The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1886-01-28

lanes, no one either knowing or caring
how or where she got her food. She
became hunted, scorned creature,
more like an animal of the woods than
human being. During the ommon-
wealth troubles, man closely pursued,
sought refuge by the back door in jim
ney's house, and on his knees he implor-
ed a 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
mour, escaped second time the clutch
es 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 foul
tongue blackened all of whom she spoke.
To make matters worse she was report
ed far and wide as a 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. Hany
calamity occurred, the poor old creature
was jeered and hooted by the mob, who
showed here no mercy, pelting her with
stones, and setting all sorts of traps for
her. At this stage of her mild, fitful
career, she would lean out of her hatch
door, with weird red cap set upon her
uncanny 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 a swarm of black
bats. Suddenly she would allow her
enormous black cat to jump up beside
her, when her Knockers fled dreading
superstitiously, 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
ed 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 a 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
stiffwhen 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 it's
contents. Such is the closing history of
this strange being, whose name will
ever be associated with Camdentown,
and whose renlniscence 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
tury, the Mother Red Cap was favor
ite place of resort for weary Londoners
who longed to breathe fresh air and
revel in country quiet in this house, then
standing in the open fields and ap-
preached by green lanes and blossoming
hedgerows. Over the way was dairy,
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, neith-
er brute nor human, but ghoul," to par
aphrase Edgar Allen Poe, less than half
a mile brings us to Mother Shipton, no
less mythical mother than Red Cap. In
rural England, as in rural America,
Mother Shipton's prophecies are some
what believed. She is regarded as a
prophet by simple folk. She is also of
the reign of bluff King Henry VIII.
Tradition accords her birthplace as
Knaresborough. 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
tury peoples, only they call that sort of
women by high-sounding titles 'astrol-
ogers'' and . clairvoyants." She was
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 a very advanced age. In the
churchyard of Clifton 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 flocked 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,
Smithfeld'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 l. OF this she NUT
tered.
From the cold north
Every evil shall come forth.
Consulted one last time, she uttered a
strange prophecy, the one above all
others mostly quoted in this century:
The time shall come when seas of blood
Shall mingle with greater flood;
Great noise shall there be heard, great shouts
and cries,
And seas shall thunder louder than the skies.
Then shall three lions fight with three, and
bring
JOY to people, honor to a king.
Peace shall then be as before;
Plenty shall everywhere be found,
And men with swords shall plow the ground.
James was also his predecessor,
Queen Elizabeth, was disturbed by the
strange prophecies of Mother Shipton.
For Bess, despite of her masculine in
tcllect and iron will, was very woman
in many essentials. To her Mother
Shipton forctold:
poforo tha rrx,,J fhic Eiprf1ovy. ho