The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-27
QUEER BELIEFS OF NEGROES.
Hard to Break Their Faith In Hoodoo
 and Ha'nts.
T Inc Washington Post.

From the Washington Post.
 'It will be hard for the northerners to understand that" said a southerner who pointed out a brief news dispatch telling of the arrest of negro burglars by the police and explaining that their ex- traordinary boldness was due to their confidence in the hoodoo bags which they wore and for which they had paid as much as $125 each.
 But" he went on, fit is easily com prehensible to those who know the ne- groes. A very large part of the fight for the betterment of the negro has to be made against his blind superstitions, to which he holds as firmly as he did in the old slavery days.
 Indeed, there is very much more of 1t now than there used to be because the smart negroes, especially the so-called doctors, play heavily upon the credulity of the less intelligent of their race and multiply the charms and things which they sell. The doctor in the Florida case made small fortune by the sale of the hoodoo bags. This is not single or an exceptional case
 "The negro doctors who flourish best do not deal in criminal hoodoos, but play safely ulson the affections and love aspir- ations of their race. The sale of love powders for instance, is a large source of income to thousands of the doctors. They always charge good prices, and the colored men and women who buy them will not complain if the little doses of flour fail to produce the expected results. The doctors cannot be prosecuted, sim ply because they have no accusers, Then there are the good luck chairms and the there are the good luck charms and the mixtures of herbs which will cure strange diseases Indeed. there is scarcely town or village between Mason and Dixon S line and the Gulf of Mexico that has not its herb doctor and it's professional inter preter of superstitions.
 "One thing that cannot be eradicated from the negro, in this generation at least is his fear of graveyards and houses in which supposed crimes have been com mitted I recall going hunting with a negro who had belonged to my family. We were very late getting home on ac- count of the tides and the wind. At a bond of the river We could have made a half mile but Bob insisted on keeping close to the further shore, and in reply to questions he said he was afraid of the .hants.' Argument made him admit that ghosts did not exist, or, if they did, they were harmless; but nevertheless he wanted to keep away from dead people Every old negro will tell you of the .hants' he sees when he walks too close to a graveyard.
 We have in our family today a ne- gress of intelligence. One of the children she nursed has become a leading sur geon The old woman became i'll, and the surgeon, being very fond of her, went ahead and made arrangements for taking care of her in the finest hos pital in the largest southern city He explained that he himself would per form the operation and that she would have a private room.
 When the hospital ambulance came for her we found her door locked and heard her in an agony of prayer with in. one chung to the skirts of my wife and promised to be her slave forever if only we would save her from the hos pital She believed firmly that hospitals were places where they cut colored peo- pie up on the dissecting table. and the surgeon has never been able to try his skill upon her. Some of these colored people believe that if a surgeon operates upon them they will not be able to take whole soul tot xlaven. They think he may cut some off"