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THE AMER1CUS DAILY TIMES-RECORDER: SUNDAY, 1891.
ABOUT WATER WITCHES.
small peach tree branches used
AS DIVINING RODS.
USED THE* IS HIS BLOW-GCX.
Doctor—“ Well, my fine little fellow,
you lutve got quite well again. I was
Jure the pills I left for you would cure
you. How did you take them, in water
or In cake?" .
Doy—“Oh, I used them In my blow-
**Thc little fellow put the nasty, great,
griping, old-fashioned pills to a good uae.
At moat, all his Internal economy need
ed was a dose of Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant
Pellets. They are tiny, sugar-coated
granules, easy to take, and are gently
aperient, or actively cathartic, according
to size of dose. As a laxative, only one
tiny Pellet is required.
'• The “ Pellets ” cure Sick Headache,
Bilious Headache, Constipation. Indi
gestion. Bilious Attacks, and all de
rangements of the I-iver, Stomach and
Bowels. , .
The “Pellets" arc purely vegetable,
and operate without disturbance to the
system, diet, or occupation. -..
Dr. Pierce’s Pellets are the cheapest
pill, sold by druggists, because they are
guaranteed to give satisfaction in every
case, or their price (25 cents a vial) la
refunded. Can you ask more?
1
7
e
Old Nick Whiskey
is the best and is noted for its age
and purity, having liccn made on the
same plantation over
1£23 year®
without a rival as we constantly keep
four year old
RYE AND CORN
on hand—ship any quantity, so write
for price-list.
Old Nick Whiskby Co.,
YaabanCo. PANTHER CHEEK, ft. C.
R. E. BYRD,
Auditor,
OFFICE 57i JACKSON STREET,
AMEBICUS, CIA.
>ejr associated. Charge* reasonable,
taka business In neighboring cities.
snoas;J. W. Sheffield A Co.. Bank of
ftamter, Daren port Drag Co. dorrtspon-
dance sol. cl ted. maySl-Sm.
THE LITTLE SEWING MACHINE MAN
OFFERS FOB SALB
SEWING MACHINES & MOTORS
For all Machines on easy terms, and ean
aupply lbs bast
| UII0|
rOR All MACHINES.
IU)|
Bpeclal attention jtv
•mall Maebtaery. Ont
estv. prom at attention.
W. L. DOUGLAS
fcttSUSe
THORNTON WHEATLBYH
Amerlcus, • - Georgia]
FINE SHOW CASES.
42-Ask for catalogue.!
SUFFERERS
OFi-
Youthful Errors
Lost Manhood, Eany Decay, etc.,
etc., can secure a home treatise free
by addressing a fellow aufte.ep G.
w. Leek, pTo. Box 313, Rosn-.ke,
Virginia.
Dm Forked Branch tbe First Cars of Its
Owner—Doc Wise, the Beat Known Watwr
Witch—How Be Struck Lack and Became
Independently Bleb.
The articles In The Times in relation
to the extraordinary results obtained by
the use of the divining rod in finding
water and mineral deposits have had no
more interested or appreciative readers
than the people in the mountain ranges
of the Blue Ridge and Cumberland.
The doings of the water witches have
been part of the life of these people fur
ther back than any one can remember.
It is not every community that can boast
the possession of one of these gifted per
sons. The respect in which they are
held is in inverse ratio to their numbers.
Families willingly deprive themselves of
comforts in order to provide them for
the water witches. In return they ex
pect services in locating wells. If it may
not be quite true that every well in the
mountains was located through this kind
of agency, there is no doubt that the
majority were so located, and that the
faith of the people in the myatic power
of the witches is boundless.
A SIMPLE COMMUNITY.
So for as the natives are concerned
tills is a country of poverty. They do
not call themselves poor, for all are
nearly on an equality in the bare furnish
ings of their houses, and the sliotes that
they raise on the free forage of the woods
in summer and fall, with the corn, hom
iny, tobacco and moonshine they can
lav up by small trading with the valley
farmers, supply their modest winter
needs. Money is a tiling that enters very
little into their calculations. A mountain
community enjoys more than average
prosperity, in which the cash earnings of
the heads of the families reach as much
as $50 per year apiece. But all being on
about the same basis there is no compara
tive poverty. They get along from year
to year, and never having known any
other condition they arc content.
As a matter of course, they cannot re
pay the services of the water witches
with cash. The most they can do is to
make them comfortable. This is satis
factory all around. In some way the
impression has become general that a
water witch is a supernatural sort of
creature, not made for common toil, and
whose magic will be impaired by the
kind of labor that ordinary mortals en
dure. As witches are too scarce to bo
spared, they receive very good care, and
as they are endowed along with their
mystical gifts with tho natural indolenoe
of the mountaineer nature, they are ex
pected and are entirely willing to save
themselves always for the small service
required of them by thoso who bring
them yearly tributes of stores. The
witches thus get no richer than their
Neighbors, but they have an easier time
6f it Sometimes, months will pass in
which one will not be called upon.
Whenever a call is made, however, he
•Mist be ready to respond to it.
A forked branch of a peach tree Is the
only divining rod known in the moun
tains. Every witch is aa careful of his
branch as if it were gennine treasure.
He selects it when he* begins to practice
his magic, and never changes it willingly.
When not in use it Is carefully hung on
the walls of the best room in his cabin.
Whatever else may happen, that must
not be disturbed. It would be the first
thing to be saved if his cabin caught fire.
Afterward be might go bock for the wife
and babies. On every trip he carries it
out of reach of the brush and rock that
may line his pathway, and his mission
ended he returns it as carefully to its
hanging place in the cabin's beet room.
Whether from his own belief that he ia
gifted beyond men, or because of the
awe in which he la held by his fellows,
tho water witch always means that his
work shall be Impressive. When armed
with his twig and in March of water he
seems to lose himself, as if he were lifted
out of the common sphere into a relation
with eomething more . than human.
There are no incantations such as negro
voodoo Ism employs, but the scene be
comes suggestive of that class of super
stition. With bis face set and apparent
ly with no thought of his surroundings
beyond the intensity with which he fol
lows and watches his twig, he walks
solemnly up and down, holding the
twig by Its forks in front of him, and
seeming to let it lead him instead of
being propelled by him. When the free
end of tho twig drops from the horizon
tal at which it has been carried to the
perpendicular ho stops suddenly. His
mission is over. The twig points to
water. Men mark the spot, and the
water witch goes away. The well is dug
through the markings. The mountain
eers say that water never fails when
found this way.
OLD DOC WISE.
Tho water witch best known in this
part of the country is old Doc Wise. He
lives in tho mountains over beyond
Chris Hamburg, and rarely leaves home.
Indeed, it Is only with the greatest diffi
culty that the mountaineers can get him
to point a well for them. He is above
the need of help from their stores, and
of late years when he has gono out with
his rod it was to oblige his friends rather
than for prestige or pay in any form.
The mountaineers understand that he is
in some way related to the okl family of
Governor Wise and that he was chris
tened Decatur. At any rate, the abbre
viated twist of the name by which ho ia
known did not result from any financial
doctoring of the gentlemen from whom
he got his money, although such a deri
vation might be suspected by those who
date his record with bis fortune. He was
always Doc Wise, and whether the blood
of proud aristocracy was in his veins or
not, he came into tho mountains after
the war with as little of earthly substance
as the most scanty native, and for sev
eral yean picked np a slender living as a
water witch. •
About ten yean ego a party of pros
pectors stopped at Christ ions burg for the
winter. They were looking for coal end
iron deposits, in which the mountain re
gions abound.
When they were very nearly ready to
give up the search as a fail ure they met
Doc Wise. Like other water witches, he
could find minerals with his peach twig
as readily as he could find water. His
talents in that direction had never been
employed because the natives did not
want anything except water. He wSs
ready, however, to employ them for the
visitors. They agreed to pay him well
in case of success. He was shrewd
enough to drive a good bargain. In a
few days he showed them a rich vein of
coal. Then they wanted iron and he
found it for them. It did not take them
long to satisfy themselres that they had
secured valuahlo mines. Wise worked
for them well into the spring. By the
time he had done all they wanted of him
lie was $5,000 in pocket—a grand fortune
for a mountaineer.—Roanoke (Va.1 Let
ter in New York Times.
Slarvelou. Phenomena.
At Rome, in 1222, it rained dust, mixed
with blood, for three days, and when the
heavy clouds drifted away it looked as if
the sun was swimming in a sea of fire.
Four years later, in 1226, a snow fell in
Syria, which presently melted and flowed
in carmine rivers of blood, or some fluid
much resembling it in every particular
Many of tho old writers record a three
day shower of blood red rain in the
Island of Rhodes and throughout South
ern Italy in 1236. A monk, writing in
1251, tells of a loaf being cut out of
which blood flowed as freely as from a
fresh wound.
In 1348 there were many great tem
pests. Several towns and thousands of
people were swallowed up and the
courses of rivers changed or stopped.
Some chasms in the earth sent forth
poisonous fluids, as red as carmine ink,
as at Viilacli, in Austria. Ponderous
hailstones fell in many parts of Germany
the same year, some of them weighing
from twenty to seventy pounds. At
Lantech it rained flesh, dust, comets and
meteors; firebrands and coruscations
were in tho air; mock suns, with fiery
tails, sailed through tho skies. Soon
after these terrible scenes at Lantech it
began at Cataya, near the sea, and went
(weeping throughout southern Europe.
An igneous vapor or sulphurous fire
broke from tho earth at Caahery, Asia,
and utterly consumed men, beasts,
houses and trees, so infecting the air
that a great plague followed. Young
serpents and millions of venomous in
sects fell from the clouds.
In 1361 Burgundy experienced the
novelty of a shower of blood red rain,
which ensanguined everything it touch
ed; and in 1568 the Antiura reapers found
all wheat heads to bo os red ns binod. In
1588 bread put in the oven at Nuremberg
was taken out covered with a bloody
sweat Wurtemberg had a shower of
brimstone and ashes in 1634. In 1695
Limerick and Tipperary, Ireland, had
many showers of a soft, fatty substanco
resembling butter. It was of a dark
yellow color and always foil at night
The people gathered it and used it as on
ointment, reporting many astonishing
cures.—St Louis Republic.
Novel Way of Propagation Rosea,
Recently I was conversing with a po
liceman who is a rote enthusiast, and
be told me he had strong bushes of some
of the best hybrid perpetuals upon their
own roots, that lie had rooted himself
in a way quite new to me. Having ob
tained a suitable shoot, or several of
them, they were placed in an ordinary
bottle which contained tome water, and
this bottle was hung upon the wall of
the house in a sunny position and there
left, water being supplied to make up
the deficiency caused by evaporation.
In this water, which often becomes very
warm from the heat of the sun, tho cut
tings remained, and after a short period
they calloused, when they were taken
out and dibbled into pots in the ordinary
way, the formation of tho roots soon
taking place.
The above plan was claimed as expedi
tious, as the cuttings calloused much
sooner in water than they did in the soil.
It is known that many things root read
ily in water, and oleanders are frequent
ly propagated in that way, whilst some
Sodum spectabile that I have lately liad
in a cut stato had rooted freely long be
fore the flowers faded. With the roses,
if cutting is once nicely calloused, success
is almost a certainty, and if this needed
state can be brought about by immersion
of the base in water, we then iiavc a
simple aud valuable aid to rose propaga
tion, because it is muqli easier to preserve
alive a cutting placed in water than it is
one in the scril during its early stage.—
Vick’s Magazine.
Tha • Normal” Dlat.
According to Dr. G. Munro Smith, in
Tho Bristol Medico-Chirurgical Journal,
the daily destructive metabolism, which
is the great criterion of work done, dues
not vary much among different occupa
tions. Premising that lio does not con
sider moderate over eating injurious, he
finds that very many men eat consider
ably more than the most liberal tables;
it is not an uncommon thing for an aver
age sized man on very moderate werk to
eat twenty-live or tweuty-soven ounces
of chemically dry food a day. Women
eat much less than men, after making
allowances for differences in weight
and work. Where a man eats nineteen
ounces, a woman of the same weight
and of active habits cats only fourteen
or fifteen ounces.
On a diet from widch all meat is ex
cluded, he has found that twelve to thir
teen ounces per diem will comfortably
feed a hard working man. A moderate
amount of stimulants appears to increase
tho average; moderately free drinking
diminishes it. A diet consisting of one
part of nitrogenous to seven oreight non-
nitrogenous is a good combination; it is
greatly exceeded on the nitrogenous side
by the majority of men and women, es
pecially the former. A diet of twelve to
fourteen ounces of chemically dry food,
digestible, with the ingredient* in proper
proportion, Is sufficient to keep in good
health an average sized men on moderate
work. The majority of people (in Eng
land) eat Utcrallv twice as much at this.
SUCCESSORS TO
(W. L. Mardre and Americus News Co.)
KEEP ALWAYS ON HASH
A FULL LINE
m
CENTRAL RAILROAD OF GEORGIA
9outnwestern Division.
Correct Schedule, No. 22, in Effect [April 12,1801
SAVANNAH & WESTERN DIVISION
Schedule No. 10, taking effect Apr. 12th, 1891.
No. 6, Between Savannah and Birmingham] No. 6,
Dally.
7 40 p ro
via Amerlcus, Dally,
Leave Savannah Arrive 740pm
985
1120
7 00 a i
100 a m
040a m
525 p m
Buena Vista,
Arrive Columbus, Leave 3 50
Birmingham 8 01am
Dully.
Passenger
Dally.
Fast Mall
EAST BOUND.
Dally
Fast Mall
Daily
Passenger
3:33am
5 13 '•
6 30 “
10 50
520p m
556pm
235p m
4 18 '•
585 ••
1020 “
A 15am
6 30 *•
Lv. Amerlous Ar.
Ar. Fort Valley Lv.
" Macon *'
•' Atlanta M
“ Augusta “
•• Savannah M
106pm
1188am
1020 “
7 10 “
910 p m
087 p m
8 00 “
6 40 M
215 •'
7 00 a m
6 40 “
No. 7
Dally
Passenger
0 37 M in
1C 05
4 42 a ra
7 85 a m
No. 5
Dally,
Fast Mall
WEST BOUND.
No. 6
Dally
Fast Mall
2 85 p ra
180 «
1105 a m
7 40 a m
No. 8
Dally
Paasgnget
8 25 a in
1280 “
10 25 pro
780 p m
Ko.a
Eally_
888a m
300 '•
215 “
lOlOp
7 50
*7 86
18pm
1 30 ••
112 ••
7 20 ••
Lv. Amerlcus Ar.
Ar. Smithvllle **
•• Eufaula •*
" Montgomery Lv.
No. 7
Dally
9 87 p m
l»06 M
10 46 p m
4 50a m
7 15 a in
7 25a m
No. 5
Dally
1 18 pm"
1 30 ••
251 •'
5 40 *
TO FLORIDA.
Lv. Amerlcus Ar.
“ Smith vine ••
Ar Albany Lv
" Tbomasvtlle Lv
“ Waycrots '•
“ Brunswick *'
•' Jacksonville ••
No. 6
Dally
235pm
120 p in
42 20 p m
8 30 a m
Solid Trains with Bleeping Cars Between 8avann«b and Birmingham.
For farther Information relative to tlokets, schedules, best routes etc. etc,, apply to
A. T. MAXWELL, Agent, J. C. McKENZIK, Sup't, E.T. CHARLTON, Gen. Pass. Atr’L
Amerlcus, Os. Hmlihvli e, Ga. Savannah.Ga.
I). H. BYTHEWOOD, Division Past. Af*t„ Columbus,*Ua.
D. D. CURRAN, Sup't, Columbus, Ga. J. C. HHAW.Trav. Pass Ag't., Savannah Go.
PASSENGER SCHEDULE
Georgia Soutlnn)&HoridaRy.
SUWANEE RIVER ROUTE TO FLORIDA,
Taking Kffee!.Iuue 14,1801. H'aadard Time, 91th Meridian,
YHtTSSCTHT"
GOING NORTH.
7 W) p m
0 85 p m
II 08 p m
7 In
10 45
11 00
1 55 p m
3 25 p ni
Macon., a
Ar Cordele*..
Ar Tlflon....
Ar Valdosta..
\r Lake City.,
Ar
Ar
A*
10 20 p m
6 20 p m
0 10 p ID
8 27 pm
110 p m
12 01 p m
0 55 am
M 25 p in) Ar.,
6 35 ant
4 07 a
2 45 am
SCHOOL BOOKS
Fine Stationery
SHEET MUSIC.
; ' { h ?A £
Will receive s(inscriptions
for any paper or
publication.
PICTURE FRAMES
Mad,;
to order, any size or' price.
Glass to fit any frame.
Big lot of Mouldings just received
that we will sell as cheap as
anybody else.
Call and see our line. No trouble to show
goods or order anything that we haven’t in
stock.
Don’f forget the*old|Book Store,
105 FORSYTH STREET.
S. A. M. ROUTE.
Savannah, Americas & Montgomery R’y.
TIME TABLE
Taking Effect April 19; 1891.
7" oo" pm
50ft
440
, 1 2ft
ll 4B am
ooo a
10 00
10 27
2 15 pm
3 25
3 50
5 54
(1 10
0 40
7 00
>urg.....lv
It,.... Chi
Ive
Ire. ...
arr Columbus. ,
lve Columbus...... lveill 90
arr Ellavilto ..arr » Oft
lve ....•KUavlllo lve 8 BO
arr Americas arr 8 20
lve .... Amerlcus lve 8 00
Cordele lve 0 20
u .Helena lve 3 55
Charleston arr| 2 IA
4 801
5 20 p mi ^
Betw'n Montgomery and Amerlcus! via Opelika
..Montgomery ....arrl 7 IS p m
..Opelika...... arr l 0ft
Americas lve| 8 20 am
Between Montgomery and An dricus, via Union
Springs and Columbus.
7 40 a milve...7. Montgomery arrl 7 0ft p m
3 50 lve...... Columbus arr It 20
ft 40 [arr Amnrlcus lve| 8 20
Retw’n Montgomery and Americas, via Eufaula
7 40 am
11 os
12 20 p m
Montgomery..
..Eufaula ....
lve Albany
Americas..
Between Amerlcus and Jacksonville, \ u Helena
7 bb pm lve Amerluso..." .j»-| Nam
1 18 a in ( lve Helena lv Dam
Brunswick lve I ii-»m
« 10
7 50
|arr Jacksonville IvcJ i •
lutngbi
Meal Stations.
Bleeping can between Columbu, and Savau-
teaenren from CherlcMon destined to polnta
t of Sovsnnah, change cars »t C. A 8, Jane*
F. 8. GOODMAN,
Qen. Pass. Agent
Americas, Os.
Lvi 7 05 a nil o do p lu
Trains arrive and depart from union depots In Macon and Palatka and F. C. A P.
depot In Jacksonville.
Connection nerth bound and sou h bound Is made In Mscon with trains of Central.
Macon and Northern and K. T. V. A G. railroads.
A. C.KNAPP. Traffic Manager L.J. HARRIS,Ticket Agent, Union Depot.
HKNKY BURNS,T. P. A. Macou Ga. ^
JAMES MENZIE8, Southeastern Agent, 98 West Bay Hi., Jacksonville, FIs.
SCHOFIELD'S IRON WORKS,
FOt)Nt)(tY AND MACHINE SHOP.
..jungu cars at C. & 8. Junc
tion.
W. N. MARSHALL.
Qen. Superintendent.
Americas, Os.
M. CAROLAN, 8. B. Pass. Agt.
Savannah. Ga. E. A. SMITH,
.. n Western Pass. Agt., Bt. Louis, Mo.
M. D. ROYER, T. P. A,
Americas, Ga.
JKO. T. ARGO, C. 8. A.,
Americus, Ga.
-THE
East Tennessee.
J. 8. SCHOFIELD’S SONS A CO., Prop’ra,
Manufacturer* of Steam Engines, Boilers, Cotton Presses and General
Machinery, Cotton Gins, Cane Mills end Saw Mills. Dealers in Mill and
Machinists’ Supplies. Special Attention to Repair Work.
dtw+7-cmoe MACON, GEORGIA,
Virginia and
Georgia fl'y
System.
-18 THE ONLY-
Shortand Direct Lins to the Morth, East or
West.
Thie line la conceded to be the beet equipped
tad nine the Quest Pullman Sleeping Cara la
tha South.
Elegant Pullman Bleeping Can, between
Jacksonville and Cincinnati, , ;
Titusville and Cincinnati,
Brunswick and Louisville,
Chattanooga and Washington
Memphis and New York, -
Philadelphia and ^ewOtleana,
Without Change.
For aay Information addreea
B. W. WR1NX, Gen. Pam. and Ticket Agt
/ Knoxville. Twin.
O. W. KNIGHT, Aaa'tQea. POM. Ag
Atlanta, Georgia.
