Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-07-18
MAGIC OF OIL"
Make Men Do Funny Things

the promotional advertising The P I.
consistently knocked the boom. On
the appointed day for the completion"
of the well, a tremendous crowd gathered
at the well. The bit was run in and
bounced up and down a few times, then
pulled out. 1t was dripping with oil!
The crowd cheered madly. Then the
bailer was run. It came out, trimming
full Of oil. The crowd-mostly "inces-
tors"-went wild. When they had cheer
ed themselves hoarse, they looked around
for something more exciting. In the
group OF newspaper men present was
P. l. reporter $15-a-week punk who
had about as much responsibility for the
editorial policy OF the P /. as did the
office cat-but to the crowd he was
the shated" p. /. So the crowd seized
him and wallowed him in the oily stump,
spelling the only suit he had and running
everything he had excepting his hatred
for fly-by-night promoters
And so it was that this kid got into
the oil business, eventually. But that is
beside the topic, as Is the further state
ment that this kid enjoyed watching the
promoters of the Crescent well walk
into the penitentiary.
These narratives have nothing to do
with the Montana oil industry or the
royalty business except that they point
out ahat we an have very vague inn
DreSS1OQS ABOUT Inc Dtl UuSlnCSSg DCAO4O
we are educated" There is thrill to
the oil business that goes with no other
line of investment
II don't care whether I make any
money or not" a member once told us.
1.-THE thrill OF a well drilling on my
property is worth the price" he said.
A client-a Montana newspaper man
visited u sa few weeks ago for a pleasant
chat He was driving a new car and
had just finished a tour of America.
The conversation developed the fact that
he has a brother in Louisiana who was
struggling along with an 800-acre rice
plantation Our Montana friend was sur
prised one morning to receive letter
from his brother announcing that the
depression is over" He had allowed
some driIlers to mess up his rice crop
to drill for oil. A big well had come in.
The former "poor relation" found him
self with an income Of $500 a day. When
spring came ne invited the Montana
brother to visit him and see the excite
ment. The Montana editor confided that
he wasn't sure the old family car
The brother replied by sending check
big enough to buy a new car and to pay
the expenses OF the prince Of Wales,
saying: Come along. So he bought
himself a car and drove down to his
brothers home to tell him: "You
shouldn't q done 1t That DelHg
true quotation, If a newspaper editor on
vacation talks like the rest of us.
erich over night is no catch phrase
in the oil business. When a man hits
It big, he's rich. When he keeps his
senses, he is not taking any mora
chances in oil than does the man who
plants crop In fact, some OF our
good friends in the Dakotas, especially,
are mighty glad they have few royalties,
in the face of the crop failure.
"If / had only bought twice as many
royalties as I did, when I could afford
it, / wouldn't have anything to worry
about today" said one client in writing
this week to announce that he has been
wiped out by drouth and grasshoppers