The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-03
M E N w o N E N
 A ND T H N c s

Are you superstitious? If not you are the exception, for there is a taint of 1t in nearly every one. I do not know what form it may take in your particular case, and only ask that you search it out for yourself.
 
 But I am not going deep into SUI perstitions for the ramiflcation is too wide and far-reaching to be even 'skeletonized in a column, and it might be too difficult to tell just where it impinged. on the supernat- ural. and before I knew it I would be in the midst of religious prob lem.
 At present I am thinking simply of the cruder forms of superstition, such as signs, omens, portents, hind feet of rabbits. "conjur" charms, "hants." table rappings, ghost walk ings, ouija board parties and more particularly masstones, as they have recently been on the front page of The Age Herald.
 
 l am sorry for the victim of the snake bite and his family and friends, but am glad to know that a physician is in attendance while tho maidstone Is being used. I am also sure that the owners of the maidstone arc sim cere in their belief in it's virtue as an antidote for snake bite, and what I shall write will be with no purpose of casting any aspersion upon them or those who called upon them to make trial of the wonder working stone.
 One of the most vivid memories of my boyhood days was a month I put in at Blue Springs, in Barbour coun- ty, which by the way Is one of the most beautiful natural swimming pools that have ever seen in all my travels. and is today a great attrac- ton for the people of the south Ala bama towns. only wish that such a lovely bubbling basin of water was close to Birmingham, for it would be joy to thousands.
 
 I was just 12 years old and was down at the springs by myself with gun and fishing rod and all of a boys love for the outdoors. I well remember the great excitement at the hotel when word came that a boy living nearby had been bitten by rattlesnake, and that the father had sent a man on horseback to fetch a maidstone. It was my first intimation that there was "any sich thing" in existence.
 In few hours the messenger re- turned and along with him the own CT of the stone. for it was d rule in the family which possessed 1t that it should never leave the house un- less accompanied by one of the household. Another thing which inn pressed me was that no charge was made for the use of the stone save that the man bringing it should have his board and dollar for his time.
 It is needless to say that there was constant stream of visitors from the hotel to the little home in the "piney" woods. Few things have ever given me the thrill which I got when I saw the boy lying on palette and the stone affixed to his water was brought and the stone re- moved and bubbles came into the water I was firmly convinced, as were the others, that it was the deadly poison oozing out. To have doubted it would have been to be blasphe- nous. The boy got well.
 The belief in the value of the mad stone has no scientific sanction, yet they are used throughout the various parts of the United States. I have seen the statement that the first madstones in this country came from the vicinity of Chicago. The famous Parker maidstone QS0D was sold to a Mir. Villain of Winona, Miss. It was about the size of hen egg of whit ish gray color. which under the mi minute pores. It was broken in five pieces but bound together with wire.
 In the early seventies the stone achieved an international reputation. The Pall Mall Gazette of London, In way: Eleven hundred applications of the stone have been made to mad dog and snake wounds without sin gle failure to cure. Two hundred and fifty applications have been made by Benjamin Milan. to whom the stone was bequeathed by his late father. The latest cure the stone has effected is that of a Dr. Hudgins. of whose case there Is long report in the winona Advance" Details are then given.
 The Pointer maidstone was as fa- nous in the south as the Parker mad stone in the southwest. It claimed an ancient antiquity and was reputed to have brought over from China by Tom Pointer of Halifax, Va, about 1915. Later it was broken, but large fragments remain in the hands of Pointers descendants. As late as 1889 one of them had de- scription of the way it worked in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
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