Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-02-04
WITCHCRAFT.
A Majority of the Citizens of the United
States Believe in 1t,

A Majority of the Citizens of the United
States Believe in 1t.
Witchcraft is at the present time
believed in by majority of the citi.
zens of the United States. The larger
number of immigrants from the conti-
nent of Europe are more or less in
fear of such powers. To these must
be added no inconsiderable proportion
of persons of English and Scotch de-
scent; for a strong vein ofsuperstition
is discernible in many Irish, Scotch,
and some English, whose "folk-lore, u
diffused in nursery tales and neigh
borhood gossip, has entwined itself
strongly about the fibers of sponta-
neous subconscious mental imagery.
Among the more ignorant members
of the Catholic Church of nationality
the belief produces mysterious dread,
against which men and women cross
themselves, and resort to various rites
supposed to be efficacious.
Where colonies Of immigrants have
remained isolated, retained the use of
their own language, the influence of
witchcraft is more easily traced. The
interior of Pennsylvania affords bet
ter illustrations of this, and on a
larger scale than any other State. 1t
has been but two or three years since
suit was brought by man against
his mother, in one of the counties of
Pennsylvania, to recover damages for
a dog which he charged her with hav-
ing killed by witchcraft; and he not
only brought suit, but obtained judg-
ment from Justice of the Peace.
Various witnesses testified as to their
experiences in withcraft, and only one
said that he had never had friend
or relative who was bewitched.
In divers villages in Pennsylvania,
some of them in the Dunkard settle
ment, are women who are supposed
to be witches. Some are shrewd enough
not to apply their arts for strangers,
but to those whom they know, as
stated in an article in the New York
Sun some years ago, they will sell
charms to ward off lightning from
buildings, dry up the wells of the
enemies of applicants, force cows to
8
the family, destroy beauty, separate
man and wife, and reunite estranged
lovers.
In the interior parts of the South
ern States, where a large portion of
the white population cannot read,
and there is a little admixture of So
ciety, there are ''witch-doctors, who,
n In haf oil 10
by witches, secure thriving practice
in counteracting their influence. The
Philadelphia Times, on the authority
of reputable correspondent, who
gives many facts to sustain his repre-
sentations, says: ''For generations
the poor whites have believed in
witches, and the belief is deep-seated
and lncurable."
The African population brought
this belief from the Dark Continent,
and it persists among them to this
day, though the progress of religion
and education is doing something to
check it.
/ have recently noted in various
parts of the United States more than
fifty suits instituted by persons
against those who they claimed had
bewitched them; but under existing
laws the accused could not be prose-
cuted except where money had been
obtained under false pretense, or
overt acts of crime had been suggested
or committed.
During pedestrian tours in New
England, in various parts of the West,
and in every Southern State, l have
frequently stayed for the night at the
houses of poor farmers, laborers, fish
ermen, and trappers. In such jour
neys l have invariably listened to the
tales of the neighborhood stimulating
them by suggestions, and have found
the belief in witchcraft cropping out
in the Oldest towns in New England,
sometimes within the very shadow of
the buildings where a learned minis
try has existed from the settlement
Of the country, and public schools
have furnished means of education to
all classes. The horseshoes seen in
nearly every county, and often in
every township, upon the houses of
persons suggested the old horseshoe
beneath which Lord Nelson, who had
long kept it nailed to the mast of the
Victory, received his death wound at
Trafalgar. Century.