North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1869-04-07
The Devil.

\iu OuE upih'Uu) IL STUDY IOr all. With
out him, the world would be dull, dry and
peaceable. We clip the below humorous
article from the Chicago Evening Post.
We suspect "Linkensalc'' of tho Post
wrote it, and fearing the influence it might
have with the religious readers of that
lively paper he charged its origin to the
Troy Times. Read it over ye As year>old
chaps, and remember how scared you once
were by the hobgoblin nonsense that was
once preached and feared.
His Satanic Majesty" has had many
titles. The Egyptians called him Typhon;
the Greeks, Titan; the Persians, Ohro.
maze. The Scotch have given him several
names, as "Auld Clootie," which is sub
ApOsed to allLde to his cloccn feet. They
also call him the "Auld Ane' 1.-THE Old
One y and still another Scottish appella-
tion for him is "Auld Hornie," which
is based on the popular belief that his
Satanic Majesty is supplied with horns.
According to Il learned German theologian
there are A ,435, $50 devils. usual German
expletive is :'tcn thousand tyfels," but
this calculation renders it used up ex-
clamation. Our ancestors firmly believed
that it was possible for a person to be
possessed by devil. For thousands of
years, indeed, humanity has held this
creed, or this superstition: nor, in the face
OF the many instances Of demoniacal pos.
session recorded in the Scriptures, can we
refuse without impiety to credit the stories
of men, women and children who have
had devils which have been miraculousIy
cast out. The good men who translated
the Bible into the English tongue were the
contemp poraries of the witch>fnders. The
King to whom they dedicated their grand
labor, had, himself, written a pondcrous
treatise against witch-craft. They came
from their task, their brains heated by
Oriental imagery, and unable. perhaps, to
draw nice distinctions between lofty
allegory and naked fact, to detect the
supernatural in every relation of social
life, and TO find devils everywhere. The
old fiend Of the Medieval legcnds-the
Gothic devil with horns and hoofs, saucer
eyes aud q tail-was rcsuscitatcd in the
bright morning of the Protestant Reform
atiJn. From the accession Of James until
the end Of the reign of the Second
Charles, "thc State Trials teen with re.
cords Of deviltry. Let woman be old
and ugly and cross grained, and especially
rheumatic, and, strai aightway, commerce
with familiar iend was imputed to her.
Many such miserable old croncs, who had
been scourged, ducked and pelted nearly
to deaths door, were fain to avoid further
torture before they reached the stake. to
confess they had cO;leagued with the devil,
h. - L.
foot and half high" In France. at the
ssame period, the nuns of Loudun were
: Ibsssssed by a devil in the shape of
'tom-cat, speaking tolerable Latin. In
Sweden the children were plagued with
the Evil one, who was regularly exercised
out of whole troops OF ulchins every
Sunday morning at the church door by
means Of birch rod. And the devil even
crossed the Atlantic, and caught hold Of
people in Virginia, and the washerwoman
and cocks Of Salem and other parts Of
New England. @&s%
The imagination of the Chinese has in
vented no fewer than ten devils and hells.
One presides over hell stuck full of
knives another an iron tank filled with
boiling water; a third is hell of ice; in
another the punishment is pulling out the
tongues of those who tell lies another
hell Of poisonous serpents in another the
victim is drawn into pieces another a
hell Of blackness and darkness; and in
praying they say: "May not fall into
the hell of swords!' or into this or that
place of torment.
WoxAN's .GOssIP.-I sat for a short
time last night, in the neighborhood of a
few ladies and their attendant bcaux. at
the opera, and was infinitely amused at
The family at the Executive Mansion made
the theme, and the members thereof were
tossed to and fro in the livcliest manner.
1.-The President dresses well, at least"
cried one. why, Laura, how can you
say ss3 was told that ut Hamilton