Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1924-07-17
RAINMAKER GETS THOUSAND
DOLLARS PER INCH FOR RAIN

| Los Angeles-Rainfall is needed
to make nature flourish. 1t also has
brought prosperity to Charles M
Hatfield, man of science or fortune
fakir, according to ones Individual
opinion.
Rainmaker Hatfield has recently
been washed into the limelight again
on the crest of eight inches of pre-
cipitation which descended in arid
district in central central California
just as he said it would.
Because he either guessed rightly
or aided nature in turning on the
faucets of the skies Hatfield is eight
thousand dollars richer, that being
the amount promised him by the dis
tfaught ranchers of the San Joaquin
valley districts should his assurances
be fulfilled.
For tweny years Hatfield has been
doing this same thing-contracting to
produce any desired minimum of rain
wherever needed during periods of
drouth-and never once has he fail
ed to make good, he says.
Believers say that Hatfield poses
ses the secret of teasing the clouds
to get together apd deliver the mois-
ture. Skeptics say he is merely lucky.
The son of San Diego county
rancher, Rainmaker Hatfield took up
his study of the skies in his early 2Os.
He was a sewing machine salesman
travelling about the country behind
horse in an old buggy. He used to
see the storm clouds gather, and kept
wondering why they answered ma
ture's call and were so needless of
mans desires.
Then Hatfield dabbled in chem
icals and in his study he says, hit up
on the mixtures that makes rain. No
one knows what formula he uses.
Those who have been permitted to
approach the high scaffold which the
rainmaker uses on which to mix his.
solution in large pans which the
whole mess has terrible smell. That
is as much as anyone except Hatfield
Knows about it. ~ ssasssa: e,ss
"No rain, no pay" is the contract
which Hatfield signs. Even the most
dubious admit that it is just one.
One thousand dollars an inch is his
price, set when he first started rain
making and it has never varied.
His biggest cleaning was made in
Alaska back in 1906. There was a
long drought there and the placer
mines needed water to pan their dust
Hatfield was called to see what he
could do, and the miners put up a
ten thousand dollar purse. 1t rained
rivers and he came back with the
cash.
Two years ago Italy sent for the
Rainmaker and he set up his pans
near Naples. Southern Italy was
flooded. Hatfield was hailed as he
ro. Newspapers hammered his success
he was given the title of doctor and
a good sum for what he was cred
tied over the whole of Italy with pro-
ducing.
Hatfield guarantees minimum butt
he does not designate maximum.
This fact brought him disaster in San
Diego in 1916. The Moreno dam,
which holds the water supply for San
Diego was nearly dry. The Rainma-
ker went down, installedNhis meter
prlogical mixture of mystery and
the dam washed out. It rained forty
inches in some sections Of the coun-
ty.
Hatfield says San Diego promised
him a large sum. He filed suit for
that amount and was greeted by a
counter action demanding damages
for the flood. The dispute has never
been settled. Everyone admits, tho,
that it rained.
Hatfield lives near Los Angeles.
He is a mild man, easy to talk to,
and has all the quiet manner of a
student and scientist. He does not try
to convince people that he possesses
the secret Of rainmaking. He merely
signs contracts to do SO when any
section that is drought-sricken is in
need Of water.