The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1897-07-09
HISTORY OF WITCHCkAFT.
John Fiske Tells Interesting Facts
About the Old-Time Crime.

'WitchCraft at Salem and Else
where" wss the subject of the third
lecture of the series of Prof John
t1ske, says the New York Tribune.
Frof. Fiske began his lecture by citing
AN instance which occurred in Nor
mandy in 1916, when Louis XIV grant
Ell leniercy to a number of persons con-
v,cted by the parliament of Normandy
Ok the crime of witchcraft. A remon-
STRANGE was sent to the crown by the
| parliament supplicating his majesty TO
reflect upon the guilt of these persons,
whose crime was the greatest men
can commit" both as an offelse against
ne glory of GOD and a menace against
TIE good ana even lives of their fel
ioW-men. Louis was too well versed
n the etiquette of the highest court
to reverse his decision. and the Offend
ers escape death. buc the incident
serves to show the attitude C ne lead
'er5 OF t;lGt time toward the supposed
crime. belief il witchcra1t" .aid the
lecturer, was shared by the whole hu
man race from tha earieS. t.n!a down
10 the seventeenth century. I.lDes OF
people have been found living l.! a state
or eXtretae BarbariSm, and it is be-
iieyed by travellers that they were Ut
terly without ideas of religion; still.
even among these ;here was a strong
belief in the supernatural in human
form. According to the pagan idea the
hrst association of death and all evil
was with some similar agency. They
had no conception of natural decease
all death was murder through some
superhuman power. This belief in
witchcraft was deeply rooted and ac-
cepted by all without question. This
belief now is entirely extinct among
educated people What, then, caused
this change? 1t is not argument.
powerful cause has been at
work, and it is the gigantic
development of physical science
since the days Of Newton and
Descartes. This reV force supplanted
superstition in the minds Of the reo-
PIE. just as clover will choke out
weeds. Relating 10 evidence. Mr.
Fiskc told of several instances which
showed the power Of the belief in the
lem witchcraIt in the new. One of
the first recorded was the trial OF two
Old women in England for bewiiching
SIX girls and an infant hoy. The child
being i'll, the mother suspected it OF
being 4 victim of witchcraft-the most
natural supposition at that time. She
consulted a country physician, who ad-
vised her to hang the child's crib blan~
ket UP during the day and if she found
anything strange about it TO throw It
in the fire. She cid so and when she
looked at the blanket found a frog
on it. When thrown in the fire Il
biaZed suddenly. then vanished with a
queer noise. At the same hour one OF
the old women, sitting before the fire,
had her face scOrched. which immedi-
ately aroused suspicion against her.
About the same tii7le the other chill
dren were seized with pins. causing
convulsions and other such symptoms
of evil practice. upon which the two
old women suspected were tried. con-
victed and hanged. During the mid
die ages the executions for witchcraft
were numerous. The last sentences oil
death for witchcraft occurred in Eng
lard in 1T12. in Scotland N 1922, il
Gerr' any in 1749 and in Spain in 1881
In this country the first accused OF
witchcraft was Margaret Jones, al
Hharlastown, who aroused suspicion by
her opposition to the usual forms OF
medicinal practice such as bleeding
and ieeches, and who effected remedies
through the means of siInple herbs