The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-27

{, to rlpen doubtless will show new petrO- leum nnllionaries and a new wave of interest in fortunes from oil. But the petroleum excitement of nowadays seems pallid beside the oil fever of the Civil war period, for out of the latter there came Coal Oil Johnny"
 In his day Coal Oil Johnny" was as well-known as the President. Where he appeared there was excitement. Nabobs peered and street boys trailed as if he were heavyweight champion. He was talked of in drawing rooms and on Indian war trails. His nick name was better known than even that of "Jim the -Penman," and the tales of him amazed our grandmothers | Coal Oil Johnny" was known in his heyday as the most eccentric million aire on earth. His fame spread on stories that he lighted cigars with $10O bills, that he gave a "darky" a $1,0OO pin for song, that he paid $500 for hack ride, that he tipped the driver $3,OO0 to- buy a stable, and that he spent $10O,0OO in day. He died just a year or two ago." 9sa
 Great Myth Of His Day
 Coal Oil JohnnyN was one of the great myths of his day. He lived and moved and still was a legends Men be- lieyed in him by the million they read of him week by week in thousand newspapers and accepted all that was told because his myth, like, all live myths, was symbol. He was the spirit of jazz in the day of the polkAS . burn ing oil well in . candle world. What has today to offer beside himf Noth- ing better than a rumor, denied forth with, that a Balkan crown might be offered to a petroleum potentate from America. " {3
 Years after the Civil war ttraveling salesman, waiting at a little Nebraska railroad station, chatted with the sta tion master.
 "So your names Steele?" said the salesman. Ever know Johnny Steele Coal Oil Johnny?' You didn't? Well, I did. was with him the night he pulled a roll out of his pocket and bought the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, and I travelled all over the coun- try with him in his special train, chucking $10 gold pieces at the kids at every station"
 The station master said nothing. He was the Steele who had been 'Coal Oil Johnny"
 Looked Back And Saw
 As the salesman's train pulled out, however, this station man, who worked from 6 in the morning to II at night every day, looked back few years and saw many things Among them his first day in Philadelphia, In 1864, | when Seth Slocum set out to show the town, to the youth scarcely of age. Slocum selected their clothes identical suits of pattern which, in Johnny's later judgment, would look well in a horse blanket for blind horse. Stove l pipe hats, diamond pins, gold-headed canes; thus Coal Oil Johnny" began his metropolitan career, and at the Jared this prehistoric vaudeville team on | first crossing an Irish policeman collard this prehistoric vaudeville team on sight, on suspicion based on their clothes.
 John Washington Steele had gone to the city from western Pennsylvania, where there was oil. In sobers age he wrote that the whole batch of soil mil lionaifes from that region were fools and he admitted that he was the biggest 1 fool. At that time the frontier sud- denly had jumped east again. The days of '49 seemed not much more than a rehearsal for Pennsylvania oil boom Alaska of the gold days was no more than a revival. Oil gushed and knocked the lid sky-high, with Coal Oil Johnny" sitting on it like magic carpet.
 Oil City at that time controlled the petroleum market of the world. It was treasure camp, like the other towns around it which sprang up overnight and took their names from the farms which were their sites.
 Sought Guardian
 A mushroom town, strike town, drawing on the whole world for a popu- lation of all sorts. Men in silk hast and flannel shirts got begged in the mud of streets. On weeden sidewalks they asked for news from the States" Derricks rose from gardens that still bloomed with greasy roses all about derricks were clustered as thisk as the masts of sailing ships in the East river, New York Men rode on the roofs of inbound trains; horse cost $10 day; rumors ran about wells which had names like mines-Empire, Wild three to ten straw beds in room and men slept three in a bed.
 Towns like this rose and faded with the whifl of fortune seekers. There was Pit Hole City, started in 1865; it leap ed to 5000 population, with 50 hotels some of them cost $80, 0,000-and in 5 years it was hamlet. But all through the district the lid was of. In came card sharps, confidence men, Trace courses and a fly-by-night following.
 This was the world into which John- ny Steele, country youth, was thrusts It sprang up all about him. He was born in that part of Pennsylvania, at Sheakleville, in 1S43, and when he was a year old he and his sister, Permelia, were adopted by Culbertson McClip- tock. farmer. As a youngster John ny Steele heard the foxes bark near the house and he helped fight rattlesnakes, and when his foster-mother, Aunt Sally, ceased to cook at the fireplace and got a regular, Johnny and Per melia awaked. They had a right to.
 Found Himself Wealthy
 McClintock's farm and that of his brother, Hamilton McClintock, were on Oil creek. Crude oil bubbled up from springs in the creek. Sometimes the farmers would dam the stream and get the oil by soaking rags in i:, or they would put crib in the water and skim the pool it made. They got a few bar rels a year and sold it for medicine. In those days folks didn't burn petro- leum; they took rock oil for rheuma- tism, gout and neuralgia.
 The first derrick was erected in 1859, when a Yankee. Colonel Drake, ex- perimented with artesian methods. That started the boom.
 Steeles foster-father had died in 1855, and left the farm in Aunt Sally's hands in trust for the boy. The young ster worked hard. At nineteen he mar ried. Meanwhile Aunt Sally had found