CAaypole on Natiiral Ga$. 33 
an unwelcome prediction yet a calm and unprejudiced review 
of the evidence points strongly to it. Look at the present con- 
dition and read the past history of the once famous oil-fields of 
Pennsylvania and see what they can teach us. Read the story of 
the great Pennsylvanian gushers and note their present state. It 
is almost mournful to walk through those scenes of fabulous 
wealth and waste only twent}' years old. It is saddening to 
visit the great Franklin oil-field of Venango county and seethe 
hill-side dotted with derricks standing over ^vells from which 
v/ithin a decade or two flowed forth dark green streams of oil 
at the rate of one, two or even three thousand barrels per day. 
There they still stand thick together like giant skeletons in the 
foi'est. On each one seems to be wi-itten "Ichabod," "the glorv 
is departed." Only by extreme care and economy can these 
fabulous monsters of the past be made to yield enough to pay 
their costs. A small solitary steam-engine stands amid a group 
of wells and b}^ means of long swaying rods works a pump in 
each. Slow^ly the piston rises and falls and the long rods creak 
and groan alone among the trees. No man is near. Night 
and day they toil unwatched and untended save for an occa- 
sional visit from the engineer when anything gives way. And 
as the result of all these labors a small trickling stream of oil 
flows down the hillside through an iron pipe into a barrel 
placed below. Even of this small stream the greater part is 
only brine, worthless and troublesome, and the net results from 
some of these giants of old is but one, two or three barrels of 
oil daily. 
Substantially the same story may be told of all the oil- 
regions. Exhaustion stares the visitor in the face everywhere. 
Their day is past. The quiet old towns that sprang into sudden 
energy and activity during the oil-craze have sunk back to their 
former quietness and lethargy. The new oil towns that leaped 
into sudden being at the touch of the enchanter's wand have 
sunk as quickly as they rose and the grass is now growing in 
their once busy streets. Corner lots are at a discount, and often 
the ruins of derrick and engine house alone mark the spots 
where once a "city "stood. Goldsmith's deserted village has 
been enacted more than once in northern and western Pennsyl- 
vania. 
