Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1892-02-27

in about as many minutes As he re-
ceived ten dollars for the mother and
twenty-fve cents each for her progeny
he concluded that his adventure had
paid him very welL-St. Louis Re-
public.
REGARDING WiTcHcRAFT.
A Majority of tho Citizens OF tho United
states tsolieve in 1t.
Witchcraft is at tho present time be-
lieved in by q majority Of the citizens
of the United States. The larger num-
Der of immigrants from the continent
of Europe are more or loss in fear OF
such powers To these must be added
sons of English and Scotch descent; for
a strong vein Of superstition is discern
ible in many Irish, Scotch, and some
English, whose "folk-lore," difused in
nursery tales and neighborhood gossip,
has entwined itself strongly about the
fibers of spontaneous subconscious
mental imagery. Among the more
ignorant mem bcrs of the Catholic
church Of every nationality the belief
produces a mysterious dread, against
which men and women cross them
selves, aud resort to various rites sup
posed to be efficacio0.
Where colonies of immigrants have
remained isolated, retaining the use OF
their own language, 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. 1t has been
but two or three years since suit was
brought by a man against his mother,
in one of the counties OF Pennsylvania,
to recover damages for a dog which he
charged her with having killed by
witchcraft; and he not only brought
suit, but obtained judgment from q
justice of the peace. Various>witnesses
testified as to their experiences in
witchcraft, 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 Dunl1ard 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 building, dry up
the wells of the enemies OF applicants,
force cows to give bloody milk, cause
sickness in the family, destroy beauty,
separate man aud wife and reunite
estranged lovers.
In the interior parts of the southern
states, where large proportion of the
white population can not read and there
is little admixture Of society, there are
''witch-doctors," who, assuming that
all disease is caused by witches, Sc
cure thriving practice in counteracting
their influence. The Philadelphia
Times, on the authority of reputa bic
correspondent. who gives many facts
to sustain his representations. says:
For generations the poor whites have
believed in witches, and the belief is
deep-seated and incurable.
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.
l have ve'recently noted in various parts
Of the United States more. than fifty
suits instituted by persons against
those who claimed had bewitched
them; but under existing laws the ac-
cused could not be prosecuted except
where money had been obtained under
false pretenses, or overt acts of crime
had been suggested or committed.
During pedestrian tours in New Eng
land, in various parts OF the west, and
in every southern state, l have frc.
qucntly stayed for the night at the
houses of poor farmers, laborers, fish
ermen and trappers. In such journeys
have invariably listened to the tales
of the eighborhood, stimulating them
BY suggestion, and have found the be-
lief in witchcraft cropping out in the
oldest towns in New England, some
times within the very shadow of the
buildings where a learned ministry has
existed from the settlement of the
country and public schools have fur
nished means of education to all
classes. The horseshoes seen in nearly
every county, and often in every town
ship, upon the houses of persons, sug-
gested the old horseshoe bcneath which
Lord Nelson, who had long kept it
nailed to the mast of the Victory, re-
ceived his death wound at Trafalgar
Rev. J. NJ. Ruckley, in Century.
Servants. Is 1t?
The newly rich have their trials the
same as other people. The Rilgoys
have recently come into a fortune and
are ambitious of social prominence.
They have an ofdfashioned relative of
dUnistakable Irish origin and as genu-
inc as she is old-fashioned. She has
been accustomed through life to using
the basement entrance. The recently
acquired wealth of the RHgoys has cast
no stigma on that lower portal in her
estimation. Therefore when she visits