Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1891 — A Tree Which Smokes. [ARTICLE]

A Tree Which Smokes.

Newton, a vigorous mountain town west of Charlotte, N. C., has a curiosity that beats by a large majority the rain tree which gained such notoriety in Charlotte in 1886. It is a smoking tree, and baffles all efforts at explanation. It is a white mulberry tree, and stands on the sidewalk in front of the residence of Levi Yoder. It was brought from Illinois a year or two ago, and is now about twelve feet high, with a bushy top and many lateral branches. The" other Sunday one of the family noticed a puff of smoke proceed from one of the limbs, and by watching it closely, puffs identical in appearance to cigarette smoke were seen starting every now and then from all over the tree/sometimes from the leaves, sometime i from the bloom, sometimes from the bark of the limbs or trunk of the tree. The puffs are at irregular intervals; sometimes two or three at once from various parts of the tree, and sometimes they are several seconds or a half minute apart. They just seem to come at haphazard from any part of the tree, and as they ascend in the air look exactly like the smoke from a cigarette. Since the curiosity first became generally known, large crowds, both of town and country people, can be seen there at any time in the day. All doubting Thomases are soon convinced on the first visit that the tree “do smoke.” Among the white people it is only looked upon as a curiosity, and many, of course, make explanations of the phenomenon, which, perhaps, are plausible enough to their authors, but which carry very little in conviction to the minds of all. But the negroes don’t like the thing at all. One negro after intently watching the puffs a few minutes, started off on a run, saving: “J wouldn’t lib dar fur nuthin’: people better go to doin’ better ’bout dis town.” A negro man said: “I’m gwine stay ’way from dat thing. I can smell de brimstone clear down to de libery stable.”