Show PETROLEUM WELLS the following published by the mining american of denver colorado makes good reading and is particularly applicable just at this time when george pitch fitch wrote his vest pocket essays oil wells in wyoming were not creating much attention if he had visited wells of the present day he would not have placed such a modest figure on the cost of drilling a well however we all enjoy humor of his style even even if it slams us a little he wrote an oil well is a hole in the ground about a quarter of a mile deep into which a man may put a small fortune or out of which he may take a big one and he never knows until the hole is finished nothing is as non as an oil well that finished A sphinx is garrulous beside it but when it is finished it either goes on being quieter than ever or it begins spouting automobiles trips to europe and large nobby mansions in new york it takes a couple of thousand dollars several months and a couple of noncom non com men in mud P plastered last ered overalls to dig an oil well they begin by going up about eighty feet when they have finished their derrick they hang a drill in it weighing half a ton then the men hitch the drill to an engine and punch a forty two centimeter hole in the earths crust sometimes after they have been punching away for several weeks the hole blows the derrick into the sky utterly running it then the owner shrieks with glee and employs men to catch the spouting oil in barrels but sometimes the derrick is as good as new when the hole is finished then the owner curses and takes the derrick away to some other place which smells oily an oil well with its fancy work on top clutters up the landscape a good deal but nobody seems to mind in cleveland ohio some of the finest residences in the city are defaced by well derricks in their backyards but the owner of the house does not tear his hair and mourn because his cucumber vines are getting trampled on he merely sings a low sweet song on the first of each month and goes down to the safe deposit vault to cut coupons we would enjoy being a rich man and having an oil well invade our back yard we would even consent to be a very poor man it if an oil well would come and deface our asparagus bed and fill our cellar full of petroleum and our sock full of 20 gold pieces an industrious oil well is one of the pleasant est companions on earth even if it does gum up the surroundings a little it is one of the few things on earth which finds a warm warin welcome anywhere |