This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
EARLY IN BUSINESS
127

from that Number 36 oil well that its flow has increased to twenty-five barrels a day; and it is just what Doheny said it was, — pure, lubricating oil, with no asphaltum, but a little higher grade at thirty-seven gravity.

EARLY IN BUSINESS

At seventeen years of age Doheny was with a United States government surveying party in the Indian Territory. As a side line, he took to trapping wild animals. Many a wolf-skin he cashed in at the trading-post, but he early showed his independence. When trapping one winter with a friendly Indian, one of Doheny's pelts was claimed as taken from a wolf nearest the Indian's trap. Doheny protested. He said the hunting law might well be that a dead animal belonged to the nearest trap, but snow on the ground showed that that animal came from his, Doheny's, trap.

The Indian stood by the law and Doheny stood by the fact and they separated. Doheny declared that no rule of the hunt could give his kill to another trap when it was clearly shown by the snow tracks it did not belong there.

Doheny was soon again in business for himself. With a partner he bought at auction over sev-