Delaware City press. (Delaware City, Del.) 1913-19??, 1913-10-03

know what's going on here-there are so many
pipes and wires underneath your streets in New
York-but think there must be water here some
where"
Then of the older members of the club who
waa present remembered and told how when the
club house being erected, the contractors lay
ing the foundations had great difficulty in
trolling the rush of water from vein that
laid open directly under the spot where the bill
lard afterward located.
Another day the two friends were guests at the
American Yacht club, at Milton Point, Rye N. Y.
The club has had good deal of trouble recently
trying to get a sufficient water supply. Franzius
and Won Usar found this out when they turned
the faucet in their bedroom the second
floor and got no water. At the breakfast table
Franzius rallied his hosts bit, and then asked;
why don't you get Won Uslar here to find you
some water?"
It agreed that the Landrat not only located
a subterranean vein of water by, but discov
cred that it led almost under one corner of the
club house, where it would be easily accessible
by boring.
The so-called rod" that Won Uslar uses is
very simple device. The metal rod lie merely two
pieces of rather fine wire, each about foot long.
held together by flexible joint The diviner
grasps the two free ends, one in each hand,
which he holds palm upward. The wooden rods
may be two pieces Joined a natural forked
twig. The flexible joint of the rod forms an an
gle the apex of which projects forward or upward.
AS the diviner walking about comes over the
the spot where subterranean mineral deposit
or vein of water is located, the rod turns
violently in his hands, usually away from the
body and continues to whirl rapidly as long as
the diviner remains the spot and holds the
rod in position.
One very curious feature of the rods move
ment, to which the writer's attention was called
by Won Uslar, is that there seems to be involved
a of closed circuit. Thus, the Landrat says
if he holds end of the rod in his right hand
and Olacea his left hand hack of the nppx
of another person, who in turn holds the other
end of the rod in one of his hands, the influence
will still be felt and the rod will turn when held
water mineral deposits, even though the
second person does not possess the mysterious
power of dvinatlon
The present deep interest In divning RODS in
Germany is of comparatively recent growth, yet
the use Of divining rods for locating minerals
water and all sorts of other things was in all
probability practiced in very ancient times by
who doubt possessed the same strange
power. The art certainly practiced by men
of the Middle Ages, who named 1t rhabdomancy
There Is evidence that the ancient Romans may
have recognized the existence of some such pow
er by the use of the socaled ''vrgula divina" as
used in taking auguries by of casting bits
of sticks, descriptions of which found in the
writings of Tacitus and Cicero.
The schagefuthe Striking rod or forked twif
of the German miners of the Harz mountains was
brought to England by miners who were engaged
by the merchant adventures of Queen Eliza
beths time to emigrate and work in the Cornish
mines, The art in general has been in use al
over the world in spite of the fact that no on,
has far found a satisfactory explanation fol
such gift and that 1t has generally been attack
ed and laughed at by science. The American In
dams and the drivers in Western Cob
employ these rods to look for water
just the peasants in Switzerland and SchIes
wig-Holsten have done since time immemoral.
Prof w. F. Barrett F. R. S.. of Dublin, who 1
regarded as the chief modern investigator of tn
subject believes that its employment dating a
1t does from the revival of learning, is based o.
the medieval doctrine of sympathy" that IL
the dropping Of trees and the character of tn
vegetation give indications of mineral lodes b,
meath the earths surface by means of sort G
attraction.
The divning rod has, however, been used ais
in searching for any buried object. In the scout
of France, in the seventeenth century, 1t wa
employed in tracking criminals and heretics II
abuse led to decree of the nquisition in ITO
forbidding Its employment for purposes of ju
tice. In modern times the wooden rod has bee
much used in England and other places for fin
ing water and in this connection either the re
or the diviner is caller "douser"
Sir w. H. Preece, celebrated English elect
clan, taking part in discussion Of the douser
power in January, 1905, repudiated the theol
that any electric force involved and recor
ed his opinion that water-fndng by douser Wi
due to mechanical vibration, set up by the fri
ton of moving water. acting upon sensitive We