The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-15

of gas taken from the soil of north Louis jana, even Croesus would look to his
 aurels.
 Today the proven mineral territory of
 Bull-Bayou and Homer districts is yield ing more than 5000 barrels of oil daily, homes and industries of north Louisiana cities. and Texas and Arkansas conmun- ities with cheap natural fuel For inc stance. while Birmingham was dark dur Ing recent nights. Shreveport was brigut- ly iilumined and heated. and most eco- pomically.
 Rut this is not an article to boost the
 virtues of shreveport and it's oil fields
 It is merely an account of impressions gathered from the present boom, which Is merely gathering In momentum for
 he first of the year. when the big rush
 from all parts of the world is expected. Today Shreveport is seemingly the live.
 Hest place on the globe. Its hotels are crowded and to obtain accommodation IS practically impossible Out at Bull
 Bayou and Homer fields the folks are sleeping in tents Tn fact out in tlre
 fields the sma1l.- enterprising gentry from Louisiana and other places are squattins on all kinds of property with tents and starting up small businesses, and mak-
 ing money in fact. there is so mucn money being made ,locallyr the pikers are bound to get in on the crumbs which abound as if falling off the mythical table Of Croesus
 m the hotel Hobbies the Tease hounds hold out There every one has his lit- tie map and the most gigantic deals are consunmated--verha As Lon Baker, a former weil-known insurance man Of
 Birmingham, and now one of the most prominent lease brokers in Shreveport, stated: You might take a score of these so-called capitalists with maps and large
 holdings and standing them on their heads, you could not shake dime from their trouser pockets" That is liter- ally true. However. there is big money circulating and some legitimate big deals are matters of but passing interest. One of the humorous sides of the genial oil buffer is his inconsistency. You will meet a suaVe, strongly magnetic man in the lobby of the Hotel Youree. After a lengthy acquaintance of few seconds
 he will announce that he has just com pleted a lease sale making a clear profit of at least $17,000, more or less Naturally if you are playing the game you will look interested, and then start in on some lhollum of your own. These gentry are polite, If allowed to spool they VIII ir turn give you the privilege of telling the most outlandsh whopper you can imagine. After these preliminaries are over, the maneuvering starts as to see who will besthe first to make a touch for a dollar or so
 Amongst the Birmingham men now i'll the city and located in the oil game are: Lon Baker, Morris Allen, who was a former assistant county solicitor under the regime of Hugo L. Black. and Charles
 West Greer, a former sporting editor of The ge-Heraid. Allen Krebs, another former well-known Age-Herald man, is expected from his Virginia home on Sat urday and is expected 10 locate in Shreve- port.
 Mir. Greer is right in his element Tn this district His relatives are the wealthiest oil operators of north Louis- jana and Texas, so Charlie is having the tibe of his young life at the Hotel Youree giving tho lease brokers the once over Also he is the most paged man in the hotel The bellboys keep calling by the hour: "Call for MT. Greer "Cali for MT. Greer" At first Charlie fell for this, but after a few disappointments he quit, and now they can page him all day long and he never turns hair.
 Everyone here is in the oil game and has the fever. All have maps, and all are capitalists. Tn the meanwhile the reports come in constantly of new production shattering previous records, and the best
 indication that the boom is lasting IS the fact that the Texas operators and brokers are headed this way.
 The operators here are talking about
 Alabama and Mississippi as the next field
 of exploitation All admit that there IS
 oil in Alabama and several wells are being drilled in Mississippi Should
 boom ever strike Birmingham as ehe one Shreveport is now rejoicing over'
 it will startle the natives