A LUCKY STROKE.
The new comers drilled away at the well, which was already several hundred feet deep, and in half an hour after they began working they found oil. When the tools were withdrawn, the well began flowing a hundred or more barrels per day. Imagine the disgust of the former owners!
It was the same in the oil regions with regard to disappointments that it has been in California and other countries containing mineral treasures. A case like the one just described is almost an exact parallel of a case in California, where two men, working a week or more on a claim where they hardly made money enough to pay their expenses, abandoned it in disgust. Two others stepped in, and on the very day they took possession, found a lump of gold worth several thousands of dollars. In another instance some Americans abandoned a claim, which was immediately occupied by half a dozen Chinese. The Chinese found a rich deposit of gold within six inches of where one of the Americans had abandoned the use of his pick and shovel.
SALTING A WELL.
Petroleum wells can be “salted” or “baited,” just as gold or other mines can be salted, and in the early days of the oil fever, the baiting of petroleum wells was by no means an uncommon thing. Sometimes it would be done by one of the owners of a well in order to defraud other owners. For instance, Smith and Brown have entered into partnership to put down a well. They join their money together, buy the necessary drills and machinery, and go to work. The well is down one or two hundred feet. Smith gets tired of it. He knows that Brown has more money, and so thinks that he will sell out. While Brown is asleep, Smith gets a barrel or so of petroleum, and pours it into the well. Next morning, when they go to work, the condition of the hole is tested as usual, and of course there are indications of petroleum. If a barrel has been poured into the hole it is filled for quite a long distance. Smith has taken care to be away at the time, and appears in perfect ignorance. If Brown is honest he will tell Smith, on his reappearance, of the rich supply they have found; but the chances are two to one that Brown will say nothing, except to suggest carelessly that the well is not very promising, and ask Smith what he will give for his share. Smith says, with equal carelessness, “I don’t want to buy, but I will sell my interest for three thousand dollars.”
Perhaps he puts it at a higher figure. He knows the length of Brown’s purse, and goes for its contents. The result is, that Brown secretly chuckles over his speculation, and buys the well.
Smith goes on his way rejoicing, and Brown, still more rejoicing, stays where he is. He knows that a few inches more of depth to the well will yield abundant oil, and he works away very earnestly; but somehow he keeps on drilling for a long time, and at last awakens to the consciousness that he has been sold.
A great many petroleum wells have been salted and sold in this way, but it sometimes happens that the would-be swindler gets the worst of his bargain. I knew one case, in 1863, where a man baited a well in the above way, and sold it. He laughed that evening over his sharp trick; but he laughed less the next morning, when he passed the well and saw that the tools had been withdrawn, and the well was flowing at the rate of three hundred barrels a day. A few hours after the purchasers entered upon their work, they struck oil and were happy.
A NEAT SWINDLE.
A trick that has been practised in the oil regions to some extent is to convert a well which has no oil in it into a genuine flowing well. I have known this to be done by conducting a pipe underground from a tank at a genuine well a few hundred yards away. The pipe opens into the baited well, and it can readily be seen that with a good “head” on the pipe the well will be a perfect flowing well, to all intents and purposes. Men are engaged in barrelling the substance, and a visitor can see with his own eyes the amount of the yield. If he wants to buy a well, nobody has any great desire to sell, and he may have difficulty in buying the whole thing outright; but he can get an interest in it for a comparatively low figure. Sometimes he may buy one man’s interest, and then another man’s, and he thinks he has struck a very fine bargain. But during the night, after his purchase, the oil ceases flowing, and he finds that his property is worthless.