Browse:Doctor Burns Candle to Make Policeman Lenient (Volume 1, entries 2772)
Doctor Burns Candle to Make Policeman Lenient
Volume 1, entries 2772. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → SHRINES: ALTARS - CANDLES - SAINTS; NEW ORLEANS AREA → (1) ALTARS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2772
She tole me she had been kind of worried. She, you know, have a busi- ness - a cook shop, she had. An' it wasn't no real good business. She was doing this to help support her children and herself, and she tole me that she had a lotta competition. Dey was trying to make her go in [into the city arrangement] you know and she Was paying license [to someone] you know out in de suburbs, and of course de city men hadn't come out tuh her yet. Dey turn her up dat she hadn't paid her city license and she was just worried to death, she tole me. She went to see this fellah and while she was there she wanted some luck. She told him she wanted some luck and she wanted him tuh help her out on dis case - see whut he could do fo' her. So he tole her if she would give him three pieces of silver, which that [is] three fifty cents - er [or] a dollar and a half, that he would burn a candle. Now, he read cards fo' her and told her this: And in these cards she saw where it was three pieces of silver - de silver dollar mixed up in dere - [and he] fixed it out [interpreted] so she'd have to pay the three pieces of silver [to him], and he tole her that this man what was in the cards would come in at the time [soon] and speak to her. He say in the cards - he was reading the cards.
(She had to give him three pieces of silver - fifty-cent pieces.)
An' everything would come out all right. He guaranteed it, he told her, and she wouldn't have to pay dis heavy fine.
(How much was the fine?)
$10. An' dat dis man [in the cards] would come in [court] an' speak for her. And jest as she got in there, she had to wait till others paid and de others went off - and instead of closing her up like they had threatened to do, she didn't have all of her money - jest as it was her turn to come, this man, the policeman that served her de warrant, came in and while he was there an' she was telling about herself, he heard it. He came in and told her it was jest a little kitchen affair - was not a big display of it but if she could help her family. An' then he tole her to pay him $2.50 and then pay him a dollar a week or pay him a little bit along, he would be lenient towards her, an' she could open her a big shop if she wanted tuh, but he would give her that chance for the effort that she was trying to make fo' employment. An' of co'se she had all confidence in this man [hoodoo fortuneteller] because he told her that at ten 'clock when she reached this place that he would be burn- ing the candle.
(He would be burning this candle while she was in the courtroom?)
While she was in the courtroom. And he guarantee that this would happen. [I would not say the doctor actually burned the candle, but I am guessing that his psychic power knew the policeman "would be lenient towards her" in court - "a little along each week.]
(Did that happen here in town?)
Yes.