"A WONDERFUL WELL "

Otago Witness, Issue 1584, 1 April 1882, Page 20

"A WONDERFUL WELL "

I A" most remarkable circumstance has occurred at; a town called Franklin, in the oil regions of the United States. There is a hill on the borders of a creek in that location wliich has proved very productive to those prospecting after petroleum. In fact, so fruitful was it that it was positively honeycombed yriijh borings., Rial and Son, the enterprising firm which had carried these on with so much profit, were loth to abandon their workings until ,they were satisfied that they had exhausted their luck. They gave orders to sink the shaft deeper. The workmen pierced away until they had penetrated to a depth of nigh 500 feet, when success rewarded their efforts. They had " struck ile " again, and at the first action of the pump up came bubbling in a full continuous stream'the precious liquid. But thero was'SO-meth' ingyerypeculiar about it. It had not exactly the bituminous colour or smell, nor would it take fh-e. At last one daring fellow determined to taste it in order to form some opinion of its quality. After he had placed a few drops on his tongue, he smacked his lips knowingly and said, "This must be looked into." He put the end of the pipe to his mouth and imbibed such an enormous quantity of the product of the spring that his comrades drew him away lest he should do himself injury. But curiosity impelled them to follow his .example, and the consequence was that every, one of them drank and drank again, untii "in less than Hour all were stretched insensible aro,und. ; The tidings spread to the village .that t%e wa,s 'something very strange in Rial and Son'' new ,well. The entire population ran up' to test the wondrous oil, and_ in a brief period the entire, population was seized with a thickness ,of ,utterance, an incontinency of the knees^and, P- species' ,6f stupor. Very soon after Sic entire "population was prone in a stertorous coma.on^the ground. At last Mr Rial and his foreman., arrived, and were bewildered at the sight that; met them. The foreman tasted the liquid, arid, stated that it had a queer savour of, beer, ;In, aU haste Mr Rial sent forHerr Grossman, the brewer^ the greatest connoisseur of. beer,' in the. district, to consult him on the subject. The brewer, came, tasted the fluid, and exclaimed in agony : " Mem Gott, it is peer, my .peer ! they have poured into my cellar, I, Further, research showed the poor paan was right,; the cellar was examined, and the huge" tank from w,hich the barrels were supplied was, t run perfectly dry. Happily the workmen and i ,yillager.s have recovered ; they were hot dead— they were only dead drunk.