Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-10-13
A POWERFUL CHARM.
History OF n snake-SkIn Believed In By
CredulOus Darkies-
News.

lfliadelph.a News.
Ben Johnson Is no longer q benefactor to
ihe colored people OF st. Mary and Alaska
streets. Some one has stolen his snake.
skin, and tTibulation reis1s among the
duskv denizens OF the way down circles.
III the players are to be believed, there has
been more money won in policy by the aid
Of this blAcksnake skin than through any
other taliSman used by the colored policy
players.
Benjamin johnson is not a voodoo doctor,
but found in the superstition Of his peopls
market for the snakeskin, which they
persisted in believing brought good luck
to its possessor. Toe skin has had many
owners. 1t was once the property of Aunt
Sarah Jackson, noted voodoo priestess
living in Kent County, Maryland. She
gave it TO the octoroon voodoo doctor in
Baltimore, who passed IL along to Bill Be
Dip. II finally came into Johnson's pos
session. The superstition attached to Il
has been that when a colored policy player
dreams Of the king, or any other lucky
row. It is the proper thing that he should
hire Ben Johnson's snakeskin for luck.
1t IL an ugly charm, having been taken
from a black snake during the war and
used constantly in inrantatious aud other
voodoo rites. Its record is so he1-ed
about with the mystery which the darby
so dearly loves that il has boon in constant
request at one dollar per day. Now that
q Baltimore coon has taken the prize, there
Is a wailing among the dark-skinned
policy players.
Tradition has Il that Ben Frisby, the
highwayman, carried the skin for two
days, and made a hit OF one hundred doll
lars. On the other hand, tell the unbelis p
ing, Johnson, who is now incarcerated for
the murder OF John Sharpless, at Media,
carried the skin two days previous to his
being confined in Moyamensing for steal
ing. Besides those people johnson had
his regular customers for the hire of the
skin, and he charged fifteen cents an hour
for its use.
Several entcrprisins darkies once set up
an opposition by introducing snake-skins
that had neither the experience nor the
record OF JOhnson's. Alex Barnet, better
known as "Yaller Alex, )" who has been liv-
ing on Hirst street for seven years, intro
duced a ratilesnaAe- skin, but there was
such a run OF hard luck following its use
that nobody hired the skin, aud for a tim Q
this Sc tied in the minds of the regular
policy players that there was hut one
genuine voodoo in the town and that il be-
longed to Ben johnson, and curses are
daily and deeply heaped on tho thief who
has stolen. the sacred snake OF st. May
street. johnson, deprived of his liveli-
hood by the treachery of a friend, is now
looking for a job to carry the hod.
h. Iaf gaf IL q L..
the colored people residing in tho slums of
Philadelphia is very strong. There are
several voodoo doctors residing in Phila-
delphia, an they all teach that tho voo-
doc deity is a serpent, al hou n the old
yellow darby of Catherine street believes
he had on additional divine exorciser, a
little assistant god, in his enormous big
yellow cat. These beliefs, nouiish.d by
the agel and the long headed schemers,
stI engthen all the other superstitions and
reliance which the ignorant ones of the
race place in spells. More than one fight
hrs occurred in their savory precincts
because of experimenting" and "charm-
ing" One saddle-colored darby, living
with his wife on Lombard street, near
Fifth, is REGARDED by many of his neigh
bors as a doomed man, that a spell has
been put on him, AMI he will soon disaD-
pear from the face of the earth. Hi. name
is Alexander White. He was good look
ing enough to win Sadie Bell from Jim
Arnold, and on that account James went
to the sorceress at Cooper's point, Cam.
den, cnl bought spell.
II was under the direction of the sorcer-
ess that, during fight IN a saloon on the
corner of Sixth and Lombard streets, Ar
mold pulled several crimps out of Whi'e's
head and then procured a piece Of the
clothin of n corpse recently taken from
the grave. This, together with Whites
hair and the mysterious powder secured
in Camden has been buried in the belief
that "a IL rois away so will Jim White
waste away AMI die on his feet. White
has become acquainted with the fact, and
is now taking powerful doses OF an:ilote
that he procu es at McClo keys saloon by
the pint.