The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-10-29
BILL SKIES TELLS
| OF TRIP THROUGH
DESDEMONA FIELD
Finds Many Unique Things
in Oil Town Fourteen
Miles From Nearest
Railroad

| disc for the small promoter-they can
get acreage in small blocks on which to
bore, and the phenomenal part of it is
! that they can get-cil. l saw derricks to-
\ day not block from the main street that
were standing hub to hub-just about as
| thick as Col. Dallas smiths artillery
support was at the battle of Chateau
Thierry. l understand now why the wells
/, in this section are os erratic. One man
drills in good producer, right away
some fellow drills an off set and begins
| to drain the pool. Then one we'll vii
cave and show small TOW while another
\ just brought in is gushing oil at the rate
of 1000 barrels per day. 1 saw the Duke
Dome, which. came in for big produc-
ton and has now settled down to 200
| barrels per day l saw the big wellthat
caught on fire and required ten boilers to
smother it out. They have a novel way
| of turning enormous volumes of steam
into the hole and excluding the air so that
| the oil will not burn. Then they cool off
| the pipe and hook up the connection, and
| the oil goes into tanks where it ought
to Great dividends fer stockholders
| The first thing yoa see on entering Des-
demona, or Hogtown as ii is locally
known, is a great big sign which reads
First National Bank =" Now mind YOU this
| town is "a miles from a railroad in one
direction and about IA in another. 1t has
five banks. every one of which is doing
all the business that it can handle, 1t
has stock excha nge, but they do not
engage in marginal trading. Everything
| is spot-if you nave stock and wish to
sell you must put Up your actual certifi-
Gates All be in hurry about 1t for
minutes count in this country. There is
a lawyer \ the exchange who transfers
your certificates and sees that everything
is regular. This is necessary because
some times a man Parts with stock and
within five hours big well comes in and
makes the lucky purchaser money that
| is frequently burned up on high living.
Going out we passed by a car that stuck
| in the sand, which is two feet deep in
Hogtown, and instead of trying to save
it the owner just took off the tires,
his lap robe and apparently hurried to
the nearest telegraph Office to buy a new
one Red Smith ought to be over here
they run Cadilacs on jitney lines between
here and Ranger, Deleon and Stephens
vile. With the sand and the mud the life
| of a car is about six months. but the
| jtney operators make money at that
Going out the driver had six passengers
which brought him in SEC for the 2f-rfe
! trip made in about two hours. They have
a sliding scale here-if it is raining yoC
pay $3.50 for the trip, if dry you can go
another route which calls for $l.5o less.
They have a itney drivers unon and
on every car you see the number of the
fellows card and local
1t would not do for young ladies who
do not know how to cook to visit this
country for they have a cook and walters
union here with regular scale and
house in which to meet Practically the
whole proposition from every labor
standpoint is unfonized, but they seem to
get along well with the operators for
they respect their contracts in this Sec
ton and look down on professional agi-
tators In fact they do not have time to
listen to the spiel of the fellows who
preach the gospel of discomfort. Every
body is busy and apparently everybody
| is satisfied except the oily promoter
whose grief is great when he sees good
dollars going into something else except
oil stocks.
Poor old John Rarleycorn--if he could
have lived what a harvest he would have
reaped in this section You have to be
in one of these boom towns to realize
how dead the poor old fellow is. I walked
all over the field ami never saw a single
man under the Influence OF intoxicants.
to bootleg and the courts apply the law
as it is written, so it is not a profitable
game to attempt the sale of whisky
even though you get $40 quart which
lis the rate quoted in this section. II heard
this afternoon that when a boot-legger
sells ia this price he REQUIRES a bond
from the purchaser that calls for a lawyer
to keep him out of the penitentiary. The
strange part Of the thing here is that no.
body seems to miss the booze or sigh for
1T. Occasionally you meet driller who
would like drink, but it is largely be-
cause he stands in mud and water during
his tour and really requires something &c
warm him up. | have see my first
driller who was under the influence of
liquor One operator told me that one
reason they have so many producers and
SO few dry holes is because the men are
always sober and make no mistakes. The
big companies here are strictly against
any move to resurrect poor old John-at
least that is the idea got from my con-
versations with them.
Drillers work in tours (tlley pronounce
the word as though it was spelled tower).
OF - hours each, so, ii can be seen that
drilling goes on day and night Each
well has it's Delco lighting system so that
rigs are as well lighted at night as in
the day. This drilling seems to be largely
a matter of touch. The driller keeps his
hand on the rope neary all the time and
from the feel of that rnpe he can tell
what the formation is One of them let
me hold the rope while he was drilling
about ten feet and in that distance
could tell the difference. Rock formation n
is what all of them seem to dread, forjI
they sometimes twist off drill bit and
then they have to fish for It, learned
Of one company that fshe.i three weeks to
get some tools out of a hole
Holders in birmingham of Pullman On |
and Refining stock will be either glad or
sad when this is read for the second
well is due to come in tomorrow. I went !
to the first well and rot me pint Of iii |
which I am bringing home with me This |
has been a peculiar well: ii came in for |
1000 barrels, dropped back to Gn barrels, |
then came up to 30. after which 1t went |
down to 70 and is now running about IN. |
1t is quite likely that this well can he I
so handled that it will come hack for |
about 200 barrels OF settled production. |
The company has good tankage and |
everything around we'll No seemed to |
ne well handled 7 met Mr. Robinson. |
field man. who carried me out to-weil |
No where all arrangements had been1
made to bring in .he well tomorrow. |
Naa~ this one IS the Davis Discovery |
which is a settled orodu FER. about half |
mile away IL the Duke Dome. and one |
half mile on the opposite side Of the |
road is another well with settled pro |
auction of 1901 barrels. less thar one
fourth mile in another direction the Mac
nolia people had lust hrousht in rro-
5ucer so I am figuring as this is written !
that well No. will come in for around