worry, she wrung her hands and rocked from side to side. "I dunno
what's come over the child," she moaned, tearfully. "She behaves so
queer over them silk stockin's an' corsets an' lingeries an' things
that she skeers me. Sometimes I'm afeerd she's goin' crazy--or
something."



CHAPTER IX

No industry can boast a history more dramatic, more exciting, than
that of oil. From the discovery of petroleum, on through the
development of its usefulness and the vast expansion of its
production, the story is one of intense human interest, and not
even the story of mining has chapters more stirring or more
spectacular.

The average man has never stopped to consider how close he is to
the oil business or how dependent he is upon it; from babyhood,
when his nose is greased with vaseline, to the occasion when a
motor hearse carries him on his last journey, there is not often a
day when he fails to make use of mineral oil or some of its by-
products. Ocean liners and farmers' plows are driven by it; it
takes the rich man to his office and it cleans the shopgirl's
gloves; it gives us dominion over the air and beneath the waters
of the sea. We live in a mechanical age, and without oil our
bearings would run hot and civilization, as we know it, would
stop. It is the very blood of the earth.

Oil production is a highly specialized industry, and it has developed