The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-12

straighteners they guarantee quick results and are not looking for razor trouble.
 "A year or so ago crafty, middle-aged black man, who posed before his people as an itinerant preacher of the Gospel, corralled scores of them throughout Florida and Georgia by selling them charms which he declared would render the wearers invisible whenever they de- sired not to be seen. The charms were ordinary pebbles. neatly sewed in little pieces of chamois skin. The grafter, who got rid of them at from S10 to $25 each from credulous members of his race, told his victims that the charms were straight from tn hands of the mother of the voodoos' in Africa To clinch his argu- ment he always pronounced certain chanted incantations over the charms.
 'In the regions in which this man operated white poultry raisers and fruit growers were soon amazed to observe black men helping themselves to all the chickens and fruit in sight, often in broad daylight, with no apparent fear of the consequences, The negroes taking these chances positively believed that while wearing their charms they were invisible to the owners of farms whose grounds they set out to loot. and it took a lot of buckshot judiciously placed to
 
 ceived and that their charms from the hands of the mother of the voodoos' lad only theoretical value. The authorities of Florida got after this black man, hut l believe that he wasn't punished
 Notwithstanding the vituperatisn Q, d scorn with which the 'blue-gummed I ig- ger is mentioned in some of the current coon songs of the day, the so-called blue gummed negro of the more remote colored settlements of the far South Is very much-feared individual by his neighbors, who attribute all sorts of yuperstitious powers to him. The blue-gummed negro practices the voodoo business w'th profit, and any old sort of a rhilter that he rigs up nnds a ready sale among the ignorant blacks. Consequently a good many of the forehanded darkies Cown in the obscure regions want to he blue gummed negroes, and they are easy vic tins for the black con mon, Eho sell to them for figures ranging from S6 to $20. certain nostrums which are guaranteed to change their gums to the blue hue within a certain space of time.
 The superstitious black girls-'house' as well as field niggers'-ace easy prey for the purVeyors of love philte-s. who have became as thick as blackberries all over the South in the last decade. They ASodAAJ BANC dp d NoSCS TUT u little vial of colored water which is solemnly guaranteed to bring the man of their choice to their feet in a little less than no time
 But the black girls are not alone in yielding to the blandishments of the color ed con men who sell philters. There are philters devised for the flim-fiamming of the male blacks. smooth black grafter got away with lot of money throughout Louisiana a year or so ago by selling to black youths little vials which he guar anteed would make the other fellow lose at craps or any other game of chance once he had involuntarily absorved the stun into his system.
 "The more ignorant blacks of the cot ton belt are in such a constant state of fear of the evil eye that the colored bunko men who sell contraptions to rem der the evil eye intellectual have as much business as they scan -handle. -.zone so8