The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-06-24
TELLS STORY ABOUT
OIL FIELDS Of TEXAS
Continued from First Page)

around 10000 and more are comm
in every day. New buildings al
going up everywhere. Some are abou
the same type as the Indian wickiuI
and then there are plain tents, board
ed-up tents, two-room cabins, four
o square house and a numbe
of real California style bungalows
In the business section the activit
is just as great, frame and bricl
buildings going up as fast as hu
manly possible. The most impor
tant of these is a modern, fire-proot
ive-story hotel. Restaurants an,
barber shops are everywhere and al
doing a land-office business. 1 ha,
dinner in n of the restaurants ant
it cost me a dollar for a meal I coulC
have bought in Fort Worth for forty
or fifty cents. A at the hoteI
costs one at least $3.50 and a plain
bed in a bunk tent will cost a dol
lar or a dollar and a half. Every
thing else is in proportion. Texas
is a dry state, so the saloons are not
in evidence, but the blind tigers and
b~ootleggers do a rushing business.
Whiskey sells all the way from $40
to $50 a quart-depending on how
dry you are and how much money
you have. At these prices the pro-
h~ibitionists should not do much
worrying about the spread of the liq-
uor traffic.
There are not many oil wells in
the town of Ranger as the most of
them r located north and west of
town, on a string of low hills.
Some of these wells have turned out
to be dry holes, but those that do hit
oil hit it big-all the way from 1000
to $4,000 barrels a day in the deep
fields, and from 100 to 1000 barrels
in the shallow fields. There are not
many small oil companies operating
in the Ranger field, because the Texas
Pacific Coal G Oil Company owns or
has leased most of the land in the
district. The Standard Oil Company
or any of the other big companies
want to operate in this field
to come to the T. P. Co. They
pay a big bonus for a lease. stand
all the costs Of drilling and operat-
ing n then pay the T. P. one-half of
the value of the oil that comes out
of the ground.
Most of the small companies are
operating in the ~Burkburnett field
a short distance northwest of Wichita
Falls, Texas, and as there have been
SO few dry holes struck in that ~t,rri-
tory, these companies have had won
derful success. They get hold o.
lease on five, ten or fifteen acres OF
land, organize a trust complar-thoy
DO not form a corporation capital
lze the company at from $4,000 70
$1,000 and offer their sto,x for
subscription. So many wells have hi,
oil in that district that the entire is-
sue of stock is over subscribed in a
very short time. 1t seldom lasts more
than two or three days, and one conn.,
pany h,e It's stock oversabscribed IN
TWO hours. Another company
cleaned out its stock in three hours.
1t only takes about a month from the
time the drill starts until it hits the
oil sand at around 1000 feet, hut the
drill does not start until most of the
stock, or all of it, is sold. When the
total issue of stock has been over
subscribed it is listed on the oil stock
exchange in Fort Worth and Wichita
Falls. At that time it usually is sold
at 10 to rs per cen above par. BY
the time the drill is down. 1000 feet
the price of the stock is probably
double its par value, often more.
When the we'll hits oil the stock goes
all the way from five to thirty times
par, depending upon the amount of oil
the well produces per day. Stock m
the Bu-kburnett district is offered for
subscription at par value. which IS
usually ten dollars a share-cash.
Very few companies put their stock
out at 81 par. OF course. all oil or
mining stock is a gamble and is nc
game for the widow or orphan to put
their money into. No man, or woman,
has any business buying oil stock uG-
less they are in such shape financially
that the total loss of every cen: thev
put into the game will not isorivc
them Of any Of the necessities of life