Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1893 — LOOKS LIKE A HUMAN HAND. [ARTICLE]

LOOKS LIKE A HUMAN HAND.

Tlie Singular Growth of a Tree Which Had Once Been Blighted. Up on the east side of North Seventh street, about midway between Poplar street and Girard avenue, Philadelphia, stands a strikingly curious tree, which recently attracted the attention of. an Inquirer man. It stands just in front of a stable yard, and the employes of the place say that dozens of people come to them every week and make remarks or ask questions about the strange growth. From the thickness of the growth at the base the tree is probably about 40 years old, but its branches and foliage are new and fresh, and look as though they were but the growth of a year or two. The trunk runs straight from the ground to a height of fifteen feet. Above this, for a short distance, is a thick, globular mass of foliage, tfhe leaves appearing to grow directly out of the wood. Above this growth run up three thick stalks or stumps, six or eight feet high, also covered with a dense, close mass of foliage. When the tree is viewed from the north side it presents a startling resemblance to a giant human hand protruding from the earth. The three big stumps at the top represent the three middle fingers, and upon either side of these can easily be seen configurations of the surrounding foliage which correspond to the little Anger and thumb. The explanation of the phenomenon is a curious one. The tree was once full-grown and vigorous, but was attacked by blight or some other disease, and the .dead trunk was pruned down to its present proportions, whereupon the present new growth developed.