The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-11-12


. strange, almost an incredible, sight TO
witness in a great center of civilization
In this twentieth century. We are look
Ing into room in the grimy East End
OF London, shabby room such as one
would expect to find in this poor, bedrag-
gled region, but a room, nevertheless,
whose cheap little ornaments and brave
attempts at brightness betray unmistak-
ably that it belongs to one of the fair
sex. The hour is the 'witching" one
of midnight. Midnight on a Friday
Standing beside a table, in her night at
tire, and with rapt look on her young
face. is a girl, the tenant of the room.
She is typical of her class, the class that
tolls in the factories of grimy White
chapel and Aldgate Surreptitiously and
with haste, although she has fast locked
the door, she uncorks a vial which she
has taken from her cheap vanity bag, "
and pours some of its blood-red contents
into q dish. To this she applies light
and the substance bursts into q flame
which, for an instant, lights up the hum ,
bic room. AS the substance, which is
dragons blood, boils and bubbles, the
girl, her face grown pale and her hands
a-tremble, solemnly repeats an incanta-
ton. This is what she says:
"'Tis not this blood 1 wish to burn,
but that his heart to me should turn.
May he no joy nor profit see
Till he comes back again to me-"
Then. as the strokes of midnight chime
out, this little, infatuated fool solemnly
pronounces a boys" name!
The rite ended, she swiftly removes all
traces of her burnt offering and betakes
herself to her bed, to be rewarded, let
US hope, with happy dreams.
1t is an actual fact that girls in the
East End and other parts Of London,
whose affairs of the heart are not pro-
crossing to their satisfaction, perform
this and other similar rites with an iden-
teal object at midnight on Friday, which
is lucky night. The Dragon $
Blood" which they employ and which
is a gum resin commonly useo Tor scaln-
ing, the girls obtain from small herbal
ists," whose shops abound in the poorer
districts, and from whom this and other
potent charms" can be obtained for a
few pence. The boys" whose affections
are sought are in most cases either SOL
diers or sailors, those idols of the fair
of all classes in this day of Armageddon
and who, lucky wights that they are, can
generally pick and choose between half
a-dozen feminine admirers Still, If a
bit of ''witchcraft" can turn the scale,
why not? presumably thinks the damsel
who has been sighted, and who, it may
be explained, has in her need, sought
the advise of wise woman"
The pathetic little business which has
just been described is only an isolated
one of almost innumerable indications
that London. already the most supersu-
tious capital in Europe, has been made
by the war more superstitious still. On
Il ~ lAxY lon
ment which, it need hardly be observed,
is an eminently natural one. In times
Of stress the less practical minded among
all classes unfailingly turn to the SUI
perLaturaL Probably the same phenone-
non Is to be observed In every one of
the countries that are now at war. On
every side in London we see good luck
charms offered for sale, more varieties
than ever before! Every ba-ttleship has
IT'S mascot and every regiment. The
London zoo, as a matter of fact, is Sc
riously embarrassed by requests from
soldiers and sailors for animals as mas
cots (monkeys being preferred), as well
as to find sufficient 'houSe room for
the regimental pets and luck bringers
that have been lodged there since the
war began chiefly by the fighting men
from the colonies. Send your soldier,
or sailor boy this or that lucky what's
its-name' is frequent injunction to
meet in print. and jeweler, woman
who has taken the business up since the
fighting began, told the writer the other
day that she spends most of her time
now making war charms.
Fortune tellers and clairvoyants are be-
sieged as perhaps never before in their
experience by stricken mothers and sis
ters who long to discover by supernatu-
raj means If their sons brothers and
lovers who have been reported missing,
believed killed." may not in reality have
had a happier fate. 1t is significant, in
deed. of the lengths to which this bust
ness has gone that an official warning
has been issued by the war office to the
effect that the censor will frown upon
letters passing between fortune tellers,
misunderstanding institutions" and their
clients.
OF psychic investigation and commune
cation with the dead" there has been a
great revival, too, but it is not with such
sonbre matters that we are dealing now,
but with the picturesque, interesting,
and in many cases highly entertaining
superstitions that have been bred of the
war. And, in this connection, let US re-
turn to the damsels of the East End,
among whom a new craze has developed
since the fighting began and Britain set
TO work to create new army. This
craze is over tattooing!
For soldiers and sailors to have their
sweethearts names by initials tattooed
on their arms is a practice centuries
old, but in the East End today the order
has been reversed. Professional tattoo
1sts down there affirm that they are
kept uncomfortaby busy by damsels who
desire to have their boys names thus
1ndelibly imprinted on their arms. Tat
tooing can be done now by an electrically
controlled instrument, this method being
both considerably quicker and less pain
full than the old-fashioned method
1.-THE girls around here fairly flock to
me-" declared one of these artists, land
they all want boys names, mostly SOL
diers and sailors, done on their arms
There's two of 'em in there now Gn-
dicating an inner room where his assist
q, was at work.. From this room two
buxom bellies presently emerged and the
tattooist inquired of one IL she would
mind his visitor seeing her arm? The
girl declared that she didn't mind" and