A story is told in California of a man owning a farm which he wanted to sell. He had heard of the petroleum dodge, and thought he would try the same plan in another way. So one day, when a lot of speculators from San Francisco were at his house, he poured a gallon of whiskey into a small spring, and then led the speculators in that direction. The farmer spoke of the spring, said that he made no use of it, as he had an abundance of water near his house. He had never observed the spring except to remark its peculiar color. He roused the curiosity of the strangers so that one of them tasted the water, winked at his neighbor, and stepped aside. Before night the farmer had sold his place at a high price, and the speculators had organized a company for supplying the California market with an excellent article of whiskey cocktail. But somehow their enterprise never succeeded. The immense fortunes made from petroleum speculations were almost marvellous; a man might be poor to-day and worth a million dollars to-morrow. In the morning he could not raise enough money to buy a breakfast, and at noon his credit would be good for the purchase of a first-class steamship. A man might be working as a day laborer this week, and his wife would be taking in washing at a dollar a dozen. Six days later he would be a millionnaire clad in broadcloth and fine linen, and wearing a diamond like a calcium light, while his wife would be arrayed in silks of the most costly character, and wearing them as uneasily as a bull-dog wears a pair of trousers tied around his neck. A good story is told of a woman one day selecting some diamonds in a jewelry store on Broadway. Two other women were standing near and observing her motions. One of them suggested to her friend, “Evidently shoddy.” The diamond purchaser raised her eyes for a minute, and said, “No, madam; petroleum.” A great many stories are told of a youth in the oil regions who was brought up on a farm, and who, for a year or more, after the outbreak of the oil fever, was driving a team at fifteen dollars a month. He had a grandmother, as most young men have, but she was unlike a great many grandmothers, as she was enormously rich. She owned a large farm, and leased it to speculators who wished to search for oil. She always stipulated for half the oil, and her farm was so productive that she had a magnificent income, and accumulated money at a very rapid rate. A common report was, that she had eleven barrels and four trunks full of greenbacks. [Sidenote: THE MILLIONNAIRE YOUTH.] One day she did as all good grandmothers do,—she died. The youth, whom I will call John, as that was half his name, became heir to her vast estate. He dropped into two millions of cash, and into the farm, which yielded about two thousand dollars a day. He had never had so much money before in all his life. Ox-driving at the compensation he received would require a long time for the accumulation of such a fortune.