The Opelousas courier., 1896-07-25
THE OWNING ROD.
Credulous Persons Who Believe in
the Water Wand.
Discovering Hidden Springs by a
Forked Apple Stick.

3OAnOa ApllO oG4CAs
Finding on several occasions that
the divining rod was spoken of by the
tarmerso of a Pennsylvania community,
[ determined to investigate, says a
correspondent of the Philadelphia
Press, and to my astonishment found
that not only did no one avow plain
disbelief, but that many expressed
most perfect confidence in the mys-
FERROUS power. One person, largely
townbred, and perhaps, therefore.
more familiar with phases of skepti-
cism, boldly asserted that, though at
n time an unbeliever, he had re-
canted his error, and had become a
firm adherent to the belief that you
can discover water underground by
means of n stick of the proper kind,
carried in the proper way in the
hands.
Two instructors in the art we're
Forthcoming, and l was told of a third,
who was a well-tried professor, and
who would, for a small sum, infalliblv
point out a place at which you might
safely bring well-sinking operations
with full confidence hat your labor
would not be in vain. | took my
lessons in private with each of my
teachers independently of the other.
The procedure was exactly the same in
both cases. W. repaired to the or
chard aud found a shoot of one years
growth, which had formed q fork.
Note we'll that it is necessary that the
shoot should be Of one years growth.
I was then instructed to place my
hands horizontal with the palms up
ward, the thumbs, of course, being
outward, and my elbows close to my
side. The two branches Of the fork
we're placed in tue palms which were
then closed tightly, SO that the
''handle" of the fork stood perpen-
dicularly upward. The next direc-
ton wei to hold the apparatus firmly
in this position, and to walk slowly
and carefully about, when, if passed
over a spring of w.sor, the index, or
handle of the fork, would bend down
to the water. I did so, and after a
short time I felt the divining rod
twisting round in my hand, until
the index was horizontal and finally
vertically downward. In each
case my teacher. was delighted, and
predicted that I should make a good
diviner. We did not, of course, sink
q we'll to complete the demonstration,
but that has nothing to do vi b the
matter. Ny instructors wery con
WINGED that water was under my feet.
So am I, for you could scarcely go
ten yards or sink a we'll tweFoop feet
deep without finding water, seeing
that it bursts from the sides of. the
hills and bubbles up in the plains in
all directions.
It was useless to argue about the
muscular force that was acting down
my arms aud along my fingers, and OF
which I was painfully conscious, from
the constrained position in which l
held the twig.
Now, please observe that this is an
account of an event which took place
within a hundred miles of the enIight-
ened city of Philadelphia, in the year
1896, A. D., only four years before the
dawn of that magnificent twentieth
century in which time and space anil
darkness are all to be abolished, and
men may even hope to understand
more than three, four or five dim en-
sions. Conservatism would certainly
hold that the belief in the power of
discerning water and other treasures
in the recesses of the earth, by means
of a divining rod, rests on a surer basis
than discovering the contents Of q
purse by means Of Roentgen x rays,
because it is much more ancient. Baby.
lonians of old used divining rods. The
mystical Magians made them out Of
tamarick boughs. Hindoos, as long
ago as when the Vedas we're written,
practised the art of discovering hidden
things by can of magic wands. The
Chinese ''from time immemorial' have
made them of peach twigs. European
nations have had faith in the hazel
branch, and not even the sarcasm Of a
Sir Walter Scott, as put forth against
the person of Dousterswivel in ''The
Antiquary," has been able to kill the
English and Scotch belief in the
method.
Religious Faith Of Presidents.