The spring water was uncovered and its pressure was sufficient to throw it into the air. However, as it was located on the forbidden margin, any prisoner reaching under or over the dead-line for a draught of the water would be instantly shot by the sentinel posted overhead on the wall. Hence, after the spring was opened an object of much desire, and suitable as a subject of prayer, was that the hardness of Capt. Wirtz would be relaxed to the extent of allowing the prisoners to have access to the water. This result was accomplished and the relief was complete. A recent writer commenting on the development of Providence Spring refers to the marble fountain erected by the Ex-Prisoners of War Association inside the granite pavilion built over the spring by the Woman's Relief Corps, remarks, "The waters flow strong and sweet with a never-ceasing stream into the marble basin. It is said to be the best water in all Georgia; that which gushes forth from the side of the little hill in Andersonville." Confirmatory to this statement is the following incident: In 1896, when the writer lectured in Warsaw, N. Y., on "Reminiscences of Battle-fields and Prisons," a prominent war veteran of the town, who had been a member of the staff of General Grant, showed him a bottle of water from Providence Spring which nine years before had been hermetically sealed by the Rev. G. Stanley Lathrop of Atlanta. So pure was the content that no sediment existed. The further comment is: "The scientific fact of Providence Spring is that in the August electrical storm the rocks (clay) which held back this spring were cracked or broken open by a lightning bolt and the waters gushed forth. No one ever believed that it was a sort of Moses intervention for the prisoners, but it was undoubtedly looked upon in that light by the poor, thirsty, half-starved prisoners." To which we reply that if we believe in prayer as an instrumentality by which human and divine forces cooperate to a beneficent end, and the result takes place, why should we question the efficacy of intercession? The fact that a number of believing men in the prison were engaged for some days in protracted prayer for relief from water-famine was not ostentatiously announced at the time, and was little noticed by the crowd. Thus has it ever been with the origin of great spiritual movements. The relief came and a new spirit of hope and gladness, such as prevailing prayer engenders, swept through the multitude. The scientific fact of a mightly rain storm being the visible agency of completing the opening of Providence Spring fitly coordinates with the moral force of prayer, as in numberless instances such convergence occurs in history. Nevertheless, this explanation will probably be accepted or challenged according to the personal experience of the reader in matters of Christian faith.