Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1886-02-13
LANAI m one either knowing or caring

q human being. Durln2 INC common
wealth troubles. a man closely pursued
sought refuge BY the back door in jim
news house, and on his knees he imp.or-
ed nights shelter. His face was thin
and full of terror. He offered Jinney
money. of which he had an abundance.
and she gave him lodging. For years
thereafter she lived with the man, who
gave her liberal money gifts, although
hard words. often blows, were heard
from her cottage. One day he died, and
the customary inquest followed. 1t was
thought he was poisoned. but, lacking
proof, the stealthy murderess. his para
Inour. escaped a second time the clutch
IS of the law. She was termed the
gallows cheated" and she had not one
friend in all the world. But she was
not penniless. as she owned her cottage,
which had been built on waste land by
her father. Years pass in hermit-like
life for the poor creature, whose fom
tongue blackened all of whom she spoke.
10 make matters worse she was report
ed far and wide as witch. a dabbler in
the black art. in which it was said
her father had trained her. One can
imagine her veritable Macbeth witch
about the burning caldron. She told for
tunes and healed strange diseases. fany
calamity occurred. the poor old creature
was jeered and hooted by the mob, who
showed here no mercy. pelting her with
stones, and setting ali sorts of traps for
her. At this stage of her mild, titful
career, she would lean out of her hatch
door, with weird red cap set upon her
uncannv head. The crowd would jeer
and call her old Mother Red Cap"
Her nose was broad and huge, her eye
brows shaggy and sinister, her brow
deep SCARED with wrinkles, and her
sensual mouth with an habitual sullen
expression. On her shoulders she wore
a gray striped frieze, patched in black
dabs, looking like swarm of black
bats. Suddenly she would allow her
enormous black cat TO jump up beside
her, when her Knockers fled dreading
superstitiouslv, blacklist double enemies.
To-day, We should call the poor wretch
"a maniac" but in her days she was a
witch" Her death is described in a
time-yellowed pamphlet in the British
museum as follows: Hundreds of men,
women, and children were witnesses of
the devil entering her house in his
very appearance and state, and that, al
though his return was narrowly watch
cd for, he was not seen again, and that
Mother Damnable was found dead on
the following morning, sitting before
the fireplace. holding a crutch over it
with teapot full of herbs, drugs. and
liquid. part OF which being given to the
cat the hair fell off in two hours, and the
cat soon after died. That the body was
stiff when found, and that the underta-
ker was obliged to break her limbs be-
fore he could place them in coffin,
and that the Justices have put men in
possession of the house to examine its
contents. Such is the closing history of
this strange being, whose name will
ever be associated with Camdentown,
and whose "reminiscences will ever be re-
vived by the old waySide house, which,
built on the sight OF the Old beldame's
cottage, wears her head as the sign of
the tavern
At the beginning of the current CEN
fury, the Mother Red Cap was favor
lite place of resort for weary Londoners
who longed 10 breathe fresh air and
revel In country quiet in this house, then
standing in the open fields and ap-
preached by green lanes and poisoning
Indigenous. Over the way was dairy,
a sort of milk fair" at which visitors
were served with fresh milk from the
cow.
Leaving Mother Red Cap, who was, it
seems, neither man nor woman. Meth
er brute nor human, but ghoul,' to par
aphrase Edgar Allen Poe, less than hall
a mile brings us to Mother Shipton, no
less mythical mother than Red Cap. In
rural England. as in rural America,
Mother Symptoms prophecies are some
what believed. She is regarded as q
prophet by simple folk. She is also OF
the reign of bluff King Henry VIII.
Tradition accords her birthplace as
Knaresbcrough. and relates that she
''sold her soul to the devil" that she
might be able, while living on earth, to
forecast the future to her seekers after
hidden mysteries. Alas! this idea still
fingers even in aesthetic nineteeeth cen.
fury peoples, only they call that sort OF
women by high-sounding titles" astrol.
ogers" and clairvoyants. She was q
witch, yet she was not destined to share
the fare of the traditional witch, for she
died in her bed in Yorkshire, near Cliff
ton, at very advanced age. In the
churchyard of Clifton a memorial stone
set forth:
Here lies she who never lied,
Whose skill often has been tried:
Her prophecies shall still survive
And ever keep her name alive.
Each day of her erratic life was marked
BY her foretelling remarkable tales, all
of which involved grave attention. From
the uttermost counties of England she
was consulted by all grades of society,
who focked to their prophecies. Moth
er Shipton." To an abbot agent of the
king. she foretold the suppression of the
monasteries by Henry VIII, the SOW
ereign's union with Anne Boleyn,
Smithfield's hereto flames, Cardinal
Wolsey's death, and the cruel execution
Of Mary Queen of Scots. In addition
she told Of the coming to the throne OF
England Of James /. OF this she NUT
tered.
Prom the cold north
Every evil shall come forth.
Coosulted onA last time. ahe nttered q