nd she explained to them her misfortune, and it was not long until
there was quite a crowd about her, offering their sympathy and also
their assistance.

Some volunteered to wade into this stream and search for the ring,
which was done, and a number of buckets of mud were carried up out of
the stream from the point the lady had stated she had dropped her
ring, but the ring could not be found.

At this point one of our Catholic "dupes" appeared and explained to
the lady that if she would put her trust in St. Anthony and would pay
$500, that St. Anthony would restore to her her ring.

This lady being a Catholic also, of course, was easily persuaded to
do this, so they knelt down and prayed to St. Anthony and beseeched
him to restore the lost treasure, and it was not long until all of
those in the crowd that belonged to the Catholic Church were in
sympathy with this distressed lady, and they were also kneeling and
supplicating St. Anthony to restore the lost treasure. They prayed
for an hour, but still the lost treasure would not appear; then the
ringleader of this barbarous belief informed this lady that the ring
had been swallowed by a fish. He pretended to be inspired and claimed
that he could catch this identical fish with the bait of St.
Anthony's bread. Everything was soon prepared and the line was let
down into the water, and sure enough a good sized fish was caught
upon this St. Anthony's bait, and the crowd went into rapturous
delight, as they were quite sure they had the identical fish that had
swallowed the ring.

As soon as the fish was caught a collection was raised by a priest
who was in the crowd for the benefit of "St. Anthony's Bread Box."
All of the Catholics in the crowd contributed, of course, as they
were afraid not to, for Catholics believe that if they do not do what
a priest tells them to they are sure to have something awful befall
them, and, of course, all of these Catholics believed in the
witchcraft of St. Anthony and believed that he was the actual
restorer of all lost things.

The Protestants in the congregation were determined to see what was
inside of the fish, so they followed the one that carried it to a
butcher shop and the fish was cut open, but naught was found in it
but what is usually found in any old fish that never saw or heard
tell of a diamond ring.

Now, this is one of the thousands--yea, tens of thousands of such
instances that are forced down the throats of the ignorant