_Electrical World_, “is the coming fuel.” It is believed by many that
the excitement over the discovery of oil fields in Pennsylvania in 1865
will be repeated on a much larger scale in oil regions yet to be
discovered in the far West. At present, the mountains of Wyoming appear
to be the most promising field. To sink an oil well costs $500 on the
average. On Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, a few wells have been struck which
yielded 3,000 barrels a day. One of the quickest ways to accumulate a
fortune is to prospect for oil, and when a rich vein is struck to buy as
much land as you can. A young man named Johnny Steel once owned nearly
all the land where the Pennsylvania oil wells were discovered. His
income was over $1,000,000 a year, $30,000 a day, or about $2 a minute.
But, verifying the adage that “a fool and his money are soon parted,” he
not only spent all this enormous income, but also squandered the entire
principal, and came at last to work as the driver of an oil wagon on the
very oil farm he had once owned.