Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1882-02-02

The horseshoe, now all the rage a
an ornament, aud affected by men an,
womtn alike. has long been considelc,
a token of good luck, especially b,
sailors. Few sailors would start on
voyage in a ship on which the pOteDc,
If the horseshoe was not aCknOwl
edged. 1t must be kept at some con
spicuous place as sign of good luck
On Western steamboats, not deck
hand could be induced to engage him
self on a steamer that did not have {
partly.wnrn horseshoe nailed over The
cOmpanion-way Of the bow.
How long this superstition has pre-
vailed it would he impossible to tell
1t is by no means OF recent origin
IIOrseshoes and conjurers have lorg
been allies. To find a whole horseshoe
in the road that has been cast from the
animal and still retains five of the
nails in it is considered a remarkable
token of good luck.
But should any one find a horseshoe
with all the nails in it, he may consid.
er himself endowed with wonderful
powers of magic. This conceit no
doubt had its origin in the fact that it
is almost impossible for a horse to cast
shoe while all the nails are intact.
There lived man in Shenandoah
county, Va, who claimed to have
found such a horseshoe. His name
was Conrad Gerst. He was a German,
with little education, but was consider.
able of a knave. He professed to be
able to work wonders, and was be.
lieved by many people to possess Ger.
tain powerful cOnjuring powers. Gerst
was shoemaker, and very poor, for
he was too lazy to work, and had a
large family of children. He could
heal the sick, recover stolen articles,
cure diseased cattle, find underground
streams Of running water, and make
the butter come for the dairy.woman,
and drive off witches.
A woman churned all day over a
churning of cream, but the butter
would not come. She sent for Gerst.
He told her to get an old horseshoe,
heat it red hot, and cast it into the
churn. Then, after cleansing the churn
with boiling water, he guaranteed that
the butter would come at the next ef-
fort. And more, if the woman would
inquire carefully among her neighbors
she would discover that some one of
them IAN enemy would have a severe
burn on some part of her body. There
were plenty of people who believe in
this.
Another case: A widow lady, liv.
ing two miles from Gerst, had sum
of money stolen from her. Instead of
giving the matter into the hands of the
authorities, she sent for Gerst. He in
quired into the affair, and, after per-
forming number of incantations with
a stick that he carried, and placing his
horseshoe in the fire and cooling it in
the spring, he announced confidently
that on the morning of the second day
thereafter the money would be found
at a certain place, with some other
valuahles that had been lost.
This conclusion of the conjurer was
widely circulated. and on the morning
indicated quite number of people as
sembled at the widows house to see
the predictions verified. The money
was found at the place indicated. The
solution was that the thief, whoever
he was, believed in Gerst's pretended
power, and returned the money out of
fear. The superstition that imputes
such virtues to the horseshoe gave
birth to the prevailing idea that makes
it an emblem of good luck.