Altogether he made a deep impression upon the occupants of the farm house, and their surprise may be more readily imagined than described when, upon taking his departure, he presented them with his card, in the shape of a silver half dollar, upon which was engraved his name. The farmer was paralyzed with astonishment. Nor would he believe his senses until he had run after the train and been assured by the conductor that his visitor was really none other than the notorious Ben Hogan.
After his return to Petrolia, from this visit to Pittsburg, came the memorable thirty days "shut down" in the oil regions. The effect of this move, which was in fact a demand for an increase on the price of petroleum, was most disastrous to the oil interest. It resembled, on a smaller scale, the Black Friday, never to be forgotten in Wall street.
Seizing upon the excitement of the hour to promote his own interest, Ben issued a circular which was exceedingly rich and racy. He proceeded to declare that he was the owner of fifteen pumping wells, and that he fully agreed with other operators in the pressing necessity of an advance in prices. It was impossible, the circular said, for Mr. Hogan to produce his oil for less than five dollars a barrel. Indeed, considering the character of the oil obtained from his wells, even this was too small a sum.
Thousands of these circulars were distributed through the oil regions, and copies of them found their way all over the country. So neatly was it worded, that a great many swallowed the joke as gospel truth; and one man in addressing a public meeting astonished some of his hearers by saying:
"Why, gentlemen, here is a circular from Mr. Hogan, one of the heaviest operators in this region. He says that he owns fifteen wells, and yet even he is not able to produce his oil for less than five dollars a barrel!"
If the orator had known that it was fifteen barrels of whiskey he was talking about, he probably would not have brought forward this circular by way of an argument.
It was at this period that Bill Casey made his confession of firing Ben's house, to which reference has already been made. Two weeks afterwards he was burned to death on the Allegheny river.