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Show SAVE A LITTLE "Coal Oil Johnny" is dead. The most widely advertised spendthrift the country ever kney died in poverty pover-ty here where he was station agent for the . Chicago1. Burlington and Quincy railroad. In the days of his prosperity he spent as much as $100-000 $100-000 a day. And the days came around as regularly as the sun. When he died he made about three dollars a day and the pay car only came round once a month. Neither the oil that produced his fortune nor his money, nor the way he spent it brought him luck or happiness. hap-piness. He spent the last fifty years of his life paying for the follies of his youth, in poverty and toil. John W. Steele, for that was hi? real name, was born on a farm near Sheakleville, Pennsylvania, and, as he was orphaned in his youth, he went to live with his aunt, the Widow Wid-ow McClintock, in Venango county, Pennsylvania. Oil was struck on the McClintock farm and the flow was leased on a royalty basis. The Widow Wid-ow McClintock knew farms, but not oil and lived as she always had lived, liv-ed, putting the money which rolled in into a big safe in her diningroom. jOne day when Johnny had failed to provide kindling, she threw a dipper dip-per full of the fateful oil on the kitchen kit-chen fire and her interest' in earthly affairs ceased at once. Johnny was sole heir and when' the big safe was opened he had over $500. Q00 in cash to play with. He ran through his find faster than the oil gushed from the wells. He practiced; prac-ticed; every form of extravagance. He bought hotels for a night. He declined de-clined to ride in any vehicle which he did not own and the country was studded with cabs he had bought and given back to their drivers after he was through with them. He owned own-ed a minstrel show and spent thousands thous-ands entertaining members of the company. But he did not have a good time. He admitted it himself. In one instance he spent hundreds of thousonds of dollars to have a. hotel ho-tel clerk discharged and, after his money was gone, the hotel clerk got his job back. When his oil ran out his money ran out too and he spent the remainder of his life in hard, grinding toil paying for the "fun" he had not had. Coal Oil Johnny's motto was: 'The only use for money is to spend it." But the motto lasted no longer than the money, for after his brief -splurge, he could not get it to spend. The best use for money is to save and invest in-vest it. Had he put even a part of his fortune or of his daily 'earnings into sound Government securities, he would have assured for himself a future free from toil and the scorn of those with whom he associated. |