The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-11-28
BURNED AS A WITCH.
The Horrible Tragedy Enacted this Year in
aRussian Peasant village.

from the st. Petersburg Golos.l
In the city of Tikhvin, on Oct. 25, II
peasants were put on trial upon the ac-
cusation of having burned alive peas
ant woman, Agraphena Ignatieff, so
years old, as witch. On the prelim-
mary investigation it was discovered
that Agraphena, from her girlhoOd, had
been regarded as possessing the super
human power of "spoiling 4" people,
that is, of inaicting different diseases on
the persons who displeased her, and al
so of curing them at her own will. Mar
rying soldier, she left her native vii
lage, Crochet, and settled in st. Peters
burg. Two years before her death she
returned to her native place, a widow
and penniless. The villagers were much
alarmed at her appearance, being afraid
that she would cause them great trouble.
The boldest, or perhaps the most cow
ardly of them, wanted to at once shut
up the witch in her honse, and burn
her. But at that time the villagers did
not dare to carry out this plan. Agra
phena was poor and sickly, and lived
chiefly upon charity. Some of the vii
lage families, out Of fear of the supposed
witch, used to satisfy all her wishes
while others, especially the poor ones,
had to refuse her demands, and were
wont to ascribe to her all the cases of
sickness and all the accidents that befell
them. While living in St. Petersburg,
Agraphena had become acquainted with
the properties of many valua-
BILE medicines, and after her re-
turn to the village she Of
ten attended the sick. sometimes
with wonderful success. This only con-
firmed the popular belief in her witch
craft. Unhappily for herself, she neither
admitted nor denied openly that she was
a witch; perhaps she preferred to leave
things as they were, drawing, no doubt,
a profit from the villagers fears.
In January, 1879, a young woman was
suddenly taken sick and died; then two
other women were FRUSTRATED by some
kind of nervous disease. They cried out
that they had been "spOiled" by the
witch. Their parents tried to prOpitiate
Agraphena with their tears and pres
ents. But to all entreaties she simply
answered: 81 did not injure them, nor
can l help them" Then there arose
great Indignation; the men of the vii
lage assembled and decided to shut up
the witch in her house, to feed her there,
but on no account to allow her to visit
any other house. This plan was to be
carried out Immediately. On'Feb. 16 u
dozen of the villagers went to the house
of Agraphena. They took along with
them nails and planks. Arriving there,
they searched the wOman's trunk for
charms; except several phials of medi-
cincs, they found nothing suspicious;
but to the simple minded and excited
peasants these seemed to be the most
positive proof of witchcraft. To make
a long story short, Agraphena was shut
up in the house, the door and windows
were securely closed and nailed and
though this had been no part of the
original plan, the house was set on fire.
The blaze attracted at once crowd of
people; many expressed their gratifica-
ton, and nobody dared to interfere in
behalf of the victim. Among the others
came the brother of Agraphcna. He
rushed to the door and tried to break it
in; but was not allowed to do SO. "The
Mir have so decided, let her burn, ;" cried
the mob. Some of the more humane,
however, approached the window and
shouted to the woman: 'Confess thy
crimes, and we will save thee" But
she kept silent. To her despairing
brother she answered: "Dear brother,
l am not guilty." One of the crowd
said aloud: "There is yet time to save
the woman; let us do it at once, or we
shall suffer severely" "Don't touch
her," said septuagenarian; 81 answer
for this deed with my head" The fate
of the woman was sealed; nobody there
after tried to save her. On the contrary,
some of the men helped to spread the
fire. Soon the ceiling fell down, and
the unhappy victim of popular supersti-
ton persisted in the flames. The people
stayed at the place the whole night, till
the fire went out of itself. On the next
day the constable found few charred
bones. On the trial the peasants con-
fessed their deed, but denied that they
had committed crime. The jury found
only three, the ring-leaders, guilty. One
of these was the old man above men,
toned. The rest were acquitted.
IT is well to look at all sides of sub
ject before you indulge in an opinion.
Curran once said to Father Leary: 81
wish, reverend father, that you were st.