Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1915 — “DEVIL’ THUMBS” HIS CURSE [ARTICLE]

“DEVIL’ THUMBS” HIS CURSE

E*at Indian Praises Allah aa Burgeons Eliminate Cause of Hie Ostracism. Allah be praised! Gian Singh is without hie “devil thumbs,” extra ones that grew upon his hands. They were taken from him the other day by Allah, he says,’ but the surgeons in the receiving hospital say differently, and say it in a very technical and convincing way. From the time of hie youth in the -village Tuse, district of Ludhiana, Punjab, India, Gian. Singh has not found favor in the eyes of his relatives, iand always the little boys with whom he played reviled him by calling him “Devil Thumts.” It was a ma formation of the thumbs frdtn which ho suffered, not an uncommon thing In the United States, but a horrible visitation and curse In India. Never could he be a favored son of Allah. When he had a chance he came to America, but his friends took his companionship without grace, and when an affair of chance was undertaken by them recently, and they lost, they cursed Gian Singh roundly, and, by the custom of their race,, spat upon him. So great was Gian Singh’s distress that he came-to the receiving hospital, and asked if some deliverance could not be given him from the curse he bore. The surgeons remarked "easily.” The other day Gian Singh and his friend, Omar, came to the hospital. A moment for anesthesia, the quick and tense activity of the surgeons, and Gian Singh was being wheeled back to his bed in the ward. As he was trundled along, he awakened for an Instant Instantly he held his hands high, so he could look upon them. There was the thumb, one thumb on his right hand. His left was the same. With a sigh, he renewed his dreams in anesthesia, only to mutter, “Allah be praised!”—Los Angeles Times.