A SPLENDID RUIN.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2235, 17 May 1880, Page 2

A SPLENDID RUIN.

According to the New York Sun the United States now boasts the finest ruin iu the world, an American Baalbek, in fact. It is the ere-while city of Pitholc, Pennsylvania; once a place containing 20,000 inhabitants, and now owning three families. Its history is a peculiar and sad one. In ISG4 “ oil was struck ” accidentally, and immediately all the population of the adjacent districts flocked to the scene. Houses were erected, lots apportioned, streets marked out and built, Government offices, establishments, 'churches. Chapels, theatres, drinking-saloons, all grew apace. In a very short time

. Pithole bid fair to become one of the most flourishing townships of the Union. Two years passed by. All was going merrily forward, when suddenly the oil ceased flowing. Then a stam- : pede ensued for places where petroleum was to be found. Away went the populace, and following them the officials, until three families only remained to , plough tip the streets, and grow wheat where once the citizens had disported themselves. In the eyes of the American paper that I'eCords this, but: one satisfaction remains, and it is that ■ happily all the great classes of political thought in the. States are still represented at Pithole, for while one of| the remaining residents is a greenhabker, the . second, is Democrat, and' the third a Republican! j