The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-19

mer was living with family consisting
of his wife, two daughters and a son, all
in good health. First the wife sickened
and died of what the local doctor said
was consumption. Then the daughters
died, one after another, apparently of the
same disease, and, lastly, the son began
TO waste away. He went to Colorado
Springs, but falling to get better, he re-
turned to Exeter. Then all the neighbors
assured the father that what was the mat
ter with the young man was the vampire.
Yielding to the opinion of the community
the father consented to a vampire hunt,
and the medical officer OF the district
came by request from the neighboring viii
lage Of Wexford to be present al II. The
graves of the mother and the first daugh-
ter who had died were examined, and the
bodies found to be little more than skele-
tons But when the grave of the last
daughter who had died was opened the
body was found to be IN an excellent state
of preservation, though she had been dead
two months. The medical officer opened the
body and took out the heart and liver. AS
the heart was lifted out, bright, red blood
flowed from II and the assembled people
exclaimed, "the vampireP' A fire was
then kindled near the graveyard and the
heart and liver burned to ashes. The af-
fair got into the Providence papers and
was much talked of for awhile
About six years before this there was
another vampire hunt in Exeter, news of
which leaked out to the world. on that
occasion IL Is said that a whole body was
cremated, it having been discovered I'm its
grave fresh and full of blood long after
the usual period had elapsed in which
bodies are expected to turn to dust.
The home Of the vampire myth is In
Slavonic lands. The word itself is of Ser
Wan origin, and means a blood-sucking
ghost. Between 1880 and 1873 there was
an outbreak of the superstition in Hun
gary and from there II spread all over
Europe. Some fringe of this wave of SUI
perstition must have broken upon the
green and sparsely settled hills of Exc
ter and as a receding wave upon the
seashore will sometimes leave a little pool
high up on the beach, so this wave of
superstitution left the vampire belief
among the scattered farms of the ances-
tors Of the present inhabitants of Exeter.
The old things that do no change or give
place to new, and the vampire people"
cling to the superstition of their ances-
tors.
Aside from the people of Exeter, the
only people among whom the vampire
myth is still cherished are the Albanians
and the people In some parts of rural
Greece. The people of Exeter are not an
irreligious people and many of the farmers
are well-to-do. Yet in all their religion,
and, IN f3ct, IN all their daily aualfS, the
strain of mysticism is ever present. They
know what the outside world thinks of the
vampire business, but they look upon the
people of the outside world much as the
Rev. DR.. Cotton Mather of pious memory
looked upon those who did not believe in
witchcraft. He said that the man who
did not believe in witchcraft deserved to
be burnt himself.
The vampire myth In it's wanderings
over many lands from Hungary to find
its last Judgment in a rural Rhode Island
community suffered many changes Of
form. In Italy IL was believed that liv-
ing persons possessed the vampire gift,
ard simply by associating with a well per-
son or exercising a certain will power on
them could draw to themselves the life Of
the victim. When the time for the YAM
pire to die was approaching he had to
find a victim In order to prolong his life.
In some cases the vampire was supposed
to get the victim alone, murder him and
suck the blood from the dead mans ar
teries. After that he had a new lease of
life. It will be remembered that when
Byron was living in Italy there was a
certain Lord Ruthven, pale, cadaver-
GUS man, living there, of whom the poets
friend, the beautiful Countess Gulssioii
had great horror as he was believed by
her and the Italian populace to be yam