The morning call., 1890-11-02
THE CALLS
QUERY COLUMN.
Hangings in Colonial Days for
Supposed Witchcraft.
Numerals and Their Symbols-Voting Qualif-
eations-Tin in Observation-Disclosures
Of Sidewalks.

THE CALLS Query Column is conducted with
4 view to aid all seekers after knowledge OF ge1-
eTal interest.
Catch questions will not receive any attention.
No opinion will be given In this column regard
ne the reliability or character OF any person or
firms in This city or elsewhere.
Questions, answers TO which are 10 the nature
Of an advertisement, VIII not be answered.
Every inquiry must have the true and full
name OF the sender, as well as the correct resi-
dence. Any inquiry that has not the cor
rect name and address of the sender will
be treated as IL 1t was not signed, and the
writer need not expect an answer.
E 1XECUTIoNs FOR WTCHCRAFT-J. Y.
fsEs p, Goshen Junction, Cal. Men and
@S women have been hanged in America
Tor supposed witchcraft. The excitement
which eliminated at Salem, Mass, has its
place in history. The first English settlers
brought belief in witches with them from
Europe, and between 1913 and 1866 six Or
eight accused witches had been executed.
In 1858 the children Of John Goodwin, a re-
spectacle man in North Boston, were be-
lieved to have been bewitched, and after
some investigation by the Rev. Cotton Mather
they accused an old half-witted woman and
she was hanged. In 1852 three children of
the Rev. Samuel Paris, a clergyman of
Danvers then a part of Salem) complained
of being tortured by witch, and accused an
Indian woman named Tituba of being the
witch, she having tried to relieve them by
some Of her Indian incantations. She was
imprisoned, and soon after they accused two
other friendless old women, one crazy and
the other bedridden. TIE excitement spread
and soon others, adults as well as children,
complained of being bewitched and accused
those against whom they had any pique
When Sir William Phipps became Governor
of the Massachusetts colony, in May, 1892,
his first act was the appointment of a court
for Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex, consisting
Of seven Judges, and by this court in one
year twenty were executed. nineteen by
hanging and one by being pressed to death,
and among these were a clergyman and sew
eral OF the most reputable citizens of Massa
cbusetts. Eight were condemned, $50 in
prison awaiting trial and 200 more accused,
while considerable number of the suspect
ed had fled the country A reaction took
place, which, in connection with King Will
iam's veto eff the Wiichcraft Act, led to the
pardon of those condemned and the dis
charge of those imprisoned.
NUMERICAL SYMBOLS C. F. E., City.
Alphabetic writing did not do away with the
use of numerical symbols. but the letters of
the alphabet themselves came to be used as
numerals. One way of doing this was to use
as its sign the initial letter of the name of
number. This was the old Greek notation,
said to 60 back 10 the time of Scion, thus l
stood for /, II for 5, an equilateral triangle
for 10, III for 100, x for 1000 and N for 10000,
III with in its bosom was so, with II 500.
Other systems of using the alphabet de-
pended on the fixed order of letters, but the
most familiar case Of the use Of letters as
numerals is the Roman. in which G is the
initial Of centum and N of mile, but instead
of these signs are found the older forms
consisting of a circle divided vertically for
1000, and horizontally, or in the cognate
Etruscan system divided into quadrants, for
100. From the sign for 1000, still sometimes
roughly shown in print as clio, comes ID, the
bali Of the symbol, for half the number
and the other forms of l. represented by a
figure of the T rule reversed, or one with
the horizontal substituted by an arc, sug-
gesting that this form was also once half of
the hundred symbol. So V Astruscan A) is
half Of X, which is not true Roman letter.
But there was no such custom among the
Latins as attached a numerical value to any
proper name by summing up those letters