The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-07-07
MODERN CREDULITY.

Those who are laboring, either as in
dividuals or in social institutions, to raise
the level or improve the tone of life
among the mass of the people are re-
peatedly COMPOUNDED by disheartening
evidence that gross superstition, igno-
rant credulity, still exist amongst US to a
lamentabie degree. Even comfortable
farmers with their wives and children,
small shopkeepers in country towns and
wOrkingmen and women in large towns
are to be found among the dupes of fort
une-tellers and witch finders; albeit serv-
ant girls are the most numerous victims.
Whether through the agency of school
boards or board schools, education will
reach down deeperinto society than it does
at present, the next generation must show;
but nothing less than mental improvement
whether given by schools, by healthy lit
erature or by other agencies, will cure
the evil. To prove that we are not over
drawing the picture, it will suffice to give
a few jOttings so recent in date as with
in the last ten years, mostly derived from
authentic police reports.
At Madeley, in Staffordshire, in 1867,
a man went into neighbours house, and
there found a child troubled with Sc
we're cough. The father had delayed
sending for doctor until he had tested
the efficacy of remedy which he de-
Clared had never failed. The remedy,
or charm, consisted in cutting few hairs
from the part of the patients head where
it joins the neck, placing them between
two thin slices of bread and butter and
rrir-i tIa,, To, doc tn
his neighbours eXpostulation at such an
absurdity, the father of the child admin
istered this deleCtable sandwich to dog;
if the animal had sickeped, doctor for
the child would have been sent for; but,
as Rover did not seem to care much about
it, the invalid was left to recover without
medical aid.
AT Stratford-o Avon, in the same year,
a whole family held firmly to belief that
they were visited by beings of very ex-
ceptional Observation-Disclosures human
creature carrying his head under his arm;
sometimes headless being that de-
scended the chimney; sometimes head
less couple that tossed the beds and the
inmates about, and made havoc with the
furniture. Neither rldicule nor serious
talk could shake them in this belief; they
declared themself to be bewtched, and
that relief could only be found by draw
ing blood from the person supposed to be
the witch. Unfortunately for her, the fool
ish people suspected a woman named
Jane Ward, who lived door or two off.
The father bounced upon her one day,
held her firmly, and cut her face with
knife. The family professed to be at
once relieved by this mode of breaking
the spell; they all slept well that night,
which they declared they had not done
for some time previously. Jane Ward,
of course, did not approve of such an
extraordinary proceeding, and the mag
istrates committed the man on a charge
of cutting and manning. If the memory
of Shakespeare has refined his birth
place this refinement certainly had not
reached the family in question.
About the same period the law had to
mete out justice to an evil.doer in Dew
onshire, who had met with dupe of al
most incredible Stiffness. A laboring
man at Woodbury., whose wife had an at
tack of paralysis, believed that she was
" wish'd" by some one, apparently a
modification of the old belief in the
EVIL Eye" Having heard of woman
at Plymouth possessing magic power, he
went and sought her out as means Of
ascertaining who was the ill.wisher. The
"wise woman" was equal to the occa-
sion. She told him that his wife would
have to see the planets" and to gather
certain herbs in the church yard for
twenty-one nights. Moreover, certain
powders were to be burnt in the fire, one
in the morning aud one in the evening,
and the ninety-tirst Psalm was to be read
during the burning; "skin" was to be
worn round the neck, put on for the first
time on Sunday. A piece of parch-
ment was given to him under the name
of charm" bearing cabalistic signs of
hieroglyphics, with few sentences;
"Whosoever beareth this sign, all spirits