Arizona republican., 1910-04-06
WOE WATERS.
Croyden's Prophetic Chalk Spring Again Stirs the Super
 sttIous.

The Bourne has broken again a ! Croydon. and the same stories are be l ing told about it and the same qucs- tiuns asked and the prophecies mad, of coming evil. as have been talked over in the chalk country cottages since the days of. Alfred. The out break of the chalk spring water iron ground dry in other years is a 'mys- ,cry. ar "portent" a prcsage of bat .lc. plague, famine. and su fortf. say: The Spectator. The testimony Of the old chronicIers is set out again. Cam dcns remark. for instance. that the tradition of peStilcnCc or dcarth fol- lowing the Bourne flow may seem not worthy once the naming. and yet the events sometimes ensuing hath pro- cured it credit
 Perhaps the most explicit of the carly historians is Jobn War<worth who m his chronicle 6f the First Thirteen Years of Edward IV.." places the Croydon Bourne among the Woo Waters" or Woe Waters of England According tu his account:
 Englishmen whennc thei dyd fry ste inhabvde this land. as soon" as thei sec this watsre renne thei kuewe wele II Was H taken of derthe ar of pesty- lence. or of great batayl". For all that tyme thei save it renne thei .newe Welle that WOO uas cummynge to Englandc.'
 Wsrkworth knew. of five Woe Waters. "Woemercs. or "Womeres. and this passage refers actually to the
 W"merc," which hc discribes as bc ing vii my lc from { Alban's. at a place called Markayate:' the others 'rere at Laveshsm Canterbury. called Naylbourne: one at (pcrhaps) Lewis hamJ in Kent; one beside Croydon, and another. vii myle on this syde Hungerevale" Where this may he it is hard to know.
 The Croydon Bourne flow is simply q particular instance of the breaking out of water from saturated chalk. and the same thing is happening. ur will ar might happen. in many other parts of England: but the Croydon Bourne flow. once having attained the rather fascinating distinction of be- ing named Woe Water. keeps up the mystery. and frightens decent citizens. and is photpSrap phod anu written about and. to bc sure. it makes its appear anoe just when parliament is topsy turvy and nobody quite knows what is going to happen next. It is keeping up it's reputation, for when it was flowing last. six years ago, the Japd . nese torpedo boats began the war by blowing Russian battlcships out of the water
 Woe Water the Bourne flow remains and the name has the attraction of mystery. of legend. of perilous places and events: there is the gray loneli- ness in it of the wan water" of the old ballads. But of course it is the easiest thing in the world to associate the breaking out Of the forgotten springs. or the sudden arrival Of q new comet or anything intermittent and unusual with dreadful political events or disasters lie plague and occur they are attributed to the Woe Water: when they do not the Woe Water is forgotten. It is part of the old natural habits of primitive man. observing natural phenomena which he does not understand.
 When d stream runs over ground in which there is iron ore the red in the stream is not iron: the river runs blood Red seaWeed at low tide and under a red sunset makes a sheet of blood out of the sea. Meteors raining across the sky arc the stars fighting in their course. So the winter bourne must bring i'll fortune. or if not ill fortune something remarkable. such as John Aubrey chroncilcs, for the winter bournes broke before the restoration of Charles IT.. before the plague of 1665. and before the coming of Will between 1865 and 1888 he does not mention.
 But the breaking does sometimes bring i'll luck to individuals. as the late
 'harles Cornish noticed. for hc dis covered more than ono case where the owner of a spring and planted gardens and put up chicen pens, and then the bourne broke after the rain and away went the chickens and the garden soil. Cornish noted another curious fact. that Winterbuurue in some places is family name. and he suggested that possibly the name was given to gypsy settlers who wandered about tho country all the summer and only came to remain in the village or on the same piece of ground in the winter. This suggestion was followed by q letter sent by a correspondent to the Spectator. who wrote to say that in the East Riding of Yorkshire the win ter bournes were known as "gypseys." How far docs country tradition go back in such matters. and what pro nunciation does if follow? Gypsies Egy yptians, came to England about the time of the Renaissance. and the York shire "gypsey." meaning winter bourne, ia pronounced differently from the ordinary word gypsy" the York shire countryman sounding the "g' hard, as in gimp
 SHE KNEW WHAT TO SAY.