The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-01-14
WITCHCRAFT.
Majority or the Citizens Of the United States Be
IieVe In n.
fCeufuTu

iteHtHTU.l
Witchcraft is at the present time believed in
by majority Of the citizens Of the United
States. The larger number Of immigrants from
the Continent Of Europe are more or less in fear
of such powers. To these must be added 10 in
considerable proportion Of persons Of English
and Scotch descent; for a strong vein Of super
sttiOn is discernible in many Irish, Scotch, aud
some English, whose folk lore" ditfused in
nursery tales and neighbOrhOOd gossip, has en-
twined itself strongly about the tibeT5 Of spOu-
taneous subconseiOus mental imagery. Among
the more ignorant members Of the Catholic
Church Of every nationality the belief produces
n mysterious dread, against which men and
women cross themselves, add resort TO various
rites supposed to be eiliCacious.
Where colonies Of immigrants have remained
isolated, retaining the use Of their own Ian
guage, the influence Of witchcraft Is more easily
traced. The interior OF Pennsylvania affords
better illustrations Of this, and on a larger
scale, than any other State. It has been bat
two or three years since suit was brought by a
man against his mother, in one Of the Counties
of Pennsylvania, 10 recover damages for a dog
which he charged her with having killed by
witchcraft; and he not only brought suit. but
obtained judgment frOm a Justice Of the Peace
Various witnesses testified as TO their ex-
perienees in witchcraft, and only one said that
he had never had a friend or relative who was
bewitched.
In divers villages in PENNSYLVANIA, some Of
them in the punkaTd settlement, 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 NeU York Sun some
years ago. they will sell charms to ward of
lightning from buildings, dry up the wells Of
the enemies Of applicants, force cows to give
bloody milk, cause sickness in the family, de-
gtrn tou tn nd "a I'd
unite estranged lovers.
In the interior parts OF the Southern States
where large proportion Of the white pOpula-
ton cannot read, and there is little admixture
of society, there are witch doctors" who, as
Stunning that all disease is caused by witches
secure thriving practice in cOunteracting their
influence. The PHILADELPHIA Times, on the au-
thority of reputable correspondent, who gives
many facts to sustain his representations, says ::
" For generations the poor whites have be-
lieved in witches, and the belief is deep-seated
and iucuTable."
The African population brought this belief
from the Dark Continent, and IL persists among
them to this day, though the progress Of reli-
giOn 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 prosecuted except where
money had been obtained under false preten-
ses, 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 South
ern State, have frequently stayed for the
night at the houses Of poor farmers, labOrers
fishermen, and trappers In such journeys
have invariably listened to the tales of the
neighborhood, stimulating them by suggestion,
and have found the belief in witehcraft crop
ping out in the oldest towns in New England
sometimes within the very shadow Ofthe build
ings where learned ministry has existed from
the settlement Of the country, and public
schools have furnished means Of education to
all classes The hOTseshOes 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 il nailed TO the mast of the Vict0ry,
received his deathWOund at Trafalgar