Sketches in Crude-oil: Some accidents and incidents of the petroleum development in all parts of the globeMcLaurin, John J. (John James)
History
Sketches in Crude-oil: Some accidents and incidents of the petroleum development in all parts of the globe
McLaurin, John J. (John James)
Petroleum -- History; Petroleum industry and trade -- North America -- History
Human nature is a queer medley and sometimes manifests streaks of envy
and meanness in queer ways. Mr. Sibley’s motives have been impugned, his
efforts belittled, his methods assailed and his neckties criticised by
men who could not understand his lofty character and purposes. The
generous ex-Congressman must plead guilty to the charge of wearing
clothes that fit him, of smoking decent cigars, of driving fine horses
and of living comfortably. Of course it would be cheaper to buy
hand-me-down misfits, to indulge in loud-smelling tobies, to walk or
ride muleback, to curry his own horses and let his wife do the washing
instead of hiring competent helpers. But he goes right ahead increasing
his business, improving his farms, developing American trotters and
furnishing work at the highest wages to willing hands in his factories,
at his oil-wells, on his lands, in his barns and his hospitable home. He
dispenses large sums in charity. His benevolence and enterprise reach
far beyond Pennsylvania. He does not hoard up money to loan it at
exorbitant rates. As a matter of fact, from the hundreds of men he has
helped pecuniarily he never accepted one penny of interest. He has been
mayor of Franklin, president of the Pennsylvania State-Dairymen’s
Association, director of the American Jersey-Cattle Club and member of
the State Board of Agriculture. He is a brilliant talker, a profound
thinker, a capital story-teller and a loyal friend. “May he live long
and prosper!”
Miller & Sibley’s Prospect-Hill Stock-Farm is one of the largest, best
equipped and most favorably known in the world. Different farms
comprising the establishment include a thousand acres of land adjacent
to Franklin and a farm, with stabling for two-hundred horses and the
finest kite-track in the United States, at Meadville. On one of these
farms is the first silo built west of the Allegheny mountains. Trotting
stock, Jersey cattle, Shetland ponies and Angora goats of the highest
grades are bred. For Michael Angelo, when a calf six weeks old,
twelve-thousand-five-hundred dollars in cash were paid A. B. Darling,
proprietor of the Fifth-Avenue Hotel, New York City. Animals of the best
strain were purchased, regardless of cost. In 1886 Mr. Sibley bought
from Senator Leland Stanford, of California, for ten-thousand dollars,
the four-year-old trotting-stallion St. Bel. Seventy-five thousand were
offered for him a few weeks before the famous sire of numerous
prize-winners died. Cows that have broken all records for milk and
butter, and horses that have won the biggest purses on the leading
race-tracks of the country are the results of the liberal policy pursued
at Prospect-Hill. Charles Marvin, the prince of horsemen, superintends
the trotting department and E. H. Sibley is manager of all the Miller &
Sibley interests. Hundreds of the choicest animals are raised every
year. Prospect-Hill Farm is one of the sights of Franklin and the
enterprise represents an investment not far short of one-million
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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