The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-20
MYSTIC CHARM DIDN'T work.
"Aunty" i'm Trouble Because Her
Amulets Would Not Protect Sol

"Aunty" i'm Trouble Because Her
AmuIets Would Not Protect Sol
diers.
From the New Orleans Times-Democrat.
Old Aunt Martha is a celebrity among
the negroes of New Orleans, and is pOpu-
larly supposed to be over 100 years old.
! She certainly looks it, and her wrinkled
face and lettering form are familiar TO al
most everybody VINO has occasion to be
much upon the streets The old woman en-
| joys a wide reputation with the members
of her race as a fortune teller and maker
! of charms" and Il is chiefly by the sale
OF the latter that she picks up the few odd
! coins that supply her livelihood. Her
charms are known as Jacks" in African
veruacular, and many strange and won
| derful stories are told of their peculiar
potency
Il dunno how It's" said a darky who
acts as porter for an Office building on
Baronne street, and who scornfully dis
claims any personal superstition. Dunno
how It's, sab. but dem jacks does shorely
| pear ter be pizen bout er house You put
one in er Dussons bed an dat pussOn is
shore to kinder pine erway an they're
mighty liable ter die eff they don get shet
of IL quick"
But all of Aunt Marthas charms are not
d
another brand that are supposed to bring
| back recreant lovers, and still another that
protects the wearer from bodily harm, like
the amulets of old The last named variety
has recently enjoyed a remarkable boom,
and thereby hangs a ta,e.
When the Ninth Regiment of so-called
negro immunes, commanded by Cot Crane.
were in camp at the fair grounds old Aunt
Martha was among the crowd of darby
hangers-on who haunted the neighborhood.
Her fame rs jack maker soon found its
way into the camp, and before long she
| had received several orders for charms
guaranteed to turn either a Mauser or a
microbe. She assured the applicants that
she had something that would do the
work, and next time she hobbled up to the
guard line she brought with her half
dozen or so war jacks of the most APP
proved pattern.
''Just wear dat mex ter de skin, honey"
| she instructed each patron. AN dere amt
no bullet made kin tech ""
The jacks excited a great deal of inter
| est. They were smaR bags of grimy red
| flannel, tied with a string, and as none of
| the troopers had the hardihood to open
any of them their contents remain a mys-
! terry. They were popularity supposed to
contain fragments of black cats and other
bric-a-brac peculiar TO dusky conjurine,
and the consensus of evidence is that they
felt hard and knotty on the outside. Be
that as it may, an immediate demand for
jacks sprang up throughout the Ninth I'M
munes.
Within the next few days the old woman
was fairly inundated by the tidal wave of
prosperity. The jack market had taken on
the greatest boom In history, and Col
Cranes stalwarts came close TO blows over
the matter of preference in their orders.
The original price of the charms was two
bits each, but as the demand increased
they rose to so cents, and then to 81. Even
at the latter figure the supply was kept
continually short.
Nobody seems to know exactly where
Aunt Martha lives, but wherever her abode
may be she must have transformed it
temporarily into a Jack factory and en-
poyed competent assistant magicians in
preparing the output. Her skinny and
tremulous old hands could never nave
prepared anything like the number of
talismans that found their way into the
camp, and for the time being she reaped
the harvest of her life. Even some If the
white officers heard of her charms and
concluded to invest just as a matter
of curiosity, y know" When the -egi-
ment departed such snatches of CONVEX
sation as the following were common at
the wharf:
well goodbye, Broth Williams. Have
70 got 20 JACKIE"
"Suah."
Now comes a somewhat singular after
math. The rumor has somehow or other
gained currency in colored society that tie
Ninth Immunes have Jared badly at San
tiago. 1t is reported that fully half Of
them have succumbed 10 the deadly eli
mate, and that the chances are very re-
mote that many of them will live 10 re-
turn II is impossible TO tell how such
a fantastic story originated, s the regi-
rnent at last accounts was doing pretty
well, barring occasional Jays. but il is
firmly believed and the tale has had the
effect of directing great wrath upon the
head Of Aunt Martha Many of the dusky
soldiers have friends In the city, and they
are full of virtuous indignation at the
isnominious failure of the jacks. A
dusky damsel whose beau is in the COM
mand heard that he was dead the other
day. and gave the old woman such beat
ing that she was confined to her bed. IL
seems that she had pinned her faith TO
jacks and had purchased one for her ad-
mirer on the positive assurance that il
was proof against any climate. When
she heard that she had been bunkoed
she was unable to restrain her hand IN
Ill some reinsurance arrives from The
front Aunt Martha will doubtless emulate
Rr'er Rabbit and LAY low"