Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-10-31
GHOSTS AND HANGMEN
HOW PROVIDENCE HAS INTER
FERED AT EXECUTIONS.
Reviving an Innocent Girl Who Was DulJ
Hanged.

hanged.
The Hammcrsmith ghost was quite {
celebrated character at the commence
ment of the present century, and the
court records of 1904 contain quite q
good description of him. For month,
a tall white figure haunted the lanes
and churchyard of Hammersmith, now
a London suburb, but then a country
town. Women were literally frightened
to death, and many men developed q
speed in escaping from the phantom
which they had not battered themselves
upon possessing, An anti-ghost league
was formed, and all the able-bodicd
men in the neighborhood took part in
vigorous, not to say vicious, hunt
for the cause of the alarm. This vigil
ance committee was unsuccessful, for,
although its members caught a glimpse
of the phantom, it appeared TO have
the power of vanishing at will, and no
trap could catch it. Finally the wife
of one Francis Smith was crossing the
churchyard at dusk, when the ghost
appeared and chased her home The
poor woman was completely overcome
with fright, gave premature birth to a
child, and expired. Smith smarted
for revenge, and, taking his shotgun,
went out into the night TO lay the
ghost. BY this time it was very dark,
Smith could discern something white
moving across the churchyard. With
out delay he fired, and found TO his
horror he had shot neighbor who was
wearing a white dust coat. Smith was
arrested, convicted, and sentenced TO
death, but was not executed, and was
soon released from prison.
Among the many cases on record in
which alleged witches have been con-
demned to death, there are few in
which any bona-fide evidence was
brought forward against the miserable
wretches, whose doom was sealed be-
fore their arrest. But the official re-
cords of the trial of two widows at
Bury ST. Edmunds, in 1862, speak of
evidence of most remarkable kind.
Thus when three of the complaining
witnesses came into court to swear
information, they fell down in fits,
and after screaming were struck dumb
and remained so until the conviction,
when they Immediately recovered the
power to speak. The evidence at the
trial was very lengthy, and the amount
of confederation was quite tedious.
Pains, aches, and other troubles were
spoken to, and the Chief Justice, who
seems TO have been a humane man,
decided 10 put the prisoners TO the
test in court. The revelations were SO
extraordinary that the jury convicted
the prisoners, who were duly executed,
"whereupon the sundry and divers
persons who had been bewitched and
troubled did regain their wonted viguor,
and so remained until their death by
natural and proper causes"
In the year 1850 young woman
named Anne Greene was tried at Ok
ford for the murder of her child.
The evidence was very unsatisfactory,
and many believed in the innocence of
the girl. But she was convicted, sem
fenced to be hanged, and duly executed.
After hanging half an hour the body
was cut down, placed in coffin, and
sent to house to be dissected. AL
though the rope had not been removed, |
and the moose was still tight, those who
opened the coffin observed movement
of the woman's breast, "whereupon
one Mason, tailor, intending only an
act of charity, set his foot upon her,
and one Drum, soldier, struck her
with the butt-end of his muskct." But |
when the doctors came they found life
still existed, and proceeded to adopt
steps to secure her recovery, "by OPEN
ing a vein, laying her in warm bed,
and also using divers remedies respect
ing her senselessness, insomuch that in
fourteen hours she began to pray very
heartily" This revival was regarded
by the people as an interposition of
on behalf of the innocent.
But the hangman was less superstitious,
and demanded the girl so that he might
complete her execution on her." The
doctors refused TO comply with the
secured formal pardon for
he young woman, who married, and
lived happily for many years.
Early in the eighteenth century a
nan named Smith was committed at
he York Assizes of house-breaking
md sentenced with many others, to be
hanged. The evidence against the ac-
used was very unsatisfactory, aud
would not have secured his detention
'or an hour in this enlightened and
age. Smith was promised a
if he would confess, but
le continued to protest his innocence.
lie was hanged for fifteen minutes,
when he was cut down. He soon re-
'overed, sin consequence of bleeding
nd other applications, and lived sew
raj years. His account of his glimpse
nto eternity is thus reported by repu-
able eye and ear Witnesses
eWhen he was turned off he for
ONE time was sensible of very great ,
ain, occasioned by the weight of his
,ody, and felt his spirits in a strange
violently pressing upward: