Browse:Professor Frank of New Orleans (Volume 1, entries 427)
Professor Frank of New Orleans
Volume 1, entries 427. Source context: SPIRITS → SPIRITS GUARD BURIED TREASURE. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 427
(The Rev. Young is going to tell his story again about his experience in New Orleans.) [The preceding words are not for Mr. Young who heard them, but for the concealed microphone - a notation to remind me later that his story the preceding day had not been well recorded. My previous knowledge of his adventure is the reason why I can prompt the rerecording.] This man was named Scott - that lived at Moundville, Alabama - an' he came to New Orleans and was stopping at de Chicago Hotel, run by a man by the name of A. O. Smith on de corner of [name began with P] and Liberty Streets. He come to New Orleans to see one of these wizards as they call them [never so called], or either fortune-tellers or hoodoos, and he was talking to the proprietor, Mr. Smith, relative to having someone who knew New Orleans who would take him around. He [Smith] told him he knew a young man who was in school at Leland University, and that he would possibly be there and that he was just the man he was looking for. So, while they were talking, I happened up that afternoon. I simply happened up and Mr. Smith says, "Here's the very man we Was talking about" - introduced me to him and said, "This is Mr. Scott from Moundville and he wants to go with someone who knows New Orleans, to go about with him." Well, first thing he explained the nature of his business to me, and said whatever ah charged him for mah time, he would give it to me. He was looking for a man that Would help him to find some money that was supposed to be buried on his premises, on his property. The first thing he wanted to do was to find him some of those barrooms where he could find him some gin, and he claimed that gin was lucky to him, and after clearing about a quart of this gin - drinking it - why we went round sight-seeing in New Orleans and visited a deal of places up until about possibly ten-thirty or 'leven 'clock that night. Then we went out, way out Bienville - near Galvers Street - way out - seventy-five blocks away, possibly - way out in New Orleans, Way out to Bienville Street - dat's about two blocks from Canal Street, parallel to Canal Street. We got out there, ah suppose about ten-thirty or 'leven 'clock and knocked on a door and dey - mostly all downtown houses in New Orleans have dese blinds and shutters, and de people is very superstitious - it's a very hard matter to find anybody round New Orleans. If you knock on a person's door and dey'll ask you who you looking for and sometimes you's talking to dis party, and dey won't answer you. And if dey are somewhere else in de house dey'll call 'em and perhaps yo' gone, and if you wanta see dat person perhaps they'll call you back. So [before] we went in and - his wife said, "Oh, sure it's you, Percy?" Ah said, "Yes." She said, "Come on in." Ah said, "Ah got company, someone to see Professor Frank." She say, "Why he's in bed asleep." Ah said, "Well, this is rather important and I would be glad should you call him." She say, "All right." So she went and called Professor Frank and he came out dressed in a very gorgeous robe, seem'ly made of red velvet and large arms - had a cap on same as that which a priest wears, and had dis man to come and kneel. [Since I did not ask for a description of this cap "same as that which a priest wears," I evidently assumed that it would be a biretta rather than a zucchetto and that the color would be black; this article and color being more accessible to him at a Roman Catholic religious shop. But I had not yet visited New Orleans and had much to learn - the cap was probably red.] De room was lighted with two large candles on either side of the mantlepiece - red candles - de carpet on de floor was red, and then they had a large altar over in de corner. It seem to set the room off katycornered, and there was a stool [prie-dieu] by which a man could kneel down upon as the people do in some of the churches to pray. This man knelt down on this stool and he told him to put his right hand on his heart and his left hand on a book which was supposed to be the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses of witchcraft and superstition. Then he mumbled some words, turned his back to dis man and looked up as in meditation and mumbled something and turned and told him dat he would seek what he was lookin' fo'. This altar I didn't describe it as I had yesterday - the robe [frontal] on de altar was of deep, dark red velvet with fringe all round and worked wit gold and various colors of stars, and de moon. It had a large gold and silver horseshoe mingled with seem'ly various colors - ivory.
(You spoke of that awning [his word] being held up, yesterday.)
Yes, this awning [canopy] over the altar was caught up right in de center in front, seem'ly by dis horseshoe and den draped down to a point on either side and went almost round de - in fact, it covered de altar. This altar Was made very similar to that of a pulpit - suppose it was about two and a half or three feet and about eighteen inches wide - something like dat - and he stood with dis heavy robe on him - this large robe girded round him in fringes on de end.
(It was the kind of a robe that a priest throws around him?)
Yes sir. And he had the bottom of his hand up this way - his right hand - he was seated in front of a table. Now dis table was something similar to a living- room or a parlor room mahogany table, seem'ly about four feet possibly and about eighteen inches in width, very heavy carved, de legs - I didn't say dat yesterday but it was large ole antique furniture. On this table was a large red covering with fringes that went up and down in the center. It didn't exactly cover the table. On this table was a large reading lamp with a shade seem'ly probably of gold, and he went behind dis table and sit down in large reclining revolving chair. But before he sat down in this chair - no, after he sat down in de chair, he pulled out a drawer in dis table and got out a kind of pipe - seem'ly it was gold - had a little crooked pipe stem to it [surely a calabash - my first pipe] - got some what we call moss tobacco or cut-plug - something similar to cut-plug tobacco and filled his pipe with tobacco continuously looking at this man, who sat dere and seem'ly half out of his wits and trembling - looked upon dis man as some supernatural being or some man dat was extraordinary - out of the ordinary person. He continuously looked at him searchingly, and dis man would look up at him guardedly. After he had filled his pipe with tobacco, still looking at dis man, he got out a - out from underneath his robe - the robe was lined with heavy satin - ah don't think I said that yesterday - he pulled out dis gold match- lighter and some way pushed a spring and out come a blue flame which seem'ly had something else in it - resembled that of lightning - still continuously looking at dis man. After lighting his pipe, put this cigarette lighter out and stuck it back in his pocket. He sat down and looked at this man and told him what he came there for. First he told him that his mother was dead and that he lived with his father; that he Was in a business and that he was very successful in this business, and he had a large amount of money and had come to New Orleans looking for him and that he Would find there was heap much money on this property of his buried. Seem'ly it was probably buried there by the Indians who seem'ly had formerly owned - lived in that settlement before it was thickly inhabited or populated.
(Then he sent you away for the night, didn't he?)
Yes sir. He had us to leave with the understanding that at ten 'clock de next morning he would come back and not say a word to anybody and bring $75 with him, which dis man did. We meets at de hotel and de next morning ah brought him back, since he didn't know New Orleans, and we came back - made it our business to be there exactly at ten 'clock. Came there and then he took him in his back yard. They had a rod that resembles a lightning rod, something like a lightning rod.
(What was the shape of this rod?)
Hit was round and at the ends it went down in an inner case and was made so it went down in an inner case and was made so it would go up and down at a certain length, a certain depth.
(Yesterday you said it was like a drill.)
Yes sir - it was like a drill in one end and it was curved like curved wire - like a curved lightning [rod] wire.
(How long was it?)
Oh it was possibly - probably six feet near as ah kin judge. And he went in his back yard and had some wires attached to it [the drill] - he apparently had these wires [also attached] on de wall of his house [in] back- yard, but it seems he attached them to some other wires connected with, possibly the electric wires, and place this machine out in de middle of de yard. Had it to drill itself - worked it a certain way that it worked itself down in de yard, and stood off from it, waved his hand like magic and said some peculiar words three different times, and then flames of fire like lightning flamed up at the top of [this] rod - flamed up three different times at de top of this rod. Well, the man as well as mahself, we stood there amazed because it was - well, now you understand it. We, when we went out of his house - dere was a little alley between his house and the next house - the houses in New Orleans are built very closely together - went out in the street and right in front of his home was a gutter that jes' carries off the Water, a ditch, very seldom cleaned out and there was Water in it, stopped up - stagnant water dere most all de time. Stuck dis rod down in de Water, but he never left the rod off the wire as he went through the yard - that wire was coils you know.
(He kept on to this wire - the wire was still attached to the house?)
Yes sir - still attached to the house and he uncoiled it. as he went on through the alley and sent this same rod - it was made to go down in de ditch of water, and said those same words he said in the back yard and waved his hand over this wire and then the flames came up seem'ly out of the.water through this wire. Jes' how it was [done I] don't know [!ii]. But after that he said to this man that regardless of where dis money was buried, if it was an old well, if it was in Water anywhere, or it was on dry land, dis machine would be sure to find it. And this man gave him the $75. He gave him that when he first went in the house the second day. And he was to go to this man's home at Moundville, Alabama - this side of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, up on de Alabama Great Southern Railroad between Meedan [?] [Meridian, Mississippi] and Tuscaloosa [Alabama]. And sometime that afternoon they left all of a sudden for Moundville where he was supposed to go to find dis money.
(This man went with him?)
Yes sir, this man went with him. [As the reader has already suspected, when the professor "waved his hand like magic his wife inside the house pulled the switch!] (You were telling me yesterday about this candle-burning: You said it is very prevalent along the Gulf here and New Orleans to burn candles.)
[This was several weeks before I reached New Orleans on my first trip.]
Yes sir. (What was your idea about why they burn candles in other parts of the country; you told me that yesterday.) Well, because de religious idea seem'ly is borrowed from de Catholics who burn candles in their religious ceremonies. A deal of dese people are persuaded, some of them are Catholic persuasion and some of them belong to the Catholic Church. Those who do not belong to the Catholic Church, as the Catholics to some extent predominate along the coast and in New Orleans, through Mexico, down through Central American - these peoples ideas are molded by their religious worship. These superstitious get the idea that they use these candles - they use highly perfumed candles. (You were telling me about the perfume they use over there in New Orleans - what was that?) Van-van they name it. The name is van-van - it's a highly perfumed powder jest a little above the odor of oil of peppermint - oil of cinnamon. It has a Wonderful pleasing effect on people who smell it. The people around New Orleans, white and black, around certain districts use that in scrubbing their doorsteps and houses, and even pouring this van-van which is very expensive oil - perfumed oil in the water with which they scrub their floors and even sweept off the brick pavement around their doors. They claim that it brings good luck. Racehorse men and racehorse women who play lots on racehorses are known to use this perfume greatly on their clothes. It's a very frequent thing to meet people with their clothes highly perfumed with this van-van odor. (You were telling about the women in the fast houses; do they use that in some way?) Yes sir - very much so. How do they use that? They use it perfumed in their bath water - they use it also in having their maids to scrub their houses. It's also used in these candles. Some of these candles that they burn, they are very expensive and they are perfumed. They burn that candle and practically shut that room up practically all day. Well, everything in dat house is perfumed with dat incense or whatever they call it.
(What do they do that for?)
That brings luck - that makes dem very successful or lucky, and nine times out of ten luck comes their way.
[After my informant left, I comment to the microphone.]
(This is the Rev. Mr. Young telling some of the things he told me yesterday - I just wanted to make sure I got them down.)
supposed buried-money premise in a rerecorded treasure-search account. The story was rerecorded with prompts based on a poorly recorded prior telling; no verbatim-audio fidelity. narrator-described apparent flames in a wired demonstration. Preserve the rerecording and separate Hyatt wife/switch explanation; the editorial mechanism is not an independently witnessed fact. reported repeated unknown words during a criticized demonstration. Preserve staged/criticized context, narrator uncertainty, wires and Hyatt separate switch explanation. These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
Read full source (printed page 128) · Read full source (printed page 129) · Read full source (printed page 130) · Read full source (printed page 131) · Read full source (printed page 132)