St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-08-09
AMONG THE WITCHES.

Ny ''day No. % was a beautiful bright
Sunday morning, with a cool, bracing air
from the ocean, and a quiet only disturbed
by the breaking of the waves on the beach
A breakfast of ''blue points, and an hour
sitting and selecting given ocean wave as
far out as the eye could see, and following it
until it reached the shore, gave me a further
appetite for drive upon the roads which
more than a century of use had made as per-
feet as dirt roads ever become. Fortunately
they no longer enforce the Massachusetts
law for0idding any one to take more than q
Sabbath days journey (three miles, and
hence l was able to enjoy drive from
Swampscott to Salem, which was tive-mile
ride, over an elegantly smooth country road
and as delightful as any one could desire.
Salem is styled ''the Oldest town In New
England and whether it is absolutely
entitled to that distinction or not it is 2J6
years old, which renders it ''of age" at
least. As long as can remember, and for
a considerable period before, Salem has been
associated in my mind with witches and IT
was or that account that had great curl
osity to see the quaint old town. b. the
country road which led me into the city I
yassed through the new portion and was sur
prised to find so much that was modern. It
has between twenty-five and thirty thousand
inhabitants. street cars, water, gas and
modern improvements generally. 1t was
the old and not the new Salem. however, In
which I was interested and J drove to the
corner Of Essex and North streets to inspect
he fam9u, witch house, This was tie
building where the cruel witch trials
of nearly zoo years ago TOOK
place. The building Itself is 23l
years old and in a wonderful state of preser-
walton. II is a small two story frame. Wit
an attic in the gable, and was the residence o.
Judge Curwin during the famous witchcrah
era. and he, with his sssoci1tes, held cour
and condemned the alleged witches to dcati
in one of the rooms on the lower floor. Nc
one now cares to live in building with sc
cruel and Infamous history, aud the eornei
room is now used for drug store, and tht
! other lower rooms for storage of drugs, paints
ETC.. while the upper part IS uDoccuoled. b.
iudicious tip to the drug ciers, who was
Yer7 grave aud circumspect, as evcry ont
should be on Sunday, / YVES shown into th,
room partially adjoining and partially in th'
rear of the present store, which vas the cour
room where the famous trials took place aDC
where the death penalty was passed upon tn,
twenty poor wretches who suffered or
.sGaIlows Eili-'
The room is low, but little if any NOR
than eight feet 10 the ceiling, and perhap
twenty feet long b. thirteen wide. But wha
/ amount of human misery was crowded int
that little place 1872 years ago. thought q
| l surveyed the premises what tale thos
walls could tell If they could speak and de
pict the scene when men and women wer
put or trial for their lives for witchcraft- an
actually convicted and executed, falling vic
/ tim 10 the most cruel, blind aud wicked 81
perstition which ever afflicted any barbarou
or civilized age. The world cannot stan'
long enough for Salem to outgroE the ours
shichrests upon her for this superstition
bar5arism-
The Salem victims we're twenty in number
and as it Is safer to hang women than men
thirteen of the twenty were females. On
| poor fellow was squeezed to death, and it