The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-09-15
ESTABLISHED 1850.
WATER WITCHES.

/ have only seen a few persons in
whose hands the switch will really
work. Some persons use a small,
timber switch, with two prongs, and I
have seen them brace the elbows
against the body and hold the switch
very firmly and very steady in the
hands, and as they walked the switch
would gradually turn down until it
pointed straight in the ground. The
switch will not work in my hand, and
to be sure the person did not use any
force to turn the switch down I took
hold of his hands with mine and held
them firmly and walked with him,
holding firm grip on his hands, and
1 know he used no force to cause the
switch to turn down, and the switch,
small, timber one with two prOngs,
gradually turned down until it pointed
in the ground, and it was held so
firmly that the bark was twisted off
in turning down. The timber switch
does not turn down all at once-it
starts over gradually and sometimes
it will turn down in few steps, and
then l have seen it go distance of
40 to so feet before pointing in the
ground, and the distance from where
the switch first started to turn down
to where it points in the ground IS
said to be the distance down to the
water, and the twig points down over
the vein of water. All the water
witches l have seen generally use
timber peach tree switch, and Inever
heard of hazel switch, only as saw
it in the papers. On our farm we
have an enclosure of four acres on
which we wished a well. We en-
ployed two men to dig one. After
digging as feet we did not get through
the hard clay, so we gave it up and
filled the we'll up.
A few years later we rented the
farm to an old acquaintance, and he
desired we'll to furnish stock water,
and we said to him we had dug as
feet and failed to get water. He said
if there was any water on the place
he could find it, and he cut a limb
from a peach tree and in a few min
utes he found a place where he said
was close by. We had well dug
and found good water at depth of
2I feet that furnished water for about
twenty head of stock and general
slop use. From what / have seen of
the water-witch business in the coun-
try the last forty-hve years am
firm believer in it, but I have only
seen very few persons in whose
hands the switch will work or indi
cate water.
Prof. c. L. Holland, of Arkansas,
under date of August 7, wrote the
Globe Democrat an article on the
water -witchesquestion inwhich he ex-
pressed desire to hear from any one
subject. My idea is this, that the
water -witching power is in the cleo
trio power that a person possesses.
I'm of no superstitious character, and
know this only by my own expert
ence and observations. On my farm
1 have medical spring, whose vein
would not yield sufficient water to
supply the demands for bathing. In
order to find more water called upon
H. Propes, water witch, whose idea
is that there is one in each family
who can witch water. Being, as |
am, the father of six boys, he taught
them his method of finding water,
and but one of them has, as my idea
is, sufficient electric power to demon
strate where the water is. He sim
ply takes a switch of one years
growth, holds it with both hands
over the ground. The stick bends to
the right or left, according as to where
the water is, until he gets immediate
ly over the water then it pulls down.
ward. This does not appear to be
gravitation, as gravity pulls only
downward. Following his directions
we found plenty of medical water for
bathing, since which time new bath
house and invalids' hotel has been
erected. Frank Scbnmer, IN St.
| Lozkis GLObe-Denz0C1 at.