Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/455

 Correspondence. 435

the fact," says the Prospectors' Company, Palmyra, Pa., " that thousands upon thousands of dollars are expended annually in prospecting and digging into the ground for precious metals, and knowing that the failures are in a ratio of more than a thousand to one of success, we concluded that each kind of mineral has an affinity which, when once known, would lead one to these deposits without the expense of digging with hopes and ending in failure." The logic is not quite clear; but the company claim to have " solved the problem by the aid of our mysterious and complicated piece of machinery which we are pleased to call a chronometer." Pleased to call is good, quite in Prospero's vein ; they might equally well have called it a bootjack, as far as the meaning of words goes. The chronometer is dirt cheap at 40 dollars, as any one will admit ; and you may also buy for two dollars Orton's Underground Treasure Book — a fascinating title, worth the money without the contents. I have before me advertisement sheets with pictures of these mysteries, scintillating electric sparks to all appearance out of the end. There is also a prospecting Prospero, pick in hand, who holds one of these rods before him, and gazes with reasonable surprise at the flashes which issue from it. The goldometer appears to be an even more powerful agent, yet is sold for the ridiculous price of 1 2 dollars.

A long wreath of testimonials is appended, from which I cull a few blossoms. " The rods are the finest of anything I ever saw. My mother hid five dollars and I found it all right. Yours truly, W.P." — " One instant my rod attracted 800 yards to 10 dollars." (It might attract to Mr. Kruger from this country, one would think.) — "The rod drawed so hard that no man could hold it." This prepares us to learn that " Mrs. J. S." found her rod would " hunt like a bloodhound." It remains to add that ALL OUR INSTRUMENTS ARE GUARANTEED in large capitals, to which in small print is added — "to be well made and finely finished ; but we cannot guarantee that each and every one will be equally successful." It seems, however, that one might venture to guarantee even that.

W. H. D. Rouse.