CHAPTER I

SOME OLD FRIENDS


Since these Reminiscences are really what they profess to be, random
and informal, I hope I may be pardoned for setting down so many small
things.

In looking back over my life, the impressions which come most vividly
to my mind are mental pictures of my old associates. In speaking of
these friends in this chapter, I would not have it thought that many
others, of whom I have not spoken, were less important to me, and I
shall hope to refer to this subject of my early friends in a later
chapter.

It is not always possible to remember just how one first met an old
friend or what one's impressions were, but I shall never forget my
first meeting with Mr. John D. Archbold, who is now a vice-president
of the Standard Oil Company.

At that time, say thirty-five or forty years ago, I was travelling
about the country visiting the point where something was happening,
talking with the producers, the refiners, the agents, and actually
getting acquainted.

One day there was a gathering of the men somewhere near the oil