This article is in "The Free Lance" issue 5-20-1904, I didn't include it originally as it has to do with York Co., but since we were off on the Madstone, I thought I would go back and send it. VICTIMS OF THE CONJURE Superstition That Led to Murder of an Old S. C. Darkey. Southern negroes still believe in The "Jack", the "conjure bag", "conjure doctors", says the Times, especially in the rural districts, the "conjure bottle", and the "conjure box" work many wonders. The doctor with the "yerbs" the "jack" and the "conjure rod" is held in great awe by his fellowmen, and those who know him to be a conjure trickster give him a wide berth. No negro would dare cross him. Many tragedies in negro communities are directly traceable to the deeds of some hoodoo doctor. He throws spells and his victims by the use of the bottle, bag or box. The jack is used in diagnosing cases. It is nothing more than a piece of silver coin, capable of a very high polish. The doctor calls it his "specie-piece". The jack will not work for nothing. Money makes it move. If a negro has queer feelings and has cause to think some one has thrown a spell over him, he goes to a hoodoo doctor for advise. The doctor consults his jack to ascertain the trouble and the cause of the same. After hearing the patient's story of the malady that has fallen upon his body, the doctor takes his jack from his pocket and retires to some secret place for a consultation with that dreadful and all powerful instrument. Soon the doctor returns and tells the conjured person to look in the jack and behold the image of the one who worked the spell and at the same time suggests the name of the person he thinks guilty. Sometimes the spell can be removed by medicine but unless the cause is removed also the spell will return. To cast a spell the conjure bag, bottle or box must be left on the premises of the person sought. Which ever one of the instruments is used may be left under the steps of the house, on the mantelpiece, in the dining room or about the barnyard. It is a matter of preference with the doctor as to whether he uses the bag, the bottle or the box. The person caught is not always the one sought. The spell may fall on some member of his family or some of his livestock, on his house and cause it to burn or on his lands and cause them not to bring forth crops. The instrument used, whether bag, bottle or box, contains a supply of curious ingredients, such as a pinch of red dirt taken from the grave of some ancestor who was a noted conjure doctor in his or her own day; a small piece of burnt rod, an inch or more long, known as the "conjure rod"; a stick of silk weed, and a bit of Sampson's snake root. In addition to these, a very clever practitioner often has a hawk's foot, a toad's eye and a lizard's tongue. When once the instrument of devilment is placed for a person it is bad luck to move it before the spell has fallen on the right one. The hoodoo doctor can give any person power to use the instrument provided the jack is satisfied. To satisfy a jack, money must come. The doctor looks the jack in the face until the necessary amount has been handed over, and the directions for the use of the bag, box or bottle are given. By the instrument and the aid of the doctor any negro . . .[cut off] [top of next column:] ...and choked him to death. While his body still jerked and writhed in the agonies of the awful death, his feet were tied to his hands with a strong twine. Then his slayers left him and searched the pockets of his clothes, an old trunk and a closet in the house for his medicine and herbs. But they found nothing. They then ran a fence rail under the ropes and bore the body to an old unused well a quarter of a mile away and threw it into the depths below. His body was covered with heavy stones rolled from the surface by the murders. For several weeks the crime was known except to Amzi, Frank and Angless. Goore was accustomed to going off for weeks a time, and even his wife claimed she was not uneasy about him. But the boy Angless gave the whole thing away and caused the arrest of Frank and Amzi. At the November term of the York County court they were tried and convicted of murder. On January 6 they were hanged. It is the opinion of many that DUNIVANT and CASTLES were honestly afraid of Ben GOORE and killed him to keep from being killed by his conjure tricks. free post Lisa