Show SA SALT LAKE CITY The Hoodoo Hand I By Dr Js Is the most mod HE that follon T TilE I extraordinary na Ue of ft 8 50 so- so printed prInt called colled hoodoo that eier eTer iras UP because 1 it Is a Most extraordinary gathered by br the plain relation of fact 1 15 and Juno June police of Rome Borne between Llast last set down dorni In their officIal In Iii al all the ten er and ond duly published of tho the Italian capital capital- which It al all 1 be be- e- e with The Tho mystery or 1 womans woman's handIn hand handIn tho gan finding qt ot a Interest est of In the street divided the lie Into the Romans with the news of oC the war but buL the solution of ot the tho mystery was WS If It Thus romance stranger trang r than any one may believe the thi Roman noman police records records records rec rec- It was proved pro b beyond yond a shadow of doubt that ownership of the hand hand hand- mummy had had In Invariably Invariably In- In mummy it was Rs the hand band of oC a accompanied by disaster variably been ruin and often b by death L. L This is Js s not the first limo that trag trag- t X I Ii i S S 'S S. S i s S I A street cleaner picked up lip the mummy's h hand nd In Via Plebiscite I I d has accompanied a mummy There I Is in the British Museum a very Camous fa famous Ia- Ia I hoodoo of oC that kind It is No 2254 in the catalogue Many articles about it and its supposedly malign In Influence In- In fluence have hae been peen written A narrative narrative narrative narra narra- I tive of similar mal malevolence Is Js that of or this womans woman's hand but with one Important important im Ito- difference tragedies tragedies' connected connect connect- I ed cd with th the BrItish British Museum mummy I although apparently well ell substantiated j have hare never been t the e subject of or j police investigation while those connected con con- con I j with the mummy hand baud in Rome Home j I were brought to to light only T by y a most j searching official ial investigation iI i I am writing this with a file of oC the Roman Roman Roman Ro- Ro j man dally daily papers for the third week in j Juno June before beCore me The statements that follow are simply an abridgment of or i their reports of the facts as furnished Ito j I I I Ito to them by by the officials of oC the Trevi Precinct Pre Pre- i j of the de bu- bu 1 I. I t i 0 t The Englishman awoke to find several bleeding scars upon his breast breut rc u No newspaper appears to hamada have hare made mada any independent Investigation in 1 procedure would not be permitted in Italy On Sundar June 20 the papers contained contained con con- tamed a brief paragraph announcing that early carlyon on the previous day June 19 thirty years cars old of ot No 21 Via employed by the municipality as a street cleaner while hUe leisurely at at work ork in the Via Plebiscite noticed a parcel on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to the Banca Danca He picked It I up unwrapped a sheet of oC white paper and nud then a sheet heet of or yellow paper Inside In In- In-I In side aide was a human hand band It was a small slender hand with I tapering fingers a and d pointed nails naUs It I looked as it If It had been beca burnt for it I Iwas was br brown wn In color coor and quite dy I. I scenting a a. m mystery rY perhaps a crime notified the Commissioner Commis Commis- foner abner of or Public Safety of tho Trevi District who sent Deputy Coletti to to the tho scene Col examined the hand J 5 h I 1 I it t. C f A f irs irs' anger the Englishman I. I s 1 tore nf oft off the left hand of 0 the ie mummy i A Remarkable ble Narrative Compiled From City of Rome Official Police Records of ol the Unaccountable Series of ol Calamities Which Have Overtaken the Successive Owners of a Slender Hand HandT T Torn orn From an Egyptian I I M Mummy S and ordered that that it Jt be taken to the Hospital At the tho hospital Drs Giannetti Ve Ve- nero nave Pampers Milan and Cauli in the presence of or Deputy CerI CerI I reU of the Bureau of or Public Safety I held an autopsy They announced that it was RS a left hand that of or a aI I woman of or uncertain age torn from a I I I I corpse as R the tendons of oC the wrist were visible and certainly had not been cut with a knife All the schools of or anatomy were visIted visited vis via but not one of oC them had missed a hand han Although printed in an inconspicuous ous place and without a spread head this little paragraph aroused more public Interest than could have been expected For the tho next two days the newspapers had to display many letters from their readers written to them and to th the police making all kinds of or suggestions as to the solution of or the tho mystery Most of or the writers set et forth a hypothesis of or some more than ordinarily tempestuous love atI at- at fair Had an outraged husband In Inflicted inflicted In- In this horrible chastisement upon I v I I i iI i I S S 3 After became owner owner own own- er of the hand he died In InS S poverty i j I. I the wife who had betrayed him Had some crazed love swain in an e explosion plo plo- sion ilon of mad jealousy torn thru ort off ff the hand that refused itself to him Or might i not perhaps have been a grim judgment judgment judg judg- ment meat imposed b by the Inexorable law of or some secret society of oC dark crImInals criminals criminals crim crIm- One anonymous correspondent more mare specific than the rest told a circumstantial circumstantial circumstantial circum circum- story of or a crime crime perpetrated years ago which had always remained an unsolved mystery The police records records records rec rec- proved at once that no such crime as he described had been com corn So great was the flood of letters and so extraordinary the interest that developed de do- about that womans woman's hand that CastaldI the Quester ordered the police ponc to make a more than usually searching investigation This was naturally directed first to toward toward toward to- to ward ascertaininG who had thrown I i i S 'S I L I I 5 w tC I. I L Jr 2 1 n v o J. J ft r. r fi M. M The bank was wot nearly In Insolvent In In- solvent when the clerk who owned the hand died the hand away The paper in which It I had been wrapped d was slightly stained perhaps with blood but bore no DO other marks that ml ht ht lead toward fica The spots on the tho paper were analyzed analyzed ana ana- and found to have havo been made by by eau cau de do Cologne On Wednesday morning one of at the newspapers announced that on the previous day dar a member ember of or its stat staff had received a letter tetter saying that the whole mystery could be explained by a n wid widow Id- Id ow who lived with her hor daughters In Inthe Inthe inthe the Vl Via Crescenzio Cresce The Journalist It said had bad hunted through that street till tm he found fould a a. widow and daughters But she sho and th they y professed absolute Ignorance of ot the hand That same evening however the Journalist had been called to the telephone tele- tele phone and told that the hand had belonged belonged belonged be be- longed to Luigi Mesones of No Via GermanIco an Intimate friend of oC the I 1 I widow and her daughters His Informant Informant informant In In- formant added that he had hadi sent this fact in a letter t to the tho On the tho morning of ot of this publication the reporters rushed to the wh re re they learned d that such a letter had had been received Cay thereupon ordered that Signor Signer bo sent for and Interrogated Signor Signer Mesones said tho the hand was that of a mummy and he told such anI an I extraordinary story about It that the much evening papers gave almost as space to It as to tho the war var news It W was S. S ho said a hoodoo boodoo hand a hand that had bad brought bad luck misfortune ruin sickness or death to every on ono one who had owned it And It had passed through man many ownerships Mesones mentioned ed several names I of oC persons well known in Rome These persons pron were w r. r Int Interrogated O td byI by byI byThe I i. i M t I S I k The artist Del Re fell III Ill soon after acquiring the hand the police and they all told the same star story This sounded so liko like fiction that the tho police took special pains to verify every detail According to their accounts as furnished furnished furnished fur fur- by the police to the tho newspapers J I the first owner of oC the hand was a n well- well to-do to Englishman who was fond of or dabbling in the occult His name doc docs not appear in the newspaper r accounts and the stories of how he got It originally are vague ague but he is said to have brought the mummy of ot a woman to toRome toI toRome Rome Home from Cairo many years ears ago I And those who had known him said he be wa was convinced that the mummy talked to him every night white while he ho slept tellIng telling tell tell- ing lug him marvellous tales of the Egypt of or long long ago One morning according to the story the Englishman woke up to find several several sev sev- eral bleeding scars upon his chest It suddenly occurred to him that the i iI I I I t r N I Ih h I t II y t f J I. I or or ri Iri Y l I S 5 t r. r I I II Mesones Melones having accepted the hand soon lost the tho I sight of one eye I mummy had made these with her long fingernails In his anger he lie rushed at atthe atthe I the thing and tore off its left hand A close friend of ot this strange Englishman Englishman Englishman Eng Eng- lishman was Giovanni Gio famous the world over as a professional faster who jt t will be remembered broke all fasting rusting records by abstaining from food for Cor forty five days das at Doriss Doris's Museum Museum Mu Mu- Iu- Iu seum eum New York in 1890 Through habitual abstinence from Crom food tees fees from physicians and exhibiting himself himself himself him him- self in public Sued had accumulated a 1 fortune that is said to have been boen about a R. hundred thousand dollars Sued was fascinated by his friends friend's story of or tho the mummy and when he heard how he had torn ort oft its hand he lie conceived the odd Idea that this severed sev cred ered member might be a 0 talisman talisman-a a mascot Therefore he asked tho the Englishman Englishman Eng Eng- lishman to give it to him The Tho Englishman Englishman Englishman Eng Eng- lishman readily acceded and so became the tho owner of or the mummy hand I What befell berell the Englishman anA the rest of or the mummy the Roman police te i S 'S 5 i S k When Mesones' Mesones mother and father were stricken III lii he threw It aw away 4 did not bother to Inquire Tho The hand alone interested them then them From Prom tho the day that tho the hand came into possession lon his fortune fortuno bean bean bej be- be j an an to fade tade The world lost all Interest Inter Inter- est eat in fasting Casting freaks his his' savings tJ dwindled bad luck attended him wherever he be went and finally he died n a poor man He lie was so o far as known the hands hand's first victim Its next owner the the police do not way nay how bow ho got it was It-was was a clerk in a aHoman Roman Homan bank who used to use the hand as a a. pap paper r weight The bank coon floon found itself itsel in difficulties It was wasu nil u the point of oC failure when the clerk who owned tho the hand died Up to this point the testimony was was hearsay for the Englishman had vanIshed vanished van van- Il long ago and both and andt t the e b bank k clerk were dc dead d. d But Bit what hat hatI I follows is ia made up from tho the personal pc experiences of ot men still living hiving who were summoned ed b by the police and nd who told their own stories Armando optician In the Corso Umberto said ho bad had known the theor or original owner of or the mummy and been familiar with the hand as it lay Jay layon layon on tho he bank clerks clerk's desk Having long coveted coveted tho the strange object he found now no difficulty in getting it IL He Mo had heard something of or tho bad bad luck that pursued Its previous possessors but buthe he lle laughed at such stories A severe attack of or appendicitis to which he ho almost succumbed made Signor Sus Sus- think there might be some truth in the stories of the hands bands evil enc ence C. C A As soon as he ho recovered from the I appendicitis he determined to get rid of oC the hand band so he gave It II to his friend tho ho artist Fortunato del Re He who has bas hasa a a. a studio in the Palazzo Doria Here Hero the tho story is taken up by Signor d del l He Re who told the police that h he fell feU m soon after getting tho the hand and that Prince Dorla DorJa died The Tho artist re recovered recovered re re- covered and looked about for Cor some someone someone someone one else who might be anxious to take taka a chance with the tho hand One evening at tho Cafe Aragno sitting with somo some friends he ho told the story and asked Whoever wants the hand may say s so I Ishall shall bo be delighted to make him hima a present of ot It it itAlia Alla Alia larga cried every everyone one In It and chorus meaning Away with making those cabalistic signs th that t are customary in exorcising bad luck or orthe orthe orthe the evil eye c But Bul- Bulon on one braver and more sceptical than th the oth others r rs sc scoffed ed at their fears and nd cri cried crid d I r will t. t tike lake ke tI th the hand The new new owner was vas Mesones of ot No iol Germanico the man first Interrogated gated He paid dearly for tor his bravado r for far r the mummy hand never p pa paused sed e In Its Us maleficent work and troubles followed lowed fa fast t and followed fol tal lowed hewed ta sl rI his his- home hethe honie First hI his hia m mother ther ill Then h ho loal th the sight Bight df of one o FIn his father r- r wa wal stricken i Sign Signor r Mesones waited n Ii no longer but wrapped d the Ule curse br curse bringing nging thing thin In two pieces of paper put it into his pocket w iv walked out tho the Piazza f Venezia and watching his opportunity threw tho the hand away near neat the spot S where it was discovered by br Giovanni that same moraine v 1 r |