Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1896 — VIRGINIA’S LUCKY STONES. [ARTICLE]

VIRGINIA’S LUCKY STONES.

Carlons Crystals Which Tradition Says Came from the Tears of Fairies. The queer cross-shaped crystals of silicate that are known to the inhabitants of Virginia as fairy stones have long puzzled the most noted geologists of the, world. Just why silicate should crystllize is the first problem that confronts them, and the second is why the crystallization should always assume the form of a cross. It is only in one part of Virginia that these stones are found. Patrick county is the favored locality, but almost every Virginian has sent to some friend or neighbor for a specimen, for they are supposed to be a lucky stone. Indeed, no self-respecting citizen of the Old Dominion will be found with a rabbit’s foot in his possession nowadays, and he must have a fairy stone for a mascot. The legend which gives these little crystals such a reputation for luck is not only old, but is quaintly beautiful. When the crucifixion took place the fairies of that particular section of Virginia were overwhelmed with grief, and their tears in falling crystallized into tiny crosses. For many years the fairy stones have been the particular mascots of Patrick county citizens, and it was Ohly by accident that the fame of the emblems has spread. A few months ago a certain Col. Prdpper went into the mountains of that county on a prospecting tour, and while there put up at a farmhouse. lie noticed that all the people about the place were wearing irregular cross-shaped crystals, and on asking found out the significance of the custom. He secured one, and within a few days struck a bonanza. Shortly after the gallant colonel appeared in Washington, his studs, cuffbuttons and scarfpins all made of fairy stones. Congressmen and even grave senators badgered him for a mascot, but only a favored few secured the coveted lucky stones. The fairy stones are scarce, and are found after diligent search in the beds of the streams, along the dried-Up channels of brooks and rivulets.—-Ji. Y. World.