The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1878-04-25
1Oll Pitcher.

The vicinity of High Rock was lons
memorable As the residence of Moll Pitch.
er, the fortune-teller of Lynn. Twenty.
five years ago there were vcrv few FIRE.
sides in New England that her fame bad
not reached, perhaps disturbed; and he1
successful predictions, alike ASTOUNDING
to the vulgar or perplexing to the e.
lightened, were the theme of many ,
midnight watch or forecastle confab. She
was not the withered, decrepit, and
toothless crone of Spenser, or Otways
"Wrinkled hag, with age grown double,
P1ckng dry sticks and mumbling to herself.n y
but woman who lived in the full gaze
and gossip Of the world, which only &C.
cepted her claim to foreknowledge upon
the uneqvivocal testimony of thousand
witnesses. Do you contend that her rem.
utation was due solely to the shrewdness,
penetration, and ready wit with which
she was undoubtedly and in a remark
able degree gifted7 How, then, will you
explain revelations of the future made
ten and twenty years before the events
predicted took placeY
When she was in the meridian of her
fame and life the ordinary applicant saw
woman of medium stature, having an
unusually large head, q pale thin face
shaded by masses Of dark brown hair,
who was rs thoroughly self-possessed as
he was i'll at ease, and whose comprehen-
sive glance measured his mental capacity
before he could utter q syllable. People
OF better discernment, who recollect her.
say that her face had none of the Wild
ness Of the traditional wich, but was
clouded with habitual sadness, as of a
mind overburdened with being the de-
P -itory of so many condolences, perhaps
crimes. She had full, capacious fore
head, eyes that read the secret thoughts
of suiter, nose "inclined to be long, ~
and thin lips-a physiognomy wholly
unlike the popular ideal, but rather
that OF a modern Egeria; in short, the wich
of the ninthteenth century.
During the fifty years that she pursued
her trade of fortune-telling, in what was
then a lonely and little frequented quar-
ter Of the town, not only was she consult
ed by the poor and ignorant, but by the rich
and intelligent class. Love affairs, lega-
cies, the discovery of crime, lotteries, CON-
mercial ventures, and the more common
contingencies of fortune formed, we NAV
we'll imagine, the staple of her predictions
but the most valued clients came from
the opulent sea ports within sight of
High Rock. The common sailor and the
master, the cabin-boy and the owner,
equally resorted to her humble abode to
know the luck of the voyage. 1t is
asserted that many vessel has been de-
serted when on the eve Of sailing, in con-
sequence of Moll's unlucky vatlcination.
She was also much bcsought by treasure
seekcrs-a rather numerous class IN her
day, whose united digging along the
coast of New England would, if usefully
directed, have reclaimed for cultivation
no incoDsiderable area of virgin soil. For
such applicants the witch had a short and
sharp reply. "Fools," she would say, ''if
knew where money wss buried, do you
think I would part with the secret?"
Moll Pitcher died in 1918. at the age of
seventy. She was originally of Marble
head, and is said to have inherited the
gift of prophecy from her grandfather,
John Dimond, who must, however, have
lived in time when 1t was neither wise
nor safe to exercise powers then universal
ly attributed to the Evil One. Her faith
er sailed out of Marblehead as master of
a small vessel. Mary Dimond married
Robert Pitcher shoe maker in 1850.
Mr.. Lewis, the historian of Lynn, asserts
that she was connected with some Of the
best families in Essex, that, except he,
fortune-telling pretension, there was moth.
ing disreptable in her life, and that her
descendants were living and respected
when he wrote. Her life seems rather
to mark the line which divides old and
new superstition than any decay of that in.
extinguisnable craving to pry into futurity
which has distinguished the human fami.
ly in all ages. One of our native poets re.
gretfully exclsims:
Even she, our own weird heroine,
Sole Pythoness Of ancient Lynn,
Sleeps calmly where the Lying laid her;
And the wide realm of sorcery,
Left by its latest mistress free,
Hath found no gray and skilled invader =
IS, Il, Drake in HHr1aer's Mn00zj,ae FIR Nnu