Steele, John W.

"Coal Oil Johnny"
Wastes Millions, Dies In Poverty

Ft. Crook, Neb. Jan. 28. "Coal Oil Johnny" is dead. The most widely advertised spendthrift the country ever knew died in poverty here where he was station agent for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. In the days of his prosperity he spent as much as $100,000 a day. And the days came around as regularly as the sun. When he died he made about $3 a day and the pay car only came around once a month.

Neither the oil that produced his fortune, nor his money, nor the way he spent it brought him luck or happiness. He spent the last fifty years of his life paying for the follies of his youth, in poverty and toil.

John W. Steele, for that was his real name, was born on a farm near Sheakleyville, Pennsylvania, and, as he was orphaned in his youth, he went to live with his aunt, the Widow McClintock, in Venango County, Pennsylvania. Oil was struck on the McClintock farm and the flow was leased on a royalty basis. The Widow McClintock knew farms but not oil and lived as she always had lived, putting the money which rolled in into a big safe in her dining room. One day when Johnny had failed to provide kindling, she threw a dipper full of the fateful oil on the kitchen fire and her interest in earthly affairs ceased at once.

Johnny was sole heir and when the $500,000 in cash to play with. He ran through his find faster than the oil gushed from the wells. He practiced every form of extravagance. He bought hotels for a night. He declined to ride in any vehicle which he did not own and the country was studded with cabs he had bought and given back to their drivers after he was through with them. He owned a minstrel show and spent thousands entertaining members of the company. But he did not have a good time. He admitted it himself. In one instance he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a hotel clerk discharged and after his money was gone, the hotel clerk got his job back. When his oil ran out, his money ran out too and he spent the remainder of his life in hard, grinding toil, paying for the "fun" he had not had.

Coal Oil Johnny's motto was: The only use for money is to spend "it". But the motto lasted no longer than the money, for after his brief splurge he could not get it to spend. The best use for money is to save and invest it. Had he put even a part of his fortune or of his daily earnings into sound Government securities he would have assured for himself a future free from toil and the scorn of those with whom he associated.

Fewer chances to save money and invest it safely and profitably existed in Coal Oil Johnny's youth than exist today. Now Government Savings Securities offer a safe and profitable means of providing for the future and making it both safe and happy. The $1 Treasury Savings Stamps and the $25 Treasury Savings Certificates are the safest and most convenient means for protecting what you earn and making it work for and with you. They are especially adapted for the use of the wage earners of America.

From the Mohave County Miner, dated January 28, 1921
Transcribed and Contributed by: Barbara Ziegenmeyer