The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-20
TRYING TO HO0-DOO HIM
She was Reinforced by Dogs and Other
"Varmints."
THINGS SEEN BY A MAN WITH JIN.jAMS
He Can't Give Any Account of Himself But He
Can Describe Very VvidIy Queer
Menagerie He's Been in For
Too DAYS.

Eff you haint got faith in de Blessed
Lam
De liant gwine to kotch you shore.
Plantation Melody.
There's a man in the station house
who has seen things that never were
on land or sea.
He says his name is Ed. Gorham, but
where he comes from or where he's 60
ing neither he nor anyone else knows.
Ed is a negro, slight of build and
dark of color He came in on the fast
train from Weldon Tuesday night and
was at once taken in charge by the po-
lice-for he had what is Familiarity known
as the jimjams.
All day long Tuesday he raved and
tore at the iron bars of his cell trying
to get away from the strange people
and stranger animals by which he was
surrounded. They were men and women
such as no man ever before beheld, and
as for the "varmints" that he saw any
one of them would make the fortune of
any Snowman that ever went upon the
road.
They won't no 'hants' either re-
marked Ed yesterday, being only par
TALLY restored to his right mind. They
were the real thing-just as real as you
or me. Some of the folks | knew, but as
for the 'varmints, l never heard Of a
sober man seeing such things in my
life. Now if ia been drunk that'd been
different.
Tell me about the things you saw
Ed"
Well there was Miss Hail. She's a
dark woman and lives at No. "a Eaton
street. She was standing there squirting
water on me through a hole in the door.
She had a bottle with two tubes in it,,
and she squirted water on me all day,
She was trying to hoodoO me to make
me marry her. but / wouldn't marry her
if | never married anybody"
Where does Miss Hall live ?" e. ..a
"She lives here in New Haven, at No.
q Eaton street"
but this is not New Haven. this is
Raleigh"
How'd l get to Raleigh so quick? Oh,
l know. l travelled 700 miles in "a min
utes yesterday on the train. l went to
New York and Washington and Norfolk
and then to Weldon, where somehow or
other l got my tickets tangled up. /
ought to have stopped at Weldon and
gone to Washington, N. c., but the con-
ductor brought me by and then made
me pay $3.50 fare to Raleigh"
Then the negros wandering mind went
back to Miss Hail.
mo, sir. | won't marry her. She
can't hoodoo me and make me do it.
| roomed at her house five years and |
don't want her no more. I've been mar
ried once. My wife died nine years ago
and I've got a boy now at Newport.
Miss Hall had a big dog in her lap.
If anyone went near her it looked like
that trolling his eyes threateningly).
Then there was a dog tied over in the
corner with four puppies. Then they'd
all go into one big dog. It's head would
go small, then get big, then gray hair
and whiskers would come on it like on
a man.
Miss Hall and that dog stayed here
till the thing broke up.
There was something like a cat, too,
but there won't no snakes. And that
was the strange thing about it. I'd been
drinking for ten days, and when folks
are drunk they see snakes.
Any blue monkeys"
mo. 1 didn't see em if there were
But there were three other women be-
sides Miss Hall, but l didn't know en-.
They were all black. The man 1 saw
your life l wish he was here now so
l could show him to you, but he went
off when we broke up. He looked like