Evening star., 1924-03-23

mush as thick as molasses, as black
as ink and loaded with these fine
rock particles, The particles are
heavy, however, and they rapidly
sink. The flowing well runs out into
a great vat half tho size Of a city
lot and below this is a succession of
half dozen other watts descending
in terraces. The oil flows into the
first vat and much of the sand is
dc posted as ii passes into the. second
vat through holes an inch or so in
diameter. There more sand is drop
ped and tho oil grows purcr and
purer as it flows on through vat after
vat until at tho bottom il has no
sand at all and can be pumped by an
engine through pipes into the great
storage tanks. AS the black, sand
loaded pitch flows from the we'll it
deposits much sand around the edges.
This is scooped up by bare-legged.
bare-footed women, who stand ankle
deep, and often calf deep. in the hot
Shiny mixture and ladlc the mush out
with scoops into holes or little pits
on the banks of the pool Other girls
lift the mush from these pools to
pools just above, the oil draining out
as they do and finally at the top,
perhaps ten or fifteen feet above the
great pool below, they raise the now
almost clean sand and empty it into
n steel car in which it is carried away
over n track to the sand pile.
In this field there were hundreds
of derricks, each over an oil well,
and there were mountains of sand
here and there and everywhere
among them, all of which had been
lifted out in this way. / was asked
as to the wages of these girls and
for a day of eight hours, or less than
two cents an hour for this back
breaking, filth-scooping labor under
the hot semi-tropical sun.
4 :; X X
r TOOK some pictures of the women
at work. They were almost in
rags and some of them modestly ar
ranged their short skirts as the
camera snapped. A large part of the
labor in the oil fields is done by
women, and here, as throughout the
woman workers than men.
The wages of the men are more
than those Of the women. Drillers get
as much as rs cents a day, but the
common laborer seldom receives
more than 20 or 80 cents. The labor
is not nearly so efficient as that of
the United States. The cost of living
is very low and the people think they
do we'll.
The sand mixed with the oil entails
difficulties in drilling which we do
not have in the United States. The
sand is as sharp as that of a carbo-
rundum grindstone. 1t cuts like dia-
mond dust and when a gusher is
struck it comes out with such force
that the mush-like mixture will saw
its way through iron and steel. 1t
will spray itself over large part of
the surrounding country, and it is
for this reason that derricks are not
left open as in the United States, but
boarded in from top to bottom. In
order to break the force Of the geyser
Of oil and sand a sheet OF steel rails
such as are used for railways is hung
about twenty feet above the mouth of
the well. Every other rail- is inverted
and tho whole makes a solid block
of steel. The oil and sand flies
against this with such force that it
cuts right through the steel in the
space of eight hours or less. Some
times a cap of iron weighing three
tons, or as much as three horses can
haul, is poised above the well and the
sand cuts it's way through it as
though with a saw, the well shooting
grindstones as it were.
The other day there was a man on
top of the derrick when one of these
wells burst loose. He was 100 feet