“‘Yes,’ replied Bailey.
“‘Well, you will find seven-thousand-five-hundred dollars to your credit in the Commercial Bank at Wheeling,’ replied the stranger. ‘I put it there day before yesterday and was about to advertise for you.’[you.’]
“Bunco was the first thought of Bailey; but as the stranger did not ask for any show of money and talked all right, he asked for an explanation. It turned out that the stranger was one of the men with whom Bailey had been out in Sistersville. He was also secretary and treasurer of an oil-company, which had struck a rich well in the back-country pool two weeks before. Bailey, while irresponsible, had put three-hundred dollars into the company’s capital-stock, on the advice of his friends. Meantime the well had been drilled, coming in a gusher of three-thousand barrels a day, one-tenth of which belonged to Bailey on his three-hundred-dollar investment. Bailey came to Wheeling, went to the bank and found the money awaiting him. He drew five-thousand dollars to send to his wife. Bailey’s good fortune is not over yet, for the well is a good producer and the company holds large leases, on which several more good wells are sure to be drilled.”
What of the brokers and speculators? They are scattered like chaff. A thousand have “gone and left no sign.” President Foster, of the Oil City Exchange, an accomplished musician, traveler and orator, is a Chicagoan. John Mawhinney, John S. Rich—the fire at Rouseville’s burning-well nearly destroyed his sight—H. L. McCance, George Cornwall, Wesley Chambers, Dr. Cooper, A. D. Cotton, T. B. Porteous, Isaac Reineman, I. S. Gibson, Charles J. Fraser, W. K. Vandergrift, B. W. Vandergrift, B. F. Hulseman, Charles Haines, Michael Geary, Patrick Tiernan, “Shep” Moorhead, Melville, McCutcheon, Fullerton Parker, George Harley, Marcus Brownson and a host of other familiar figures will nevermore be seen in any earthly exchange. “Jimmy” Lowe—he was a telegrapher at first—Arthur Lewis, M. K. Bettis, George Thumm, I. M. Sowers and a dozen more drifted to Chicago. “Dick” Conn, “Sam” Blakeley, Wade Hampton, “Rod” Collins, Major Evans, Col. Preston and Charles W. Owston are residents of New York. “Tom” McLaughlin buys oil for the Standard at Lima. “Ajax” Kline is dissecting the Tennessee field for the Forest Oil-Company. “Cal” Payne is Oil-City manager of the Standard’s gas-interests. “Tom” Blackwell is in Seep’s purchasing-agency. John J. Fisher is flourishing at Pittsburg. “Charley” Goodwin holds the fort at Kane. Daniel Goettel and W. S. McMullan are running a large lumber-plant in Missouri. O. C. Sherman is a Baptist preacher and Jacob Goettel fills a Methodist pulpit. Frank Ripley and “Fin” Frisbee are heavy-weights in Duluth real-estate. C. P. Stevenson, the leading Bradford broker, dwells at his ease on a plantation in North Carolina. B. F. Blackmarr lives at Meadville and “Billy” Nicholas is a citizen of Minneapolis. Some are in California, some in Alaska, some in Florida, some in Europe and two or three in India. Go whither you may, it will be a cold day if you don’t stumble across somebody who belonged to an oil-exchange or had a cousin whose husband’s brother-in-law knew a man who was acquainted with another man who once saw a man who met an oil-broker. It is sad to think how the capital fellows who juggled certificates at Oil City, Parker and Bradford have thinned out and the pall of obliteration has been spread over the exchanges.
“So fallen! So lost! the light withdrawn
Which once they wore,
The glory of their past has gone
Forevermore!”
FIRST STEEL OIL-TANK STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, AT TITUSVILLE, JUNE 11, 1880.