The Holbrook news., 1918-12-20
SOphOcIes Continues
 His Oil Investigations

well, I've red up all the issue: lo' tn News away back an know | as much about this here field al
 tho I'd a been readin' up on i since Adam was in knee pants
 and when Mike arrove I wuz abu
 to git him to say as how some
 times 1 showed almost human sense, which from Mike, is sure a bunch O flattery.
 O yes, Mike arrove all right and yu shud a seen him. Wher he gets my telegram he immedi- ate concludes thet this here is alredy a wild and woody stam- pede and when I sees him gittin off tn train at Holbrook he shure wuz a site fur sor eyes Mixed a made Hun look asham- de O hisself he was that dolled up with artillery, havin' two guns lashed to his hips, dirk in his belt and carryin' grip in one hand and a repeatin' IT. file in the other. I seen the town marshal lookin' worried and loosen his six fer quick draw. Mikes supply O car tage belts sure made him stoop as I hurried him off to tn hotel afore ge got pinched fer runnin' a show without no isense.
 Mikes shure disappointed at seeing the populace so peaceful ly decorated and I have no trou- ble in gittin' him releived O his mess O fertilization, altho he opined Arizona wuz sure goin' to tn dogs when a feller didn't hay to pack a gun.
 Durin' the evenin' I unloaded all the infermashun I'd absorbed sence l struck town and Mike is shure interested, bein' man O. a lotta common sense even if he ain't eddicated like I be; an when 1 gets thru repeatin' my infer1nashun backwars and for wards he'sfer goin' out an byin' trunkful O stock immediate, but I allows there's no hurry as to the matter of a few days and I suggests we take a few more looks and peeks at the sittoation. Not that l wasn't already con- vinced O tn opportunity, but I kinda wanted Mike to place his coin on his own hunch.
 While we wuz eatin' brealfus and Mike was storm away so many eggs I shore expected to hear him cackle, we hears a coupla men at tn next table ar gifyin' about some water well what's showin' oil. Listenin keen like we learns this here water well is only a few miles outa town an where a feller can easy travel and I suggests to Mike that we do i little prospect in on our own hook. Mike wuz sure agreeable when he found the well belonged to a man nam ed Flannigan and asservated, as matter of private infermachun thet most everything worth while belonged t tn Irish.
 We got a car to drive us out to this here well altho Mike al lowed he'd feel more at homo trapesin' along on foot with a burro or two along t keep him company, which remarks 1 con cludes is a slam at sum one meanin' me.
 We has no trouble in findin tn place an after meetin' Nil. Flannigan he takes us to the well we've hearn about. Yessir, shure as Tom Campbell wuz elected governor, the watex CneCs runnin, from the well has a scum on it thet even a victim o' dyspepsia would admit wuz oil, and when the pump wuz started goin' the longer she pumped the more oil we cud no tice an specks as big as yure finger nail wud cum up and bust like any live oil does. We scoop ed sum of it up an smelled 1t, an as the old story goes, Tt looked like oil, tasted like oil, smelled like oil-an by gosh 1t wuz oil" We learned tn well wuz 250 feet deep and always when pumped fer a long time the oil'd cum in bigger quanti- ties; also thet it had be anylized by the University sharke who sed it wuz shore enuf-paraffine oil.
 Gin back to town Mike eluci- dates that what he has seen he knows an that if enny buddy has the nerve t tell him after this thet there ain't oil in this country he'll naturally prepare him fer a nice downy cot in the nearest hospital. Y'see Mikes pugnacious, as me old friend Perfesser Dolman wud put it, an when Mike gifts riled without tn aid O bootleg 1 allus have bizzi- ness in some other place. Mike even blamed me fer not hearin' about this afore an comin' up an locatin' a lotta ground afore it WuZ all located on.