Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-10

scarcely credit in the daytime There
is something demoniacal in the idea of
those South American savages. in peeling
the heads of their enemies. filling the
sewn-up skin sack with alternate por-
tions of hot sand. and SO affecting this
horribly grotesque result. Not content
with this, they hang up the grisly relics
AS choice ornaments in their dwellings
and at certain periods curse and revile
them with all due form and ceremony.
1t makes you half inclined to believe in
demonology and witchcraft and such
things, at which you smile during the
day.
When you mention this to the watch
man. with the unacknowledged hope that
he will pooh-pooh the thing. he only
makes matters worse by relating what
the museum can show in this line of
goods For example. there is the severed
hand that was found in the possession
of negro "voodoo doctor in this city,
the fingers of which were being vended
as charms to Washington negroes This
relic Of mysterious African cult that
flourishes in our midst takes away even
the consolation of remoteness. In further
illustration of negro superstition the
Waterman tells a curious anecdote.
1T got about among the colored people
in Washington and its vicinity he says,
that the museum was possessed of the
devils baby What idea they attached
to this satanic progeny or how they be-
came convinced that the remains of the
i
cannot say. Certain it is that the idea
took firm hold and spread long way
among the colored population, for the
Waterman at the door was astonished one
day by seeing party OF rural-iooking
darkies, headed by a man whom he de-
scribes as the ugiest person, black or
white, he ever beheld. This individual.
who was very black. very Old and who
sported a high silk hat of the pattern OF
1912 or therea bout. removed the latter
with a sweeping flourish and. with low
bow, thus addressed my astounded col
league:
Sab. hab the honah to head a
deblgation from Kahline county. Vir-
geenyah. We hab heard dat you hab
heah de debiTs baby, an we hab come all
de way on spress purpose to see dat dar
baby
"One would never imagine that the day
Waterman at the door Is a wag. but he
has a pretty good notion of joke, and
an idea struck him on this occasion. All
right he said IN show you the devils
baby And with that he goes into the
office, brings out a looking glass. and
places it up to the face Of the old darby.
who did not get angered, however. but
laughed gleefully. OF course the Kah'-
line county 'debilgation' were disappoint-
ed in their quest. I suppose some negro
sonian building. and these being horrible
enough to suggest anything almost, the
notion of the devils baby got started
Other gruesome objects that the night
enhances in their effect the remains
of the man hung In chains, the garrote.
which did terrible execution in the hands
of the Spanish in Cuba; the collection OF
death casts acquired by French expe-
dition in China, the Malay peninsula and
Africa. The latter is. truly. anything but
a cheerful exhibit as the Chinese heads
are chiefly those Of decapitated criminals.
and many of the other gentlemen of color
thus realistically portrayed met with vio-
lent deaths. When these heads. the skele-
tons mentioned and other exhibits OF
similar nature are displayed in the new
building, to which they will shortly be re-
moved the public may. In general. con-
graduate themselves that they will be-
hold them by broad daylight, and not
by the glimpses of the moon and the
night watchman's lantern.
But as the Waterman remarks. 1t is
not at all likely that any OF these grue-
some things would awaken the cupidity
of a burglar Rather would the artful
manipulation Of the jimmy turn his at
tention to such articles as the jeweled
snuff box presented by Napoleon
III to Prof. Henry, or the superb
pearl necklace given by the 1maum Of
Muscat to the wife of an American dip