GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



bring good luck, and a whole lot of other 

 things along that line. These good people, 

 honest as the day is long, do not seem to be 

 able to distinguish between true science and 

 iionsenieal notions. Just a few hours ago 

 a man whom I have known for years at- 

 tempted to show me how a peach-tree crotch 

 enabled liim to find water. As he walked 

 along over the ground the switch would 

 turn down at certain places. I insisted that it 

 turned because he twisted it with his wrists. 

 But he declared that the crotehed stick was 

 what made his wrists twist, and he may have 

 been honest about it. But now listen : When 

 asked why it would not work the same way 

 in my hands, he said it would not work with 

 everybody. When I asked why, he said 

 there is more electricity in some people than 

 in others ; and this seems to be a widespread 

 notion among many of the older people. 

 Our boys and younger men who are getting 

 to be experts in electricity would laugh at 

 such an idea. It is true that you can put 

 more electricity into one man than there is 

 in another by standing him on a stool with 

 glass legs; but while he is standing on the 

 ground the electricity very quickly seeks an , 

 equilibrium. Then this man explained to 

 me how a switch would go down just three 

 times and no more until he changed his po- 

 sition. Then he would do the same thing 

 again when he crossed an underground 

 stream. 



I wonder how many of our readers re- 

 member the planchette board that made such 

 a stir in the year 1868. Many good people 

 declared that the senseless piece of wood 

 would spell out words. In the same way 

 many good people insisted that the forKed 

 stick goes of itself because they uncon- 

 sciously twist their wrists. Now listen to 

 something more this man told me. He said he 

 could tell the exact number of feet we 

 would have to d^ig to get water. He does 

 this by setting a tumbler of water on the 

 ground, and hanging in it a button sus- 

 pended on a thread inside of the tumbler. 

 Pretty soon the button will commence swing- 

 ing — that is, if the " water-witch " has hold 

 of the string. It will then bump up against 

 the tumbler just the number of feet one 

 will have to dig to get to the water. And 

 then he told me that just recently the but- 

 ton bumped 62 times, and the man found a 

 bountiful well of water by digging exactly 

 62 feet.* When he attempted to explain 

 that electricity did it, the subject suggested 

 what I am now writing— the strong contrast 

 between real science and humbug science. 



* It occurs to ine that it must be the "spirits" 

 that malce this button pound out the number of 

 feet down to the water — the same spirits, perhaps, 

 that used to pound out answers by means of " spirit 

 rappings " in 1852. 



In real science certain processes take place 

 or work exactly alike in the hands of any 

 experimenter. God's agencies are " no re- 

 spector of persons." * Edison has achieved 

 wonderful things bj^ careful study and ex- 

 periment; and the lines of science are well 

 laid down and established. 



As there may be many good friends 

 among our readers who still insist that wa- 

 ter-witching is real sense and science, let 

 me explain that some years ago the De- 

 partment of Agriculture at Washington 

 took the matter up. A number of scientific 

 men went into a field with some of the most 

 skilled water-finders or water-witches, as 

 they are called. Among other tests they 

 tried blindfolding the man to see if he could 

 locate veins of water just the same when 

 led over the route, and he failed, of course, 

 to find where the former stakes were stuck. 

 The two records did not agree at all. The 

 stakes set by the blindfolded man had no 

 relation whatever to those set with his eyes 

 wide open. My recollection is that the 

 greater part of the water-witches decide 

 that, for some unknown reason, it would 

 not work with a blindfolded man; and one 

 good old man came out frankly and ac- 

 knowledged that he had been deceived all 

 his life in thinking the switch turned down 

 of itself. We can forgive him, even if he 

 had taken money for many long years lor 

 locating wells. But another chap, with a 

 different kind of conscience, on another 

 occasion managed to push the bandage out 

 of the way a little so he could get a glimpse 

 of where he was going. Of course the stakes 

 he set tallied. When, however, he was 

 blindfolded in such a manner that such a 

 thing was impossible, he too had to own 

 up that it would not work when he could 

 not see. 



The question has often been asked if the 

 switch would turn when walking over a 

 bridge where there is a stream of water. 

 But I think they generally agree that it 

 would not work then. The water must be 

 under the ground. 



The way in which people get into ruts 

 or get senseless notions into their heads ex- 

 plains the success of the shameless frauds 

 called electropoise, oxydonor, oxypathy, 

 oxygenator, etc., and the various other 

 thiiigs that have been invented for some- 

 thing that has not a particle of sense or 

 science about it. Carrying a lucky stone in 

 your pocket is along the same line. Re- 

 cently a subscriber sent me a glowing cii'- 

 cular with hundreds of testimonials, appar- 

 ently, of a finger-ring that will cure rheu- 

 matism. If the testimonials are not all 

 manufactured, they come fiom foolisli peo- 

 ple who imagine the rusty ring wrought 



