one corner Of what was known
as the Foster farm and was trying 70
find oil on il
For some reason OF other speculation
hadn't cast the eye OF favor on the Foster
Z farm as yet, but jim Sherman believed
( * had the oil sand under II, and on the
strength Of Jin1's faith his wife had put
I IN every cent she had received as a
I legacy from her father. $500. 10 help jim
out IN his veture When I ran uD against
/ jim had been IN the region only q
couple Of days and my SO was sti1 in
/ tact 1 had q boarding place about half
a nile from where Jim was struggling
/ TO get his well into the sand he believed
I IN. He had exchanged an eighth interest
I
/ had disposed OF q sixteenth interest for
$50 IN cash and a shotgun. and that $50
and the SI5 he sold the shotgun for, to
/ gether with 500 be had received for a
horse which he had traded another six
! teenth interest IN his well for. had al
been absorbed and the drill had not yet
( struck OIL.
1T was at this interesting condition
Of the Sherman well that ran I'D
/ against jim Re was in despair Hs
had no hope OF being able 70 obtain
another dollar. He had been Offering
another sixteenth interest in his lease
for $50 with no takers I thought the
matter over while and then said 70
jim that would take that one-sixteenth-
Produce the S50r said he
7 felt for my SO. Il wasn't there. and
I atvpnce remembered that had put on
Ils VLleE FeSL Wlel / came oIE ana rad
forgotten 10 change my little wad OF
wealth 70 il from the pocket OF the vest
I had taken of I explained matters %
jim Sherman and started al once for ny
clearinghouse 70 get the money. I got
II all right. and was on my way back
20 invest il IN the Sherman oil well when
saw people running wildly from every
direction toward the Sherman lease and
heard them Yelling.
'Jim's struck Il. By =. And struck
/. II big
so he had While was away 70
get the SO I had left IN my other vest
the drill IN The Sherman wei had dropped
into the sand, and she was spouting al
a z,0S-barrel rate and she kept OF
lspouting for Two years Before she quit
she had sPouted more than 2.60a0al bar
rels Of oil. sad the average price Of oil
during that tine was s. q barrel jim
Sherman cleared up something Ike $500. =
GOO out Of II. and if I hadn't been s1
prosperous that I was able 70 have two
vests $500 barrels OF that oil would
have been mine That's how one OF
those vests cost ne S00000"