. Cassier's magazine . showed that deposits ofthe liquid existed under various por-tions of the State, even beneath theocean, and the development was sorapid that California now furnishesover a third of the petroleum securedfrom this country. OIL FIELDS Patillo Higgins, a country schoolteacher in eastern Texas, conceivedthe idea that he could make moremoney out of oil than in the class-room. He succeeded in organizing acompany to prospect, but nearly tenyears elapsed before he securedenough money to bore the it began flowing at the rate of50,000 barrels every twent
. Cassier's magazine . showed that deposits ofthe liquid existed under various por-tions of the State, even beneath theocean, and the development was sorapid that California now furnishesover a third of the petroleum securedfrom this country. OIL FIELDS Patillo Higgins, a country schoolteacher in eastern Texas, conceivedthe idea that he could make moremoney out of oil than in the class-room. He succeeded in organizing acompany to prospect, but nearly tenyears elapsed before he securedenough money to bore the it began flowing at the rate of50,000 barrels every twenty-fourhours people who had laughed at the Coal Oil Johnny had hundreds ofsequels in Texas; for, within eighteenmonths from the beginning of theboom, it had collapsed to such anextent that 750 derricks planted overdry holes in the Spindle Top dis-trict were standing deserted, and notover 100,000 barrels were beingpumped daily from the wells in oper-ation. This was what the prospectorshad to show for an actual investment. PUMPING OIL FROM UNDER THE PACIFIC OCEAN visionary scheme changed their was the first of the famousgushers. Higgins put down his well on theprairies a few miles from Beaumont,Tex. Within thirty days seven morerigs in sight of it had reached thesands, and were each spouting upfrom 10,000 to 20,000 barrels strange, is it, that in two months400 companies had been organizedto bore for oil, to sell land, to dealin oil machinery, and to build re-fineries and pipe lines? The historyof Oil City was repeated in andabout Beaumont. The story of of fully $10,000,000. But it was onlyanother case of overdoing the mat-ter. True, no longer do you see thewells throwing the fluid hundreds offeet in the air; but the noise of thepumps is still heard on Spindle Top,for it has never given out, and to-day is producing at the rate of nearlytwo million barrels annually. This bit of history is worth re-peating, since it resulted in the greatmajority of the prospector
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