The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-06-09
@On Sinclair

big sheets curved metal with holes along the edges for bolts
mat could be only one thing tanks Ana at the same time came
the hill The meaning Of all this obvious Prospect No
had got into oil sands!
The whole began blossom with advertisements
real agents the field" magic
no longer cabbage field or sugarbeet field but he eld
Spectators up tents business autol
mobiles drawn by the roadside with them
gathered up at the derrick and listen to the
grinding of the heavy drill that round and round all
puuf Of the engine. Keep OUTFITS your
conspicuous sign Mr. D. H. Culver employees
denly lost all their good breeding.
suddenly possibility secrecy literally all
knewor telegraph and cable carried the news to the
arhest corners OF civilization The greatest oil strike in the
history of Southern California the Prospect Hill field The
side of the earth seemed to burst through that hole
ing ana rusnng as Niagara and black column shot up into
the air. hundred feet two hundred ffty-no could
thick black Shiny slippery hurled heavy
objects this and that the had their lives
too fast and went streaming down the hillside Carried by the
wind curtain OF black mist sprayed the Culver homestead
turning black sending the the household flying
the cabbagefeds Afterwards told with Homerc
laughter how these had been heard to lament the de-
strcton of their clothing and their wndowcurtans by this
milion-d dollar flood of "black god!
Word spread by telephone Beach City, the newspapers
buetned the shouted the street. long
the roads leading to Prospect Hill black with solid line
OF motorcars The reached Angel City, the there
put extras and before nghtfa the Beach City boulevard
crowded with double ne all coming way Fifty
thousand people stood solid ring at what they considered
safe distance from the guher with emergency policemen trying
to drive them further back and shoutng Lights out! Lights
oun All might those words chanted chorus; every
body realized the dangesome might forget light
shoe might do striking stone motorruck,
with its steemmed tires Quite frequently these gushers caught
fire at the first
But still the crowds gathered; put down the tops
their automobiles and stood up the
ton by the light of the
fabulous prices and of them bought
offered companies started sodthe
would push their of the safe distance the
wndward sde where they could strike match and each
others faces and scraw memorandum of what they agreed
Such trading went most of the night the
big tents that had been built for revival meetings.
cabbage fields became gay with red black signs:
Cooperative No. L. "Ste Syndicate thousand units
$101
Meantime the workmen toing like mad to stop the
flow of the WE'LL they staggered here and there half blinded
the black spraand with place to brace themselves nothing
they could hold ONTO because everything
with grease You worked darkness cropping about with
nothing but the the monster blows upon your body
his splitting in face tell you where
at high tension for there bonuses oeed-fy
each man stopped the flow before midnight hundred
dollars you stopped before ten o'clock No could figure
how much wealth that monster wasting, but
thousands of dollars every minute Culver pitched
in to help and in his reckless efforts lost both his
Tried to stop the flow with his head said workman
patheticay In addition the discovered the
ensuing weeks that he had accumulated total fortwo suits
for damages to houses clothing chickens goats cabhags
sugarbeets and automobiles which had dded
too wel-greased roads