At a drilling well near Rouseville the tools were lowered on Monday morning and, after running a full screw, were drawn minus the bit, with the stem-box greatly enlarged. After fishing several days for it the drillers were greatly surprised to find the lost bit standing in the slack-tub. The tools had been lowered in the darkness with no bit on. An Oil-City tramp on the pavement drear Saw something that seem’d to shine; He pick’d it up and gave a big cheer— ’Twas a nickel bright, the price of a beer— And shouted “The world is mine!” William McClain, grandfather of Senator S. J. M. McCarrell, Harrisburg, once owned and occupied the Tarr farm, on Oil Creek. Fifty or more years ago he sold the tract to James Tarr for a rifle and an old gray horse named Diamond. McClain removed to Washington county and settled on a farm which his son inherited and sold before oil was found in the neighborhood. Like the Tarr farm on Oil Creek, the McClain farm in Washington county proved a petroleum-bonanza to the purchasers. Said a Shamburg young maiden: “Alas, Will, You come every night, And talk such a sight, And burn so much light, My papa declares you’re a Gas Bill!” All kinds of engines, from one to fifty horse-power, were used on Oil Creek in the sixties. The old “Fabers,” with direct attachment, will recall many a broad grin. The boys called them “Long Johns.” The Wallace-engine had hemp-packing on the piston, and the inside of the cylinder, rough as a rasp, soon used it up and leaked steam like a sieve. The Washington-engine was the first to come into general use. C. M. Farrar, of Farrar & Trefts, whose boilers and engines have stood every test demanded by improvements in drilling, made the drawing for the first locomotive-pattern boiler on a drilling well—a wonderful stride in advance of the old-time boiler. Trefts made the castings for the engine that pumped the Drake well and was the first man, in company with J. Willard, to use ropes on Oil Creek in drilling. This was on the Foster farm, near the world-famed Empire well, in 1860. Willard made the second set of jars on the creek. Senator W. S. McMullan was a stalwart blacksmith, who made drilling-tools noted for their enduring quality. [Illustration: GRANT WELL EUREKA WELL GENERAL VIEW OF PITHOLE IN AUG 95 UNITED STATES WELL HOLMDEN ST. ] IX. A GOURD IN THE NIGHT. THE METEORIC CITY THAT DAZZLED MANKIND—FROM NOTHING TO SIXTEEN-THOUSAND POPULATION IN THREE MONTHS—FIRST WELLS AND FABULOUS PRICES—NOTED ORGANIZATIONS AT PITHOLE—A FORETASTE OF HADES—EXCITEMENT AND COLLAPSE—SPECULATION RUN WILD—DUPLICITY AND DISAPPOINTMENT—THE WILD SCRAMBLE FOR THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR. ----------