The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-02-22
THE WITCH,S RING.
A Midnight Adventure in q New England
Grava-Ua,5


A Midnight Adventure in a New England
Graveyard.
A very curious, sleepy old village is
Adlingtune. Half a century behind the
rest OF the world, it still sits between
the green hills of an Eastern State, with
its elbows on its knees amt it's chin
in its hands, musing on by-gone DAYS.
when old King George held the
land under his sway, and when, as its
old folk sagely remark, things were not
rs they are now. There are a great
many old people in Adlingtune-in fact
very few die young there. The atmos-
phere is so dreamy and peaceful that
excitement cannot exist, and the wear
and tear of the busy world is unknown,
or at most only huns family over the
hills, like the buzzing of q fly on sunny
pane on summer day. And so they
still sit in their chimney-eorners from
year to year, and muse, and dose, and
dream, until they dream their lives away
and take their final sleep. It was to an
old crone of this description that was
indebted for my adventure.
In the course of my idle ramblings
about the village | CHANGED one day to
peer over a crumbling wall and discov-
cred an old, disused burial ground.
The brown slabs were broken, PROSTATE
and scattered, with only here and there
a torlorn unsteady stone standing wea-
rily and waiting for the time to come
when it, too, might fall down and rest
with the sleepers beneath. Scram@lino.
over the low wall stopped about among
the grass, pushing away the tangled
masses of vines and leaves from
the faces of slabs that might read the
inscriptions there. But the SIMS
and storms of over one hundred wears
had obliterated nearly all the letters.
so that only portions of names and
dates remained. Finally, down in a
deep corner of the Enclosure, where the
weeds grew densest and the shade was
darkest | found an old stone which.
leaning forward, had protected its face
from the storms, and on this stone I
read the words:
BARBARA Cornwall.
Born 1910, DIED 1880. AGE, Sixty YEARS.
Having been laaQfttuy eTecuted for the practice
Of icitchcroft.
My curiosity was at once aroused
| inquired of several persons as to the
history of this woman, but without sue
cess for time. Finally. however, l
found an old woman, who told me the
history of Barbara Cornwall, as it had
been handed down by her ancestors:
Living in an old stone house at the
edge of the village, she was rarely seen
for no one ever crossed her threshold
save when she was occasionally met by
a frightened party of children idlinq
away summers afternoons holiday
in the woods, when she would scowl
and pass away, STOPPING along over the
fields, gathering herbs with which to
brew her mighty potionS. No one
ever interfered with her, however, I'M
til a sad year came to Adlingtune.
An epidemic broke out and ragged
with fury that nothing could with
stand. People began to mutter that
Barbara the witch was the cause of it.
Passing along the road she was stoned
by party OF boys, to whom She
turned, and, shaking her bony hand,
shrieked that the curse was upon them.
Two of the lads sickened and died in
a few days, and though scores
were carried away in like manner. an
especial import was attached TO their
death. Barbara began to be watched.
They looked through her windows at
midnight and found her bending over a
seething caldron, throwing in herbs,
muttering cabalistic words, and stirring
the mixture with what they reported to
be y human bone. Old Barbara was
working her charms,