The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-03-18
DEAD MEMS HANDS.

DEAD MEMS HANDS.
Ghostly Uses Made Of Them by
Criminals.
One of the most curious and
strange phases of superstition re-
lates to the criminal classes, says
the Pail Mall Gazette. The mystic
code which regulates the lives of
these enemies of society is in many
cases survival of fetischism of the
oldest kind. Believing tenaciously
in the dread efficacy of certain
CHASTITY charms and incantations,
the malefactor boldly enters upon
his enterprise, occasionally carry
ing with him "a dead mans hand"
taken from one who has died
violent death. Such a charm being
supposed to overpower with sleep
those who come under its influence,
it is naturally an invaluable ad-
junct to the implements employed
by thieves. Some years ago an at
tempt at robbery was made by bur-
glars on an estate in the county
Meth, and, to quote contemporary
account of the affair, "they entered
the house armed with a dead mans
hand, with lighted candle in it,
believing that a candle so placed
will not be seen by any but those
by whom it is used and also that
if candle in dead mans hand
be introduced into house, it will
prevent those who may be asleep
from awakening. The inmates, how
ever, were alarmed, the robbers
fled, leaving the dead hand behind
them" Many similar stories are
told of the use of the dead hand by
thieves, one communicated by
Rev. S. Barring Gould being wor-
thy of notice. Two men having
come to lodge in a public house
with view to robbing it, asked
permission to pass the night by the
fire aud obtained it. When the
house was quiet the servant girl,
suspecting mischief, crept down
stairs and looked through the key
hole, when she saw the men open a
sack and take out a dried, withered
; hand. They annointed the fingers
with some unguent and lighted
them. Each finger famed except
the thumb, which indicated that one
of the household was not asleep.
Grose gives full account of this
charm as used by French house
breakers, and a variation of the
: same belief prevailed in Belgium.
: Not far from Bailleul, in West Flan-
} ders, thief was captured on whom
: was the foot of man who had been
hanged, which he used when en-
) gagged in robberies for putting per-
: sons to sleep. Similar instances are
quoted from Spain and Germany
f and it is noteworthy that Mexican
f thieves have been known to carry
r with them the left hand and arm o1
, a woman who died at the birth o1
l her first child. Then there is the
/. corpse candle, a wierd instrument o1
! the robbers trade, which, although
r common throughout Europe, seems
: to have been more general in Ger
many than any other country. Not
: so long ago it may be remembered
], how four persons in the South
: Russian government of Kursk muir
3 dered girl in order to make can
!, dies Of her body, the notion being
! that such hideous light not only
, renders the perpetrators of robber'
!, les invisible, but actually throws
4 the victim or victims into a state o1
t somnolency. In the German Grim.
! inal codes of the seventeenth and
8 eighteenth centuries we find express
e mention made of penalties against
! a crime the motive of which was
S the making of "thieves" or "sleep
4 producing candles" This supersti'
4 ton has figured in many trial, and
e seems to be even at the present day
: implicitly believed in by the Grim
: inal classes. Indeed, it was suggest
S ed that the Whitechapel murders
: were instigated by this idea, theo.
t ry which the celebrated DR.. Bloch, s
t member of the Austrian Reichsrath
g was induced to support. An in
r stance of this piece of criminal lore
e occurred during the trial of the
: German thief, Theodore Unger, who
a was executed at Mgdeburg in 1910
|. when it was brought out in evidence
that a regular traffic existed for th'
supply of the gruesome implement
q of the burglars trade. But, instead
r Of making the criminal invisible
: this grim light has more than onc'
It done the reverse, and caused hin
l. to be brought to justice.
> Simply Mr.. President.
g The title ellis Excellency" ha
n been applied to the President of tn
t United States on one or two oc
9 casions recently, and also to th