The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1915-04-15
WOULD MAKE
INVESTMENTS IN
PUNTA GoRDA
Oil Magnate Writes From Home
in Pennsylvania
RECENTLY VISITED TOWN
Will Return Later When he Hopes
to See Many Changes Thinks
Town Has a Future.

4OWh 4AoS a. y uVNAO
, TituSville, Pa, April 5, 1915
= Editor Herald My father was
so wise that before he bought a
farm in Venango county Pa, he
saw to it that large lake of coal
oil was placed in under it twenty
five million years previous, so that
when Drake discovered oil at Pit
Hole near by, father was not long
in taking the hint to put down a
well himself. 1t was a good well
and father meant to compel every
driller who worked on it to take
IAN oath not to disclose that he had
struck oil, but one of the tool
dresserS was a deaf and dumb fell
low and could not talk and there
fore could not take the oath SO
that deaf and dumb fellow went
around and blabbed the discovery
to everybody and before long
there was the biggest excitement
around there you ever saw, unless
you have attended a clam bake at
Ashtabula, Ohio.
Well, the upshot of it was that
father sold that farm for a hunk
of scadS big enough to stuff Sar-
atoga trunk, and being a very
careful investor father managed
to live until his death without
materially depreciating those
scads. AS | was the only son, and
father expired before he could
will those scads away from me, /
got what was left after the estate
had been settled and placed it out
at interest. Now it amounts to a
very tidy sum, and a friend Of
mine who has been stopping at
Lakeland for the past three win
tiers told me | had better call I'M
those scads and the increase there
Of and invest them in Florida.
| concluded to take my friend s
advice and for the past four mon
tbs | have been travelling about
your State. And | am some OBJ
server when | travel, and don t
you forget that, | see everything
on every side except those things
which tend to corrupt good NOR
ais Those | ignore, of course, as
all money savers do. It's pretty
near an adage that you can t have
a good glorious time and have
money too. But this is leading
me away from my subject.
| have seen your East Coast and
your West Coast, your Everglades
and your neverglades, your jack
sOnville, Tampa, Ocala,, Orlando,
and even went up to ZephyrhilIs
to see the zephyrs. | stopped in
your town just two days, saw how
you were situated, and then /
came home.
| came home because | was sat
isfed that if | invested money in
Florida | would invest it within
the limits of the town of PuGta
Gorda and in the truck land near
by |, really want to take those
scadS that father made on that
petroleum farm and invest them
there. There is a story in the
Bible-and no doubt some of YOU
have seen it-of a man who was
given one talent and he went out
and buried it, and | have always
thought that that is the very tai
ent the Gasparilla and Capt. Kidd
treasure seekers are after. Then
the story goes on to say that an
other man was given two talents
and he Opend loan office and lent
the money out, but | have never
been able to learn whether he got
the money back or not. 1t is very
risky to lend money, and | prefer
to leave that to the banks; | want
earth, soil, land, mari, subsoil,
terra tirma, or whatever you call
it.
But before | invest one cent in
your town you'll cut down the
woods in which it is hidden. Com
ing in from Arcadia you cannot
see the place on account of the tall
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