The Portland daily press., 1885-02-21
PRICE THREE CENTS.
WITCHCRART.
MIR. Baxter's Lecture Last Evening.


The lecture in the Mechanics free course
was delivered by Mr.. James P. Baxter last
evening who took for his subject "Witchcraft''
and he was listened to by large and much
| delighted audience.
The lecturer began by the assertion that no
people has ever existed on this planet which
has not cherished belief in the supernatural.
The savage fancied the mutterings of the
thunder behind the clouds the voice Of be-
| ing gifted with superhuman powers, and By
| the natural exercise of the logical powers the
uncultured mind reached the belle in spirits
| good and bad. With civilization and enlight-
eminent man divests his mind of the idea Of
personality in these workings of nature, and
regards them as expressions Of law set in me,
tioa by superior mind, but this conception
| demands an education and knowledge higher
than is possessed by the average OF ths worlds
population. From this 1t will be seen that
the obcession of men by malevelant spirits ID
natural to the human mind and that 1t is equal
| ~ natural that the most proper way to get out
of the evil results flowing from such obsession
| is to destroy the instruments of it.
The speaker then referred to the belief In
oosession of men by evil spirits as mentioned In
the earliest literature. He however went back
only to Athens and told the story of ThorIs,
put to death for alleged practicing Of enchanE
| ment by various medicaments and alleged
charms of Cresimus, who brought to trial,
because his crops succeeded, when his neigh
bors failed, showed that his plows and spades
penetrated the earth deeper than thaira and
| his daughters limbs were hardened BY toll, and
1 khr,a h in To kha lnah
| prevalence of the belief in witchcrAft all
over Europe in the fifteenth century was
dwelt upon and numerous anecdotes narrated,
| and the fact stated thstPopeInnocentVIII felt
called upon to issue "bull" against its prAc-
tice. Towards the close Of that century the
executions Tor practicing witchcraft were
numerous annually in England, aged women
especially suffering. The different methods
| employed to ascertain If people were witches
were dwelt upon, such as throwing the accuG-
| ed into water and If she hoated she Was .
witch. Moles we're supposed to be devils
marks. In the sixteenth century the belief in
| witchcraft had become almost atsnet Of loyalty
to the spurious Christianity OF that age. In face
| the records OF the tortures inflicted In the
| fifteenth aad sixteenth centuries by ChristiAns
upon those accused of witchcraft, compare fA-
| vorably with those to which the victims OF
modern savages in benighted Africa are sub
| iected.
The lecturer then devoted fair share Of his
| Tina to the practice of so-called witchcraft In
| England, beginning with Archbishop Gran
mer's address to the clergy, ordering them 10
inquire IL any there were who used charms or
| practiced sorcery, which stirred mp much In
quiry aud caused many to be prosecuted. Then
came King James l., during whose reign there
was great activity in the colonization OF New
England, and from that period down the leo
ture was full of anecdotes of the times,
especially in the old days of Salem witchcrAft;
stories quaint and curious.
Among those told, of which we can mention
but one or two, was that mentioned By Camp
| bell in his History of the Chief Justices Of
i England. Chief Justice Holt, when q very
i young member Of the bar, was travelling
through England and stopped ct village inn.
| The landlady's daughter was subject to hts,
1 aud the young lawyer laughingly traced some
1 Greek characters on piece Of parchment and
| told the landlsdy to bind 1t round her daugh-
| ter's wrist This was done and the fits ceased.
| The lsndIady would take no pay for the law
| yer's board, considering him IS the curer Of
| her daughter. When Holt became Chief JUS
| tice, woman was brought before him for
| witchcrait, practiced by means Of . charm.
| The charm was brought into court and proved
| to be the very same parchment the Chief JUS
| tice had bound on the landlady's daughter
when young man. and the then young woman
| was now the defendant in the case and an old
woman besides.
A case of the many which fascinate us with
| their horrible details will bring the present
consideration of the subject OF witchcraft 70 q
black minister that lived at Ossco Bay"
Burroughs graduated at Harvard College In
| 1910, and began his ministry in Portland about
1874. His house was near the site
his land covered the track through
| which Cotton and Centre streets now
| run. When the Indian attack was made al
| Portland, he escaped to Andrews, now Cush-
4 ings, Island from whence he sent an account
of the massacre OF the inhabitants to the gar.
rison at Black Point. BE was q generous and
kindly man but appears to have had enemies in
Salem where he bad preached before coming
to Portland. While pursuing his humble
| ministry in the wilds Of Maine his destruction
| was resolved upon by his enemies and be was
| accused of wtchcraft, arreeted at Wells and
/ conveyed to Salem for trial. The testimony in
| this case is marvellous for its absurdity. Ben
/ jamin Hutchinson testified that Abigail Will
| liams said that she saw Burroughs when he was
"a hundred miles away at his home In Maine"
| that he, Hutchinson, chad an iron fork In his
| hand and threw it where the said Burroughs
| was standing; that Abigail then fell into g at
| coat for heard it tear" He further testi-
| fed that coming to Lieutenant Inger-
| soils house and into the great room.
| Abigail exclaimed "there he is" where
upon he drew his rapier when
| she cried that Burroughs was gone but In his
| place wasa gray cat and upon the place being
| pointed out he struck with his rapier and she
| went into fit, but coming to assured him that
he had killed the cat, but that he could not
/ see 1t as the spectre of Sarah Good had sud-
| denly appeared aud carried the dead cat away.
| Hutchinson testified TO this with as much So
berness as though the events related had been
/ visible to him instead Of being the senselesI
rawlings Of a wicked and half erazed woman.
| Ann Putnam testified that she saw the appari-
| tion Of a minister at which she was grievousy
sffrighted and cried out, "Oh, dreadful, dread
| full Here is a minister come, what are minis
| ters, witches, too? Whence came you and
hat 10 for I will NJ afn of
| though you be a minister, II yoa be wizard.
Immediately / was tortured by him, be-
| ing racked and almost choked by him and he
tempted me to write in his book which re-
fused, with loud outcries, and said would not
write in his book though he tore me all to
pieces bat told him it was q dreadful thing
| that he which was q minister that should teach
children to fear God, should como to persuade
poor creatures to give their souls to the Devil.
Tell me your name that 1 may know who you
are. Then again he tortured nae and urged nae
| to write in his book, which / refused, and them
presently he told me that his name was George
Burroughs, and that he had three wives, and
that he had bewitched the two first Of them to
| death, and that he killed Mrs. Lawson because
| she was unwilling TO 90 from the village, and
also killed Mr.. Lawson's child because he went
to the eastward with Sir Edmund and preach
| ed to the soldiers, and that he had bewitched
| great many soldiers TO death at the Eastward
| when Sir Edmund was there, and that he had
made Abigail Hobbs a witch. In smother
deposition she said that Burroughs appeared 10
| her, and afterwards the forms Of two women
| in winding sheets and napkins about their
heads, and they turned their faces
| towards Mr.. Burroughs, and looked very red
and angry, aud told him that he had been =
cruel man to them, and that their blood did
cry for vengeance against him, and also told
him that they should be clothed with white
robes in heaven when he should be cast into
hell and Immediately he vanished away, and
as soon a9 he was gone the two women turned
their faces towards me, and looked as pa.e as
| white wall, and told me that they were Mr..
Bdrroughs' two first wives, and that he had
murdered them. She then gave the details Of
| their murder, aud described othsr apparitions
OF persons murdered by him.
1t was on such testimony as this that Bar
roughs was executed, and with his death the
excitement reached its height. No person wAS
| safe; and soon afterwards the belief in witch
| craft in this country slowly died out, the re-
| covery making little progress, and the belief
not becoming extinct until the beginning Of
| the eighteenth century.
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