Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-12-12
sixty-Five Years Emperor.


From the New York World.
History has no parallel to the record
of Francis Joseph of Austria, who has
just completed sixty five years of his
reign.
Queen Victoria reigned less than
sixty-four years. The nominal seven
ty-two years of Louis XIV, of France,
and the sixty-seven years of Pharaoh,
of the Scriptures. began when they
were young boys in tutelage. Francis
was over eighteen on December 2,
184S. and he has been an actual ruler
every day.
1t is the fashion to cite him as a
"Hapless Hapsburg." Any man. much
more any king, who lives eighty-three
years. must expect sorrow, and in his
family life the old emperor has hal
his share. But Austria Hi ngary has
not done so badly. 1t was near dis
ruption in 1S4S, only saved by Russian
troops No such menace now exists.
1t was defeated by Prussia and
France; but Prussia, by Bismarck S
wise insistence. took no toll of terri
tory and the loss of the discontinued
I,ombards and Venetians was no
calamity. Or if calamity it was, it
has been recouped by the addition of
the equally rebellious Slavs of Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
In political freedom the Dual Mon
arehy does not lag far behind Ger
MANY. in spite of the wrongs of the
Southern Slavs and Rumanians and
the ragings Of the Szechs and the Ital-
ian Irredentists. In material progress
the country has moved with the rest
of the world,
Never was the old ruler more popu-
lar with his mixed races than ne is
now. A natural interest in his length
of reign helps him as it helped Vic
toria of England. But most of all he
draws respect and liking from the un,
popularity of his successor, except
with a small military clique. When
the people wish him long lie ana
health they mean just what they say
The First Oil Well.
From the Louisville Courier-Journal
The location of the first oil we'll in
tho United States is claimed by sew
eral states. The Wheeling Intelli1
gencer, reviewing the oil industry OF
West Virginia, says there was an oil
well on the banks of the kanawha
river at the present site of Charles
ton "fifty-one years before the Drake
well at Titusville Pa, ushered in the
petroleum industry of the world"
1t is probable that there were such
wells in other States. Kentucky had
one at an early day, but its possi-
bilities were so little realized that
nothing was done with it beyond bot
Ting a limited portion of the product
and peddling it out as u liniment'
As to the priority of these old-time
wells, it is a matter of small i'm
portance, since the birth of the Pc
troleum business dates from the
famous Titusville discovery referred
to by the Intelligencer.
West Virginia did not become 4
large oil producer until about twenty
years ago, although oil operations OF
varying character have been going or
at intervals in that State almost since
the beginning of development in
Pennsylvania. There was a fairly
lflourishing industry prior to the Civil
War, but it was crushed oft during
the period of hostilities, and for
many years thereafter it was strug-
Cling for existence. Production
reached high-water mark in 1900
when the output of West Virginia
wells amounted to more than 10000
900 barrels. 1t has not been so large
in any subsequent year, though West
Virginia stands high on the list as an
oil-producing State. The production
for 1912 was 12,200,000 barrels. In