Connecticut western news., 1884-11-26
HORRORS OF wITCHCRAFT.
An Interesting Paper Heforc the New
 EnaInnd SocIeIy oG HrookIyn.


 Witchcralt was made unusually in- teresting to a large audience of ladies and gentlemen by the Rev. John w. Chadwick, in Brooklyn, where the New England Society, of that city, held it's fifth public meeting.
 Among the many causes which led to the Salem witchcraft, in 1892, the Rev. Mir. Chadwick mentioned the supersti- tion of the times, the doctrines taught, the lonely situation of the place, with it's gloomy, unexplored surroundings, the animosities which arose from con- flicting claims, parish bickerings, ops pressive taxes, and innumerable quar- rels which died out and were brought to life again by witchcraft He traced its beginning from a separation from the mother church, which was per mitted for convenience sake, and the dissensions that arose until the Rev. Samuel Paris brought to a critical point the bitterness which had been growing during the terms of his three predeces- sors in the new church. The two Indian servants of this minister were the teachers of the "ten afflicted children" of whom only three were children, who met at his house at first to have a good time in testing necromantic arts, which in time worked on their imsginations until they would utter incoherent sounds and fall upon the ground writhing in agonies. Then the doctors grayely pro- nounced them bewitched, as they now attribute to malaria diseases they cannot understand. These children were ex- hibited free of charge; they walked through the village or burst out in church with some remarkable cry. And finally, when asked who were influencing them, they pointed out the supposed witches, like Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. The accused grew in number. Paris was zealous in his denunciation of witchcraft, his enemies became the en- eInies of the afflicted children" and family quarrels all produced their vic. tims. The Boston Judges arrived and were convinced, the belief spread and was accepted everywhere, and execu. tions followed each other until the death of woman like Rebecca Nurse and of a man with the excellent character of Giles Corey, and the courage of a few men from Andover checked the horrible wave until May, 1893, when 150 persons accused of witchcraft were discharged. Treating the subject generally, the speaker said that the belief in witch- craft was one of the most universal traits of the human mind. It was prevalent among the Greeks, Romans, Jews and early Christians. In Germany during the fifteenth and aixteenth centuries 100000 persons were executed in 100 years for witchcraft. At Toulouse, in France, 400 died at n single execution. in Geneva 300 in three months, and one Judge boasted that he had condemned 500 persons for the same cause. Luther condemned witches, and so did John Wesley among the Methodists in the eighteenth century. Every witch ex- ecuted at Salem was executed under law of JamesL Supported by popular opinion, by the traditions of the past, and openly by men like Cotton Mather, and men with the truthfulness of dispo- sition, the vigor of intellect, and the penetrating judgment of Mathew Hale. it was a wonder, the speaker thought, that Salem witchcraft did so little harm. "Viewed in this light" he concluded. "there is nothing in all this to make us think less reverently of the Puritan fathers