Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-06
MODERN WITCHCRAFT.
Hex Doctors at Reading Are Living
Off Rural Superstition.
EVERY ILL Is LAID TO WITCHES.
An Unfortunate Farmers Wife Must Bear
the Brunt of 1t ALI.
SOME PECULIAR INSTANCES CITED

! READING, Pa. Nov. 5-Witches and
witchcraft exist among the stony hills OF
Earl and Douglas townships, eight miles
east of Reading. Strange as the statement
may look in modern type, belief in this e1-
ploded delusion forms to-day as important
an element in the life of the humble farmers
there as it did in that of the Salem colony
fanatics of the seventeenth century.
! Spells" Influence magnetism,
''witchery," and the "evil eye" seems act
ually to pursue these people by day and
haunt them by night, even exercising
more baneful influence than does voodooism
in the black belts of the Southern States.
What is worse, moreover, is the fact that
half a dozen "witch doctors" in this very
city carry on nefarious practice among
them, and seek to promote their own profit
by fostering the strange error and extending
| it to other neigbborhoods. Tragic events
have resulted within the past three months,
and still more serious consequences may be
| looked for in the near future.
| The Spells Cast by Witches.
Half dozen families live within sight of
one another in that wild locality. Gresh-
vile is the nearest village, two miles away.
The houses and farm buildings are uniformly
| of stone, as are the fences ilclosing the
fields. Much sickness has prevailed
thereabouts of late. For miles around
persons suffering from various i'll
nesses coutend that they have had spells
| which ordinary physicians cannoscure, cast
upon them by malevolent "hexes" or
| witches residing near by.
In one of these stone houses live a respec-
table and estimable couple, middle-aged
farmer and his wife. She is an invalid from
an affection of the throat and lungs, and in
consequence keeps handkerchief tied
around. her head and bound over her mouth
to prevent her from catching cold. She is
accused of causing much of the sickness and
suffering complained of, and her neighbors
say the white band over her mouth marks
her as witch. They point the finger of
scorn at her and remark to one another in
whispers: 'Iook out, she's hex!'
Charged With Many Evil Things.
A few days ago 1-year-old child near by
lady was blamed for its DEATH Another
child last week became lame in curious
way, and tacks and pins were found inside
its shoe, whereupon neighbors insisted that
the innocent woman had put an evil spell
on the child.
A sick woman three houses away alleges
that she is tortured bodily and mentally
every night by this same woman in con-
junction with another old woman a short
distance off The reputed "he1" is even
held accountable for the diseases of people
whom she never knew. Her aged mother,
who died some years ago, was likewise ac-
cused of ':switchery" in her time, and the
calumnies against her are now transferred
to her daughter. They are liable to drive
her to sef-destruction if they continue.
This unfortunate woman herself, although
she energetically disvows all belief i'll witch
craft and talks ordinarily like an enlight-
ened Christian, yet strangely enough enter
tains the idea, whimsical if you please, that
somebody has maliciously bewitched her pet
COW.
A woman's Pet Cow Bewitched.
'sThat cow" said she one day this week
to reporter, "has behaved ever so queerly
of late. She is mvsteriously MIXED every
night in the stable, but by what or by whom
1 don't know. She used to be very gentle,
but now she holds her head high in the air,
looks wildly out of her eyes and runs and
jumps fences all-possessed, like wild ami
NAL I don't know what's after her, but
ssmething certainly is
A few rods away lives another woman
who relates that her husband was recently
troubled by what he at first thought to be
rheumatism, as he did not believe in witch
craft. He had been ailing all summer and
was curiously afflicted. Each evening he
felt perfectly well and active, but in the
mornings he would be stiff all over and
could not move. Three weeks ago he Wis
tied Reading "witch doctor, who de-
clared that he hal been "magnetized," gave
him some powders, and cautioned him par
ticularly against giving or receiving any
thing from any of the neighbors, or talking
to anyone suspected of magnetizing him,
for the space of nine days. The husband
did as directed. obeying the doctors" in
functions carefully, although several neigh
bors wanted him to receive things from
them, and now he is entirely restored.
''My hnsband,' said this woman, "was
surely under a spell. 1 know it, and I'm
sure, too, who's to blame for it. It's an old
woman who lives yonder, across the hillside
there. She's hex p
Consulting With the Witch Doctors.
The same Reading ''witch doctor" is
credited with curing 14-year-old girl near |
Colebrookdale station, five miles north |
ward, OF similar case of stiff magnetism. -
A poor widow near Greshville, who lost her |
voice last spring, and who was told by |
Reading witch doctor" that, being "mag- |
netized," the "infuence" would have to be |
removed from her else it would kiI her, has |
again lost her voice after temporary re- |
covery, and now is hourly in fear of being
taken off by evil spirits. A score of other |
cases of like character might be mentioned |
as having developed lately in Earl town.
ship alone. When the "witch doctors are |
consulted they shrewdly refraiu from men,
tioning names as to the active personal |
cause of the alleged magnetism from which |
the patient suffers, and talk in such a way |
that the patients locate the responsibility to |
suit themselves. =.
stances of the inroads of this reramped old !
superstition among the simple-minded |