BARBED WIRE IN WARFARE.
' wiRE EITTANGIjEMENTS PLACED ABOUND OHCEVELBt STATION IN
SOUTH AFRICA AS PABT OF THE BRITISH DEFENSES.
| The Blossb u pg "Gu sher"|
4 Greatest 112 Strike on Record, S
2 NEW KLONDIKE, jj
"7C" RIVER of oil has created a
/ \ second Klondike in Penn
sylvania. It has made a
(J" city of a mountainside hith
erto sacred to rattlesnakes.
It has added millions to the real
estate values and made heiresses of
poor farmers' daughters for many a
v mile around.
Most important of all, it has proved
that the geologists were wrong when
they decided, years ago, that oil
would never be tapped east of the Al
leghany watershed, and it suggests
the possibility of the world's oil mar
ket being flooded to such a degree as
to bring prices down to next to noth
ing—that is, if Mr. Rockefeller were
not here to keep theru up and put the
difference in his pocket.
' Such, in brief, are the facts concern
icg the Blossburg Oil Company's well,
the source of a river which is jealously
caught and imprisoned as it gushes
from the earth, because every gallon
of it is worth money.
It is pouring out wealth at the rate
of $365,000 a year—a thousand dollars
a day—and it represents only the be
ginning of what may be expected of a
region where land is ten thousand
times more valuable to-day than it
was before the oil discoveries.
This last is a literal fact. If the
DEL.AVAN AYLESWORTH. JOBS AYLESWOBTH.
(The brothers who have struok oil.)
mountainside had been offered at auc
tion before a drill had been sank it
would not hare fetched ten cents an
acre. Now there is not an acre that
would not sell for SIOOO, with a mob
of bidders fighting for precedence.
Pine Creek, the most famous trout
stream in Pennsylvania, is the centre
of this oil rush, which rivals the gold
rush of Cape Nome. The big well—
there are many smaller ones around
it, and more are being sunk every day
—is three-quarters of a mile south
east of Gaines, Tioga County. It
penetrates the rock for 654 feet near
the edge of a bluff that rises 120 feet
from the bed of Pine Creek.
There was a time when the hills for
miles in every direction were cov
ered with the finest pines in Pennsyl
vania. But the creek has floated out
billions of feet of timber, and now the
region is a desolate one of stumps and
brambles, repellant alike to the agri
culturist and the artist.
UNABLE TO CONTROL THE FLOW OF OIL.
The story of the "Great Gusher,"
as it is known in the parlance of oil
men, is one of the romances of for
tune, deserving a place beside the
fjonanza tales of California and Ne
vada. Those for whom the well is
ponring forth its SIOOO a day are coun
try merchants and professional men,
formerly of moderate means, none of
whom knew anything about the oil
business. They are former Senator
Walter Merrick, John Aylesworlh,
Del. Aylesworth, William Aylesworth,
Dr. D. O. Merrick, George Clark, J.
D. Connors, W. 8. Scott, Mark Davis,
W. H. McCarty, A. I'. Botchford, H.
R. Whittiker, F. H. Stratton, W. C.
Babcock, F. L. Jonei and W. A. Rob
erta
The company is not incorporated
and business is carried on as a co
partnership.
The drilling of the Great Gusher
was a forlorn hope. The company
had already drilled one well on its
lease of 155 acres and had found the
sand a; dry as powder. Under the
lease a forfeit would have to be
paid if two wells were not sunk. The
forfeit would amount to about the
same loss ad the drilling of a well.
' I LOWINC, INTO TA.NI FROM THI BLOSSBURO "GU: HER."
With the slenderest shadow of a
hope—merely, iu gambling parlance,
to"have a run for their money"—the
partners decided in favor of the well.
In selecting the bluff near the upper
end of the property they disregarded
the advice of experienced oil pros
pectors. To drill there was pro
nounced an act of folly.
To emphasize the hopelessness of
the oaae work was begun on Good
Friday, April 13. Any gambler would
have laid big odds against such an
unhappy combination.
For ten days the drill burrowed its
way through varying strata. On Mon
day, April 23, it gnawed slowly for an
hour through a hard formation more
than an eighth of a mile below the
surface.
"She's struck sand!" shouted the
driller.
It was only that the drill had
dropped into a softer formation—and
the sand was likely to be as barren as
1 Coney Island's—but force of habit
impelled this cautious man to con
nect the well with the storage tank
provided to save the first rush'of oil.
He was just in time. Before the
tools could be withdrawn from the
hole a yellow torrent gushed forth
and filled the tank with a roaring and
a splashing that sang of millions.
'She's struck oil!" was the shout;
find it echoed down the vailey and be
yond, till at every farmer's door and
on into the cities were echoed the
magic words, "Struck oil!"
Every telegraph wire in the land
flashed the story of the Blossburg Oil
Company's Great Gusher, and capital
ists began to speculate on the strange
developments that might follow the
discovery of a subterranean petroleum
lake east of the Alleghanies.
As for the Great Gusher, it spouted
forth 2200 barrels the first day and
2500 the second day.
Before noon on the third day it had
repaid the partners their entire ex
penses on the lease—the investment
had oost them only 85200.
At the close of the tifth day they
were 814,000 richer for the. mere
trouble of catching the oil.
Then the Great Gusher sobered
down to the cheerful song of SIOOO a
day, and this it continues to sing,
week days and Sundays, with no sign
of weariness.
It is the greatest well known to the
northern oil fields since 1882, when
the Cherry Grove field, in Warren
County, Penn., made the world ring
with tales of sudden fortune.
Cherry Grove knocked the bottom
out of oil prices and ruiued thousands
of men engaged in the oil business
elsewhere. Blossburg may do the
same thing if it proves to be over a
big lake of oil and not merely a small
pool, as was the case with Cherry
Grove, which exhausted itself in a
year.
This important question can be
settled only when test wells have been
sunk for miles around, and from the
way speculators are rnshing into the
Pine Creek region doubts must soon
be dispelled.
The Blossburg property is being
honey-combed with drills. A well near
the Great Gusher is yielding 540 bar
rels a day, and auother is productive
iu a smaller degree.
Just what kind of sand the oil comes
from no one knows. As soon as the
tools pierced the shell the well flowed
and no sand was bailed out. Whether
there is ten feet of it or fifty, whether
it is brown, white or gray, no one
knows as vet. The company liaq been
kept too busy caring for the oil to
worry about the color or thickness of
the sand in which it has been stored
up.
The little town of Gaines has ac
quired some of the character of a
Western mining camp. The hotel has
been overflowing for three weeks and
the proprietor has secured every vacant
room in town for his guests. The
telegraph and telephone have become
metropolitan in their activity. Keen
men with large bank accounts roam
everywhere, snapping up speculative
chances. Their talk is all of barrels
and dollars, leases and wells, drills
and pipe lines.
The Standard Oil Company, alive to
the great possibilities of the new field,
is laying a four-inch pipe line across
the mountain to connect with their
main pipe line twenty miles away.
On the lighter side of human na
ture at the Pine Creek rush are
ranged the clairvoyants and hazel
twig magicians who infest new oil
fields. One of these "oil smellers"
will sell out his occult gifts as a pros
pector for from $lO to 8150, accord
ing to the means and credulity of his
client.
Some of the individual cases of
sudden fortunes are full of interest.
Joseph Bernauer was a poor man
two years ago. His little farm on the
bank of Pine Creek yielded him a liv
ing and that was all. He peddled
milk every morning and evening to
the housewives of Gaines.
His farm proved to be right on the
oil belt and his income from royalties
is now over SSOO a month.
This discovery has made a group
of country storekeepers and small
farmers rich in a trice. Men whose
total worldly possessions were worth
perhaps SSOO have been offered $125,-
000 for their rights in this gusher.
How to Live a Century.
Dr. D. K. Pearsons, of Hinsdale,
111., a millionaire who is makiug it his
business to give away his money to
enterprising colleges in the West, re
cently made some very interesting
statements in explanation of his con
dition of hearty and hopeful health at
jogto* the a ß e of eighty
Jgr years. He says he
Jgf \ expects to live until
he is a hundred, and
vSr "ywJB k' B ru ' oß °' ftre
worth considering.
"Most mrn dig their
graves with their
teeth." he said. "My
T 1W , stomaoh is my friend
A /Jr J and I'm happier than
IA if / any other man on
\ jf\ ' earth." He says the
DB. D. K. PEAR- MAU W HO wants to live
SONS. to a ripe old age
should keep 0001, not overload the
stomach, breathe pure air and lots of
it, eat a vegetable diet, not eat late
suppers, goto bed early, not fret, not
go where he'll get excited, and not
forget to take a nap after dinner.
Though he is a doctor himself, he
threw all his medicine away years ago,
and he says he does not know what an
ache or pain is. He takes regular de>
light in his gifts to colleges, but will
not allow anyone to make a hero of
him, as be hates exoitement. He
say* a man must "keep oool" if he
wants to live a hundred years. "It's
the worst thing in the world," he
maintains, "to get angry or cross."
He gets up at 6, eats a light break
fast, works till noon, eat 3 a vegetable
and fruit dinner, without tea or oof
fee, takes it easy the rest of the day
and goes to bed at 8. He says he
does not want to die till he has given
away all his money.
Even the rioh girl may have a poor
complexion.
Most Beautiful Woman in Cuba*
Senorita Silvia Alfonso y Aldama,
whose portrait is here shown, has
been voted the beauty queen cf Cuba.
The election was recently held in
Havana preparatory to the carnival to
be shortly given there, over which
Senorita Alfonso will reign. Some
SENORITA SILVIA ALFONSO.
twenty well-known beauties of the
island were contestants for the honor.
Senora Josefina Herrara de Pulido,
the daughter of Count Fernandina,
was the last Cuban senorita to be
similarly honored.
Silvia Alfonso was born in Cnba,
but was educated in Paris. She lived
in New York from time to time during
the past four years, during the pro
gress of the recent insurrection.
She will be the recipient of every
honor during festiviit. week and will
remain supreme for two years until
the next festival is held.
Makes Chain Armor Shirts.
Owing to the cleverness of a Shef
field manufacturer the ancient custom
of wearing chain and mail is likely to
be revived. The abandonment of the
coat of mail was due to the superior
piercing ability of the modern missile,
which rendered the coat useless for
ordinary purposes of protection.
Moreover, its unwieldiness made it
worthless as a protection against the
attack of steel. Now, however, the
deverness of a Sheffield manufac
turer has produced a shirt of mail
that weighs less than twelve pounds,
that can readily be worn beneath the
3oat, aud is impervious to every at
tack except that of the composition
bullet. His product is having a large
sale, and is likely to be more widely
used as it becomes better known.
It is composed of small steel rings
linked together so finely that even
the point of a pin cannot penetrate
through them. At the same time they
can worn without the slighest dis
joa ort. *
Tiicj cover the entire breast and
oack from the neck to the thighs and
jxtend down the arm to the elbow.
Thus it will protect anyone from an
ittack of dagger or sword in every
vuluerable place. Its value as a pro
tection against assassination is evi
dent.—Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Encouraging Marriagni.
The Mayor of Cardiff, Wales, re
cently awarded what is known as "the
Bute marriage dowry" to a domestic
servant. The dowry was instituted
by Lord Bute to enable deserving
couples to marry. It is the interest
on SSOOO and is awarded once annually.
This year the amount was 8140. The
lucky young man to whom the domes
tic is engaged is William Cam, who
has been ten years in the service of a
Cardiff carriage builder. When pay
ing over the dowry the Mayor reads a
passage from the Bible relating to
marriage, and delivers a little homily
to the intending bride and bride
groom.
Making; a Collar Button.
In the first stage of the manufac
ture of a single-piece collar button
there' 3 a ciroular disc stampted out of
a strip of metal. Being fed into sev
eral machines, it at length gets into
the third form, so like a grandfather's
hat.
Bapid blows, and many of them,
from powerful hammers bring it to
the fourth stage.
4%, /TBI
VARIOUS STAGES OF MANUFACTURE.
-
Then a machine turns up its edge.
Still another rolls it over.
Then its head is pat into shape.
Last oomes the polishing.
How seldom do we itop to think of
all the brains and energy that go into
every tiniest article!
The average distance traveled by
British engine drivers is from 30,000
to 50,000 miles every year. There are
aboat 20,000 drivers in the United
Kingdom.
When a mystery is unraveled there's
pretty tore to be a long yarn.
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 1 .
The American water hyacinth which
.s not infrequently an obstruction to
navigation, in southern rivers h-s
been successfully killed on the 1. el
pomene caual, New Orleans, by a
chemical spray.
A specimen of edible earth lately
orought from Fiji—a soft, pale pink,
slayey substauce—proves to be an
iluminum silicate, probably kaolin,
ffith about 7.6 per cent, of iron oxide
is a mechanical impurity.
The water storage required to pro
luce one horse-power for one hour,
nrith au available head of 10 feet,
ffould be represented by the capacity
>f a tank 20 feet square and 10 feet
leep; at a head of 140 feet the storage
tank would still be required to be 10
:eet square and about three feet deep.
A French inventor says that he has
•olved the problem of sendiDg a num
ber of dispatches simultaneously on a
single wire. His system, which wa3
sxplained before the Academy of
Sciences, was recently tried success
fully between Paris aud Pau. Twelve
independent currents were sent ou
;he circuit at once in either direction,
cnaking a total of 24 telegrams.
The public library building in Chi
cago is protected against the invasion
>f fire from the outside by means of a
to-called "water curtain." At the top
jf the building is a system of tubes
through which water, supplied from a
mnk, can be caused to flow over the
lutside walls. Recently the efficiency
jf the water curtain was tested by the
soeurrence of a fire in a large spice
nill adjoining the library building.
The water being turned on, the outer
walls were immediately covered with
i liquid sheet which, as the tempera
ture was low, became eventually a
sheet of ice.
A flexible metal hose is made at
Pforzheim, Germany, by rolling up a
metal band like a screw thread, the
specially profiled edges engaging in
Due auother so as to form a continu
ous joint, which is made tight by a
:ord of rubber or asbestos. The
metals chiefly used are galvanized
steel and phosphoror-bronze. The
pipe is remarkably flexible, and its
Due disadvantage of tending to un
twist through rough usage is over
come by making it double, with op
posite windings. It is intended for
mining purposes instead of rubber
Lose. It is made up to eight inches
iu diameter, and to withstand pres
sures up to 200 atmospheres.
It is a curious thing that in all the
balloou asceusions and experiments
that have been made in recent times,
there has been collected no satisfac
tory data on so important a question
'is how long a time a balloon will re
main in mid-air. It is, however,
the general opinion that, because of
the change of the temperature of the
day to that of night aud its effect on
the gas with which the balloons are
inflated, it has been possible to keep
the ordinary balloon in the air foi
Duly about 30 hours without replen
ishing the supply of gas. Some Ber
liu scientists are to make an effort
tii gathering more exact information
soon, when they will be sent up on
)iie of these airships, containing
115,000 cubic feet of gas. Provisions
for ten days will be stored in the car,
which will be eight feet square and
will accommodate fivo persons, with
sleeping quarters for three.
Ants Useful in Surgery.
Many useful discoveries have been
!nade bv savage people aud utilized by
nvilized men for the amelioration ol
human suffering. The native Brazil
tan, far removed, as he usually is,
from doctors and surgeons, depende
upon a little ant to sew up his wounds
when ho is slashed or scratched. This
add creature is called the surgical ant,
from the use to which it is put.
The ant has two strong nippera on
his head. They are his weapons foi
battle or forage. Wheu a Brazilian
has cut himself, for example, he picks
up au ant, presses the nippers against
the wound, one ou each side, and theu
gives the bug a squeeze. The indig
nant insect snaps his nippers to
gether, piercing the flesh and bringing
the lacerated parts close together. The
Brazilian at that moment gives the
ant's body a jerk and away it flies,
leaving the nippers embedded in th«
flesh. To be sure that kiils the ant,
but he has served his most useful pur
pose in life. The operation is re
peated until the wound is setfed uj
neatly and thoroughly.—Chicagc
Chronicle.
A New Way to Sterilize Milk.
A certain degree of heat kills th«
bacteria that promote the souring o)
milk; hence by raisiug the tempera
ture of that fluid nearly to the boiling
point it ie effectually sterilized. Sucb
treatment, however, robs milk of its
characteristic flavor, imparts a new
taste to it, robs it of its ability tc
yield cream, ana otherwise affects it
iu an uudesirable way. But a method
of conducting the operation has been
found which is said to le free froa
these objections, while retaining thf
advantages of sterilizing. Niels Ben
dixen Of Copenhagen has just pub
lished a paper in which he describe!
the prooess. He saturates the milk
with carbonio acid before applying
heat, raises the temperature to 12(
degrees, and finally removes the oar
bonic acid by exposing the milk tc
sterilized air. He alleges that milk sc
treated forms no skin, does not ehangt
color, and retains the cream yielding
power. Jost how the oarbonit acic
accomplishes thia result is not clear,
bat its shaL'e in the work ia affirmed
poaitivelv.
TRAVELS OF THE JICCER.
TTII# Flen Seemi Bout on Circuuinuvl*
gating the Globe.
The very small species of the flea,
commonly known as the jigger, whose
native home is tropical and subtropi
:al America, set out iu 1872 to circum
navigate the world and has now hall
completed his journey. His arrival
in India and Malagascar is almost
simultaneously reported. On his cou
queriug way he has badly frightened
many barbarous tribe,s by his propen
sity to bore through the skin and tine 1
lodgment under it, and mauy villages
and sometimes whole districts won
abaudoued by the natives during his
journey across Africa, says the Nev
York Sun.
In September, 1872, a sailing vessel
from Brazel dumped a quantity o;
sand ballast on the beach at Ambriz,i
little south of the Congo. This event
has historic importance from the faC
that the jigger crossed the ocean it
this sand audit is believed to have
been lm first introduction to foreigt
territory. His rate of advance acrost
Africa depended upon the means ol
transportation at hand, for the jiggei
will not hop when he may ride. It
was 13 years before he struck the
caravan route to Stanley Pool, and
then he journeyed quickly and com
fortably with the porters in the freight
service to that starting point of the
upper Congo steamers, which carried
him half way across Africa. Twenty
years after his arrival in Africa the
jigger appeared on the shores of Vic
toria Nyanza, aud sis years later he
was hopping along the sauds of
Zanzibar island.
The jigger was thus established in
1898 at the busy mart whence many
vessels sail for the Ea3t Indies anil
Oceauica. It was predicted that ho
would soon invade India, aud, sure
enough his arrival at Bombay, whether
he had been brought by coolies re
turning from Africa, is now reported.
"Le Tour da Monile" says he may be
expected in French Indo-China at auy
time and that he will evidently invade
the whole of southern Asia, aud let
ters from Nossi Be, iu northwest
Madagascar, report his advent there
and on the adjoining islauds, where
he is flourishing and multiplying iu
the sandy soil.—Pittsburg Daily
News.
QUAINT AND CURIOUS.
While cutting timber in the forests
near Cromwell, Ivy., lumbermen found
a bone in the heart of a solid oak tree.
How it got there is a mystery.
It was a belief among the Egyp
tians that the third finger of the left
hand was connected with the heart by
meaus of a slender nerve. From that
belief came the custom of wearing
the wedding ring on that finger.
The Eads bridge across the Missis
sippi river at St. Louis has always
been subject to thopbeuumoaon known
as "creeping rails." The creeping
occurs always iu the direction of the
traffic, and varies with the amount of
tonnage passing over the rails.
A. A. Putnam, an electrical engi
neer of Rochester, N. Y., made an
oral will the other day by talking into
a phonograph. He signed his name
on the wax roll of the machine with a
hot copper wire, aud the witnesses
did likewise. Legal authorities say
that the will is valid.
A curious plant is the tooth brush
plant of Jamaica. It is a species oi
creeper, aud has nothiug particularly
striking about its appearauce. By
cutting pieces of it to a suitable length
and fraying the ends the natives con
vert it into a tooth brush, and a tooth
powder to accompauy the use of the
brush is also prepared by pulverizing
the dead stems.
A singular accident occurred neai
Juliet, Ga., a few days since. A fly
ing pigeon collided with a southern
railway train which was coming at
high speed. The beak of the pigeou
broke the glass in the locomotive cab
and so great was the velocity of the
bird that the window was not shat
tered, but a round smooth hole was
made, similar to that caused by a bul
let wheu fired through glass. The
bird was instautly killed, but in his
flight his sharp beak came in contact
with the engineer's face and the man's
eye was put out.
Mrs. Davis Sweet of Boston in step
ping from a chair seversl weeks age
struck her foot lightly agaiust one ol
the rounds. Intense pain followed
and the usual remedies failed to give
relief. Finally her doctor cut intc
her foot and uear the heel attached tc'
a tendon was a largo piece of bone
that was tearing the flesh. Upor
beiug remove I it was found to be the
exact counterpart of au incisor tooth,
the only difference being that it hao
enamel on the back while the front
was of double thickness. The doctoi
is unable to give any explanation as t<
the (rtece. He doss not believe it is
part of the heel
In the province of Cordoba, Argea
tine Republic, is a great salt lake,
which recently has been surveyed bj
an Argentine surveyor. The lake it
50 miles long from east to west, and
31 miles wide at its broadest point
The average depth is from 12 to If
feet. Some fish live in the lake, but
they are small, and do not thrive well
because of the extreme saltiness o»
the water, which is a 6 per cent, sola
tiou. The shores of the lake and its IS
islands are thickly wooded with pin*
and qnebraoho. The lake is called
Mar Chiqaat*. and the region about il
is entirely nninhabite 1. Many wild
animal* abound th»r#