Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-04-08
IL i.

WITcHcRAFE
A Majority OF tho Citizens of the United
states Believe In It.
W1tchcraft is at the present time
believed in by a majority of the citi-
zcns of the United States. The larger
number of immigrants from the conti-
ncn6 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 of superstition
is d%isccrnible in many Irish, Scotch,
and some English, whose .'folk-lore,"
diffuscd in nursery tales and neigll-
borhood gossip, has entwined itself
strongly about the tibers of a sponta-
ncous subconsciOus mental imagery.
Among the more ignorant members
of the Catholic Church of nationality
the belief produces amysteriou dread,
against which men and women cross
themselves, and resort to various rites
supposed to be %eficacious
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 Il nan against
his mother, in one of the counties of
Pennsylvania, to recover damages for
a dog (which he charged her with hay
ing killed by witchcraft; and he not
only brought suit, but obtained judg-
mcnt from a Justice of the Peace.
Various witnesses testified as to their
experiences in withcraft, and only one
said that he had never had q friend
or relative who was bcwitched.
In divers villages in Pennsylvania,
some of them in the Dunkard settle-
ment, are women who are supposed
to be witches. Some are shrcwd 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
give bloody milk, nus sickness in
the family, destroy beauty, separate
man and wife, and reunitc estranged
lovers.
In the interior parts of the South
ern States, where a large portion Of
the white population cannot read,
and there is Il little admiXturc of So
cicty, there are '.witch-doctors, who,
assuming that all disease is caused
by witches, sccurc thriving practice
in countcracting their influence. The
Philadelphia Times, on the authority
of a reputable correspondent, who
gives many facts to sustain his repre-
sensations, says: 'sFor generations
the poor whites have believed in
witches, and the belief is dcep-seated
and lncurablc."
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 tho United States more than
fifty suits instituted by persons
against those who they claimed had
bcwitched them; but under existing
laws the accused could not be prose-
cuted except where money had been
obtained under false pretense, or
overt acts ofcrimc had been suggested
or committed.
During pedestrian tours in New
England, in various parts of the West,
and in every Southern State, / have
frequently stayed for the night at the
houses of poor farmers, laborcrs, fish
ermcn, and trappers. In such jour
neys l have invariably listened to the
tales of the ncighborhood stimulating
them by suggestions, and have found
the belief in witchcraft cropping out
in the oldest towns in New England,
sometimes within the veyf shadow of
the buildings where a learned minis
try has existed from the settlement
of the country, and public schools
have furnished mean of education to
all classes. The horscshoes seer 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
Observation-Disclosures.
Thumb Identification.
At a recent meeting of the Anthro-
polCkical Institute MI. Francis Gal
ton, +. r. S., exhibited a large num-
Der of impressions of the bulbs of
the thumb and fingers of human