“Better be a young June-bug than an old bird of Paradise.” PITHOLE REVISITED. The following lines, first contributed by me to the Oil-City _Times_ in 1870, went the rounds twenty-five years ago: Not a sound was heard, not a shrill whistle’s scream, As our footsteps through Pithole we hurried; Not a well was discharging an unctuous stream Where the hopes of the oilmen lay buried! We walk’d the dead city till far in the night— Weeds growing where wheels once were turning— While seeking to find by the struggling moonlight Some symptom of gas dimly burning. No useless regret should encumber man’s breast, Though dry-holes and Pitholes may bound him; So we lay like a warrior taking his rest, Each with his big overcoat ’round him. Few and short were the prayers we said, We spoke not a sentence of sorrow, But steadfastly gazed on the place that was dead And bitterly long’d for the morrow! We thought, as we lay on our primitive bed, An old sand-pump reel for a pillow, How friends, foes and strangers were heartily bled And ruin swept on like a billow! Lightly we slept, for we dreamt of the scamp, And in fancy began to upbraid him, Who swindled us out of our very last stamp— In the grave we could gladly have laid him! We rose half an hour in advance of the sun, But little refreshed for retiring! And, feeling as stiff as a son of a gun, Set off on a hunt for some firing. Slowly and sadly our hard-tack went down, Then we wrote a brief sketch of our story And struck a bee-line for Oil City’s fair town, Leaving Pithole alone in its glory! [Illustration: PARKER OIL EXCHANGE IN 1874.] TOP ROW— J. D. Emery Warren Gray. —— Harris. E. Seldon. C. Seldon. Nelson Cochran. Col. Sellers. Unknown. Milo Marsden. W. A. Pullman. L. W. Waters. Lemuel Young. Chas. Archbold. Unknown. Unknown. Harry Parker. Hugh McKelvy. James Green. James McCutcheon. J. M’Donald. Dr. Thorn. Unknown. Unknown. MIDDLE ROW— O J. Greer. Fullerton Parker. Full. Parker, Jr. James Goldsborough. W. C. Henry. Thos. McLaughlin. Col. Brady. Sam. Morrow. Joseph Seep. Charles Hatch. John Barton. R. Moorhead. H. W. Batchelor. —— Gephardt. Shep. Morehead. LOWER ROW— Capt. J. T. Chalfant. Thos. McConnell. Weston Howland. James Lowe. Chas. Riddell. Richard Conn. Rem Offley. Ren. Kerr. Harry Marlin. H. Beers. Jas. Garrett. Chas. W. Ball. Walter Fleming. Chas. J. Frazer. X. UP THE WINDING RIVER.