Green Leaves from Whitingham, Vermont; A History of the Town (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...years. It seems that the belief in hidden treasure was so firmly rooted in the minds of the people that a regular system prevailed whereby mines and pots of money might be discovered. They appear to hav_e had their machinery for extracting precious metals from the ground, and in using it they were advised to place the steel rods over the money to be raised, in which case it would be necessary to first find the money. This being done it would seem unnecessary to employ much machinery except a spade. Iwell remember hearing these circles and rods spoken: of as necessary in finding hidden treasures, and that in digging for money it was important to commence the work about midnight and avoid uttering a word while the work was going on. Whoever spoke during such labor, dissolved the spell, and nothing could be found that night. So far as is now known the spell was broken every time. ' The importance of maintaining profound silence on such occasions shows a kind of felonious shrewdness on the part of the manipulators, who well knew that nothing would be found, and that it would be necessary to satisfy the credulity of those who were foolish enough to believe in rods, and circles, and spells, to the extent of losing their sleep and running the risk of seeing a ghost while engaged in this ludicrous enterprise. If nothing was found, the claim that the spell was broken in some mysterious way would always satisfy those who were simple enough to dig in the ground to verify a dream. The mine meetings, the rehearsal of gold-tinted dreams, the solitary and silent midnight struggle with ghouls, and the resort to mystery, all had s0me tendency to call attention to the locality where such nonsense had its dupes; but it must have been a...