Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-10-04
RELICS OF SALEM wlTCHCRAFT.

In the busy little city of Salem are pre-
served few relics of the horrible year
of 1902, when a number of the best citi-
zens of the town were hanged on the
accusation of some poor, deluded per-
sons, mostly girls in their teens, who
asserted that they had been bewitched
and tortured by the prisoners. Not
few travellers passing to and from Bos-
ton stop oyer a train at Salem to gee the
few momentoes of that frightful year
that are kept in the Office of the register
of deeds.
stand IN the centre of the main Office.
The first thing that attracts attention is
little bottle whose mouth is carefully
protected by a wax seal to keep the con-
tents beyond the reach of kleptomaniacs.
The bottle contains half dozen witch
pins. These implements are nothing
more than the ordinary pins used two
centuries ago, when pins were still man
ufactured by hand. The interest attach
ing to these specimens comes from the
fact that they are the very pins that
were used at Salem to stick into the ac
cused persons to see whether they were
witches. If the unfortunates were hurt
by this treatment it was sure sign that
they were witches unfit to live.
Besides the bottle of witch pins is the
official seal of the court of oyer and ire
miner, before which the prisoners were
tried. 1t is a little iron stamp fitted
/ with black wooden handle, and its i'm
press is seen upon the only warrant for
the hanging of one of the prisoners that
has been preserved. This warrant, as it
was written out by the clerk of the
court, fills the greater part of a sheet
of paper about foolscap size. 1t is writ
ten in a grabbed hand, but is quite legi-
BILE. 1t is addressed to the high sheriff,
recites the crime for which one of the
female prisoners had been tried and con-
victed, and orders the sheriff to hang
her on a certain day. On the lower part
of the page appears the sherit1-s return,
written in round, bold hand, certify
ing that he has carried out the mandate
of the court. Photographs of this in
teresting document are on sale.
But the most interesting relic is the
court record of the trials of these I'M
fortunate prisoners. These papers are
kept in large volume so arranged that
every document may be read without
1t, 49, L..
of the ignorant girls and boys who tell
of the tortures the alleged witches made
them suffer. Here is the detailed exami-
nation of the prisoners, giving ques ton
and answer. The record was neatly
written. and is still as legible as though
it were recently committed to paper. 1t
was doubtless written out each day by
the clerk from his notes after the adj
iournment of the court. 1t tells the
story ola great delusion, and probably
no original documents that have come
down from our forefathers are so replete
with tragic interest.
As one turns the pages of this big vol
ume he observes that the poor victims
had no chance at all before that tribunal.
The design of every question was to eX-
tort a confession of guilt or to involve
the prisoner in contradictory statements.
He had no counsel to plead his cause,
and every one was against him. The
most pathetic of these records is that of
the examination Of Mrs. Rebecca Nurse,
the aged lady, whose memory is revered
by all who have read the story of her
martyrdom.
In the heart of Salem. within stone
throw of its busiest streets, is little
cemetery, many of whose gravestones
were carved long before the tragic year
of 1892. Here rest the bodies of few of
the victims of the persecutions-[N New
York sun.