Connecticut western news., 1890-04-02
A DECEPTIVE OWNING ROD.
It Worked Well on Gold Coin, but Failed
 to Locate a Bonanza.

many features Of the mlnlng industries of the west. No one seems to know it's origin, nor can any one determine it's practical use save as trap for the unwary and snare for the credulous Of the latter some ten years since l was very fair specimen, but my ex- perience with the 'divining rod fend" did much to cure me of my credulity in this and many other respects.
 I first met him, the ''fend, summing himself one day while standing at the corner of California and Montgomery streets, San Francisco. As he is still prominent figure among the hope fuls of "Pauper alley and may be seen almost any day in his familiar haunt near the Stock Exchange. will not call him by name. Mir. Dennis, therefore, will do. That isn't his name, of course, but it ought to be, as the following will show.
 He was introduced to me by friend as being a man it would be we'll to cul- tivate. I then had a few thousand dollars at my command, which fact Mir. Dennis was soon aware of.
 He was tall and spare, with restless gray eyes and an altogether unprepos- sessing figure; but this made no differ ence. He could, he said, put me in the way of making millions, and he was therefore just the sort of man l was looking for. He knew, so he informed me. a place located hear Los Angeles, where $1OO,OOO in gold was buried that he could lay his hands on at any moment There were various other localities in the state where gold and treasure were also buried, but which he did not go after because, as he explained, he lacked the means wherewith to defray his travelling expenses.
 He looked absolutely destitute and poverty stricken, and even struck" me for quarter then and there; but there was, withal, something so plausi- ble in his romances that I could not but feel interested in him and give credence to his yarns.
 Come with me, said he, finally, ''and I'll show you my apparatus, and let you see it work With my curi- osity greatly excited we then proceeded to vacant room in the Bank of Cali fornia building, where he produced from under his coat a V shaped affair which he said was divining rod l At the point or apex was small brass knob which contained some mysteri. 1 ous chemical compound, "the secret of an eminent German chemist, long since dead" and which, he said, would invariably turn and point to the prec- l ious metals.
 He then grasped the handles of the instrument in either hand, with the apex pointing upward, and 1 looked with wonder at the rod twisting and turning in his hands, and at his appar- entity futile efforts to prevent it from moving.
 ''It's no use," said he; i've are di- rectly over the bank vaults, where a great quantity of gold coin is stored. and it would be impossible for me to prevent its tur,lily then tried the thing myself, LuL 1t failed to work in my hands, because, as he explained it, l was not magnetic. Physical magnet ism, it appeared, was necessary in it's operation.
 To make long story short, was l soon bound for a locality in Ell Do 1 rado county, Cal, accompanied by Dennis assured me, he had located rich vein of gold bearing quartz that I would yield at least $250 to the ton. uOA AuOW Wuy ulul 1ISI SO dl- ter the buried treasures in other locali- ties, but as $250 quartz ledge was a sure fortune, and MT. Dennis had some ready excuse for delaying our expe, dition after these other "bonanzas, had to be content with the rich gold mine in prospect.
 That 1 had to pay Mir. Dennis trav- cling expenses goes without saying; | hut Inv of Ia ! reward therefor caused me no uneasi- ness on this account
 The spot-I might say the fatal spot was finally reached, and MT. Dennis at once commenced his experiments. After hunting about for an hour or so the rod began to gyrate, and then we knew, or at least 1 thought 1 knew, that the bonanza was there waiting to
 be uncovered.
 After stalking out our claim and
 posting up the usual mining notice 1 engaged the services of six experienced
 was commenced. The miners were in- credulous, and even poked considera-
 ble fun at the lightning rod man; y
 but as they received good pay for their
 labor they wisely concluded to stand
 it as long as their wages were forth
 coming.
 vein at depth of thirty feet. This
 was encouraging, particularly for MT.
 Dennis, who somehow didn't appear
 to enter into the thing with the same
 spirit as formerly. After several more
 days of digging and blasting, during
 which time 1 watched eagerly for
 signs" of gold, we struck water. We
 struck it hard, too, for the shaft, then
 over sixty feet deep, filled up to within
 fifteen feet of the top in less than two
 days.
 To add to my discontinue Mr. Den
 his coolly informed me that perhaps
 we had made a mistake, but that if l
 would go with him to Los Angeles l He never got beyond that sentence.
 Git, said I, "as fast as your legs can
 carry you, orr l pointed signif-
 cantly to the well
 l MT. Dennis stood not upon the order
 of his going, nor did l see him again
 until six months afterward, when at his
 familiar corner he was once more re-
 lating his treasure trove yarns to an
 eager groupof listeners.
 My experience cost me nearly $1, 200,
 and my subsequent Investigations of
 the divining rod have convinced me
 that the instrument can be made to
 point to anything, from a rathole to a
 wad of greenbacks.-New sork Her. ald
 ] A Womans Way.
 My husband doesn't chew any
 more tobacco" said newly married
 lady to number of friends, ''or, at | loocf l,o 1nac,,1t I