The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-02-27
SHOWS WHO ARE
THE REALLY SUPERSTITIOUS

OF the people led them to a thousand
weak, foolish and wicked things, which
+ they wanted not a sort of people really
wicked 10 encourage them to, and his
was running about to fortune-teIers
cunning men and a~strologers. to know
thelr fortunes, or. as it is ~vulgarly ex-
pressed, to have their fortunes told
them, their nativitieS calculated and
the like. and this folly presently made
the town swarm with a wicked genera
ton of pretenders to magic. to the black
art. as they called it. and | know not
what; nay. to a thousand worse deal
Ings with the devil thar they were real
~ guilty of. and this trade grew 50
open and so generally practiced that
IL became common to have signs and
inscriptions set up at doors: Here
lives a fortuna-teller;' Here lives an
a~strologer;' Here YOU may have your
nativity calculated and the like: and
Friar Bacon's -brazen-head, which was
the usual sign of these peoples dwell
1ngs, was to be seen almost in every
street, or else the sign of Mother Ship
ton, or of Merlin's head and the like.
with what blind. absurd and ridic-
ulous stuff these oracIes of the devil
pleased and satisfied the people. I re-
ally know not. but certain it is that in
Vulnerable attendants crowded about
I their doors every day: and if but a
raw fellow in a velvet jacket. a band
n a black coat, which was The habit
those quack conjurors generally went
in, was but seen in the streets. the
people would follow them in crowds
and ask them questions as they went
along"
1t was not merely the common people
who were slaves to superstition, as we
md from the following passage:
THE very court, which was then CAV
and luxurious, put on "a face of just
concern for the public danger. All
the plays and interludes. which. after
the manner of the French court. had
been set up and began to increase
among us, We're forbid to act; the gam
ing tables, public dancing rooms and
music houses, which multiplied and be-
gan to debauch the manners of the
people, were hut UP and suppressed:
and the jack-puddings, merry-andrews.
puppet-shoWs. rO~pe-dancers and such
i ke doings, which had bewitched the
common people, shut their shops, find
ing no trade. for the minds of the peo-
pie were agitated with other things.
and a kind of sadness and horror at
these things sat upon the c-Ountenances
even Of the common people: death was
1870 Nv ~ Co dlId every DOuN eSd /
to think of their graves. not of mirth
and diversions.
ON he other hand, it was incredi-
bic and scarce to be imagined how
the posts of houses M corners of
streets were plastered over with doc-
tors olls and papers of ignorant fell
quacking and tampering in physic
and inviting people to come to them
Tor remedies, which was generally set
off with such f1ourishes as these, viz.
"lnfallible preventive pills against I
me plague. Never falling personalities l
against the infection. Sovereign cor |
llals against the corruption of air.
hXact regulations for the conduct of /
me BODY in case of infection. Anti 1
pills. Incompatible drink
against the plague, never found u be-
ore. An universal remedy for the :
The only true plague water :
ne royal antidote against all kinds of
and such a number more that
cannot reckon up, and, if I could.
you'd I'LL a book of themselves to set
mem down. " g s. But there was still
-nother madness beyond all this.
men may serve to give an idea of
ne distracted humor of the poor people
/ that time, and this was their follow
az a worse sort of deceivers thar any F
L tnese, for these petty thieves only
eluded them to pick their pockets and .
ct their money; in which their wick ID
mess whatever it was, lay chiefly on
he slde OF the deceiver's deceiving, not
pom the deceived; but in this part L
m gong to mention it lay chiefly in N
ne people deceived, or equally in both: IN
~ thls was in wearing charms, phil
eXorclsms, amulets, and L know N
what preparation. to fortifv the u
ody against the plaques as if the
iasue was not the hand of God, but
NINA Oh a possession of an evil spirit, az
4d IL was to be kept off with cross "
20, signs OF the zodiac, papers tied
= win so many knots, and certain
oros or figures written on them, as
the word A~bracadabra. tn
rmed IN triangle or pyramid.
l Anisht spend a great deal of my W.
III e~xclamations against the fol- ffo
:, Il indeed the wickedness of wi
ose Things, ina time of such danger, az
d matter OF such consequence as
- OF a national Infection; but my S,
horahdums of these things relate
teI 70 take notice of the fact, and
ehtlon only that it was so. How 40
{ poor people found the insuficiency
tnose Things. and how many of
EN- carried away in the dead carts -
u thrown into the common graves e
every parish with these hellish
arms ana trumpery hanging about
Ell necks, remains to be spoken of
we go along"
1ere is abundant evidence to sustain
contention that the most supersti-
US people in the world then and now
: those who had been so loud in
aethls Una they had shaken off a
stem of superstition. and whose sue
'sors to this day never fail to burl
eplthet at people of the Catholic