Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-12-15

Of superatiions or nious beliefs,
as you may please TO regard them
came true during the late war.
Perhaps the most interesting or all
these was the legend concerning the Hun
ger stone of the Elbc." For centuries the
German people have believed that when
ever this stone showed itself famine or
some other great disaster was al out to
tall Oh Germany
In August Of ihis year, just when the
German armies were about to collapse
and hunger had reached its worst point,
the Hunger Stone OF the Ebc shooyed 1t.
SELF higher above the water than it had
ever done before.
The notorious stone lies in the he'd OF
the river Elbe, near Tie town of nc schen,
in the German part of bohemia. Tic Eibe
Is, OF course, the principal river % Ger
many and flows through the heart Of The
country. although il rises in Bohemia
The locality where the stone is situated
is . resort for holiday makers from Berlin
and from other parts OF Germany and
Austria
The Hunger Stone is an ominous look
ing object OF gloomy black basaIt. situated
>
c;gh, feet high and ten feet across. and Il
covered all over with inscriptions regard
ing the dates at which it came in sight
and the point 10 which the waters fell
The most striking of these is an ancient
inscription. ornamented with q cross
which reads:
when thou scest me weep"
This is believed TO have been made In
l4l7, when the fatefu character o. the
stone was first recognized In that year a
dreadful famine. combined with plague.
afflicted Germany, which cost ten million
lives out of a comparatively small popu-
lation
The stone is not seen above the waters
in normal years. Every time it his been
exposed, the people say, some distinct and
terrible calamity has fallen on Germany.
This Summer the water fell so low that
the stone was exposed right down to its
base. portent never before known in his.
tory. This fact doubtless played con
siderable part in undermining the war re.
sistance OF the Germans, who attach great
Importance TO tribal divinitos and feiiches.
y strange superHtition was involved in
the famous wooden image OF Marshal Jim
denburg When this German military
leader was at the height of his power the
people OF Berlin set w a colossal wooden
statue OF him. Every German bad the
privilege OF driving & nail into the marshal
at the rate OF one mark per nail The
money went TO a fund for supplying Ger
man soldiers with little comforts Hun
dreds of thousands OF nails were driven
into IIDdcnburg.
When superstitous persons in the En-
tente countries heard OF this episode they
thrilled with delight, for they knew that
every nail driven into Hindenburg meant
some disaster TO him and his plans From
the earliest times in Latin countries ii had
been a practice 80 secure n little waxen
image OF an enemy and stick pins and
needles into ii. The images were supplied
by witches and ,nagicians. vino gave in
structions concerning lamentations to he
uttered while fixing the pins.
The practice prevailed in Italy in an
cenC Roman times, and has been ! cpt up
more or less to the present day Tho use
Of these images was one OF The charges
upon which the knights Templars we're
burnt in 1907
THE judge shuddered on the judgment
seat" says a historian, when the proofs
were brought~before him in the shape Of
philtres, amulets, frogs, black cats and
waXen images stuck full Of noodles
The modern Germans evidently did not
know what terrible results could be ac-
complishcd by driving nails into a wooden
idol. Savagely and industrioasly they
worked away at producing their own ruin.
4 war legend of a peasanter kind than
any OF those is that of'"tho Vii lin OF
Albert" Albert is an ancient French city
with cathedral, on the high tower OF
which stood a large statue OF the virgin.
When the Germans invaded France in 1914
enc Of their shells struck the Virgin She
did not fall completely down, but hung at