The Arizona sentinel., 1877-11-03

proper material. Lut out her, any
 green wood proves effective.
 There is ample evidece of two
 facts; that the rod works indepen-
 dently of it's holders vOlitiOn aid that some of the results of it's work
 ing are the finding of underground
 streams of water and bodies of ore. i Webster defines "Dletoni5m, as:
 The supposed faculty of perceiving and
 indicating subterruneous springs and cur ! rents by sensation; so called from one
 B.eton, of France, who was said to possess
 this faculty
 The common instrument used
 is a fork of small. slim, green
 wood. The tip ends are placed
 horizontally in the hands, the p.,lms of winch are upward; this brings the fork upward in the shape of an inverted V-thus, A. The fOrN -end is then attracted by living Water and bv the metals which attract electricity; for upon electricity after all are bIsed all the most pl ,usiole explanations of the mystery.
 It does not work with every one. RittenhouSe, Hopkins, Sib,.ld, Chilson and a number of others Well known in Yuma, are men Tn whose hands the stick works un- der circumstances, which prec ude all possibility of deception or fraud. In the East, persons possessing the faculty are we'll known as "water-witches."
 Experts in Bletonism say, that the distance, from the point where the stick is attracted at an angle of 45 degrees to the point where the attraction is perpendicular, is about the Same as the depth, from the surface, of the Water or ore.
 Nearly sixty years ago d number Of w, Il attested instances of sue ccsful BletOnism were published II jlt Cuiiivltor newspaper ol New York. Some years after, d tract on the subject WIS written by Dr. Adlm Clark, one of the fathers of Wesleyan Methodism, who proved the mutt r by repeat- d experiments. Not discovering any law of nature to account for the f,tcts, Dr. Clark concludes that BletOniom must De a special gift of God to some, for the benefit of the human race.
 Several philosophers have work ed for a satisfactory explanation. The rod has been tested by the electric machine; the positive pole attracts it, while the negative res pelS. The following explanation blsed OH these eXperimen and upon the well known Law, tha boC- it.s negatively chulg d attract tho-e oh ,rgtd positively and vice vers ;while those charged alike re- Del each other. Veins O. waterand of ore absorb electricity from sur rounding objects and become high ly charged.
 Men, who sullly generate or both neg tive and positive electricity in equal qulnti ieS, mlil tain their bodies i, an cleo i tric equili ;rium: in their hands the rod does not work. Other men are surth urged with electri- rity and become po,itive; others contain very little and are negt- tive; in hlndS of these the rod is very sensitive and, when they stand over water or ore, l.ecUmeS part of the connection between the then existing electric polp:. When the operator is oh urged po- 5itively the stick will turn upward toward himself. Wh II he is ne- gative the rod will be drawn down. ward towards the water or ore. With very sensitive p'rsons the effect is felt as we'll as seen.
 Twenty-Five years ago was pulp .ished the following statement from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin:
 There are numbers of miners among us