Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-10-02

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 one of the older members of the club who
was present remembered and told how, when the
club house was being erected the contractors lay
ing the foundations had great difficulty in con-
trolling the rush of water from vein that
laid open directly under the spot where the bill
lizard room afterward located.
Another day the two friends were guests at the
American Yacht club at Milton Point, Rye, n. Y.
The club has had a good deal Of trouble recently
trying to get a sufficient water supply Franzius
and Won Uslar found this out when they turned
on the faucet in their bedroom on the second
floor and got 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 was agreed that the Landrat not only located
subterranean vein of water near by but dscov-
cred that it led almost under one corner of the
club house, where it would be easily accessible
by boring.
The so-caIled rod" that Won Uslar uses is
very simple device. The metal rod is merely two
pieces of rather fine wire, each about foot long,
held together by a 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 or natural forked
twig. The flexible joint of the rod forms an
gle the apex Of which projects forward or upward.
As the diyiner, walking about, comes over the
the spot where a 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
sort of closed circuit. Thus, the Landrat says
if he holds end of the rod in his right hand
and places his left hand on the back of the neck
of another person. who in turn holds the other
end of the rod in of his hands, the influence
will still be felt and the rod will turn when held
water or mineral deposits, even though the
second person does not possess the mysterious
power of divnatiOn.
The present deep interest in dvining 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
men who no doubt possessed the same strange
power The art certainly practiced by men
of the Middle Ages who named it rhab lomancy.
There is evidence that the ancient Romans may
have recognized the existence of some such pow
er by the use of the so-caIed "virgula d VIVA" as
used in taking auguries by means of casting bits
of sticks, descriptions of which are found in the
writings of Tacitus and Cicero.
The schlageruthe (strikng rod or fc~ked twig
of the German miners of the Harz mountains was
by the merchant adventures of Queen Eliza
beth's time to emigrate and work in the Cornish
mines. The art in general has been il use all
over the world, in spite of the fact that
has so far found a satisfactory explanation for
such gift and that it has generally been attack
ed and laughed at by science. The American In
dams and the caravan drivers in Western Cobb
employ these rods even to look for water
just as the peasants in Switzerland ard SchIes-
wig-Holstein have done since time immomoriaI.
Prof. ". F. Barrett F. R. S. of Dub A. who is
regarded as the chief modern investigator of the
subject, believes that its employment. dating as
it does from the revival of learning, is based on
the medieval doctrine of Sympathy" that is
the dropping of trees and the character of the.
vegetation give indications of mineral lodes be-
meath the earth's surface by means OF sort of
attraction.
The divining rod has however, been used also
in searching for any buried object. II the south
of France, in the seventeenth centU~y, it was
employed in tracking criminals and b Getics. It's
abuse led to a decree of the inQuisti1n in 1901
foTbidding its employment for purpCr IS of JUS
tlce. In modern times the wooden re has been
much used in England and other plac@s for find
ing water, and in this connection either the rod
or the diviner is caller 'douser"
Sir w. H. Preece, a celebrated En- fish electri-
clan. taking part in discussion of the douser's
that any electric force was involved md record
ed his opinion that water-fnding by a iouser was
due to mechanical vibration, set up by the fric-
ton Of moving water, acting upon sensitive ven
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