Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/403

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Superstitions in the United States
367

he held the other. I did so, and he again apparently put the money in an envelope, sealed it and told me not to open it, but to wear it in a jewelry bag around my neck until the next day, when I should come to his office for him to open it, so that the charm might not lose its full effect. I paid him his fee and the next day when I visited his office he had disappeared. I found a newspaper in the envelope, but no money."[1]

One Dr. Theodore White was arrested in the very city of Baltimore on the charge of using the United States mails to defraud. He was selling love-powders said to contain three hairs out of a black cat's tail, seven hairs out of a white mule's tail, eight drops of blood out of a dog's tail, and one or two equally astonishing that his operations had extended all over the United the directions were carefully followed out.[2] Dr. White antee that he would at once rival Borneo in his ardor if had numerous patrons for this powder of his; for $12,800 in cash was found in his safe; and he admitted ingredients.[3] Directions were given for administering this powder to the reluctant or cold lover, with the guar-States, Europe, Central America, and a portion of South America.

In Washington, the capital of the United States, the police had to intervene on behalf of the credulous and superstitious people who were being taken advantage of by clairvoyants, fortune-tellers and that class of charlatans who would have been called papa-lois had they been found in Haiti.

"The police department announced yesterday," says the Washington Post of the 19th of February, 1904, "that war is to be waged on all Clairvoyants, fortune-tellers, and mediums in the District. … The detectives have received numerous complaints re-

  1. The New York Herald, June 22, 1903. (Washington Post, 24th June.)
  2. The Washington Evening Star, March 31, 1906.
  3. The Washington Post, March 31, 1906.
    On the 23d of June, 1906, Dr. White was sentenced by Judge Morris to serve three years in the penitentiary and to pay a fine of $1,500.