The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-02-27
Catholic Standard and Times.

4 We may be excused for again refer
g ring to the writings Of William Howit
on superstition in Catholic countries
= because the question: he raises is in
stantly brought home to us in all it
: erroneous a~ttribution when We look a
a the columns of our own daily news
papers. Superstition is far more rife il
the United States than in any par
of Europe. The vast majority of the
people here are outside the Catholic
fold, and have been brought up in thai
great antidote of superstition. the
public school: yet the trade of the as
troioger,, the fortuEe-teller, the dream
interpreter, the faith curist, the divine
healer and all the rest of the tribe of
base imposture is flourishing. This
means that superstition is rampant.
The advertisements of these daring
humbugs in the daily papers are as
founding memorials to the credulity of
an g which is never weary of pro-
claiming itself to be the crown and
fruition of modern enlightenment.
But If we want proof of the really
superstitious character of non-Catholic
populations, we have it to hand in the
works of a famous English writer, a
Protestant: we mean Daniel Defoe,
author of the world-renowned Robin
son CruSoe." Defoe wrote another
book. much more valuable, but not so
pleasant to read, by any means. 1t
was called The Plague in London"
1t is a great work, since what other
one to the historian. since what other
writer's gave Upon that gruesome sub
Ject conveyed no idea of the actual
condition of the people under the
awful visitation, only the merest statis-
teal KIND of synopsis. But Defoe's
ma rT1 tiNa iC ou rr,.o1E;- II.
graph. What he describes is for the
most part What he himself had seen.
His pictures Of the terrors of the I'M
stricken people and their endeavors to
avoid contact with the stricken are in
tensely interesting; but his tales of
the charnel house and the death ditch,
with. the rumble of. the dead-carts
during the awful nights and the cries
OF the drivers, Bring out your dead" !
are ~blood-curdling beyond all other
records. Then was the time when
superstition ran RIO indeed, and de-
mented people in their agony of fear
a resort TO every form of invocation
OF invisible powers in the hope of
warding off an intangible and stealthy
foe.
1t must be remembered that when
he plague broke out in London Cathol-
lclSn had been swept, root and branch.
to speak. out of England: only a few
remained loyal; in the obscure
streets some fugitive members of the
church led a darkling life. hiding from
the world and afraid to let their
identity be known. Puritanism had
its full swing, ard though it had
given place to the easier code of the
established church, the atmosphere of
the whole country was distinctly anti
41hnIN hnfnn fa11e l1-- 4l-..
stltlons were evoked and played upon
a horde of quacks. Two comets
we're seen-one before the plague broke
)ut. another before the fire. He saws:
L saw both these stars, and I must
confess had had so much of the COM
non notion of such things in my head.
nat l was apt 10 look upon them as the
.orerunmers and warnings of Gods
Judgments, and especially when the !
Hague had followed the first, I yet saw
mother of the like kind. could not
'ut say, God had not yet sufficiently
courged the city.
The a~pprehensions of the peonla t
we're likewise strangely increased nv {
he error of the times. in which '
mink, the people, from what priuciple
cannot imagine. We're. more addicted a
o prophecies, and astrological coriur- Il
tons, dreams and old wives tales than c
yer they We're before or since. q
neither this unhappy temper was e
rlginally raised by the follies of some e
who got money by ii. that is 10 t
ay, by printing predictions and prog L
.ostications, l know not, but certain if a
I, books frightened them terribly: such t
5 Lily Almanack, G%adbury's Astro- a
'sleal Productions, Poor Robins AL t
and the like; also several nra- n
TpIpinnC hnplyo o,+;.1z1 l
ut of Her, My People, Lest Ye Re D
artaker of Her Plagues;' another a
alled Fair Warming another .Rrit- a
ms Remembrancer,' and MANY s1,ch. il
a., or most part of which, foretold al i,
city of covertly, the ruin of the city. W
some were so enthusiastically hold NJ
, TO run about the streets with tboTr e.
al predictions. pretending they were
TO preach to the city; and one in II
lrtlcuiar, who like Jonah to Ninevah II,
leo in he streets, Yet forty davs ~
Id London shall be destroyed I will IN
u De positive whether he said vet n
qays' or yet a few days. Another m
n ABOUT naked. except a pair ofI 80
awers about his waist. CRYING dav 70
Id night, like a man that .JosenbIS ~ u
entlonS, who cried, Woe to Jer1,so- VI
N! a little before the destruction of ~
AT clty' so this poor naked creature ~
led. 90! the great and the reaGf,,I Al
'd' n said no more, but repeated OF
os9 words continually, with a voice en-
d c~ountenance full of horror . sv5f, IN
and nobody could ever find bi,o as
stop, or rest, or take any sustena nca
least that ever 1 could hear off, tn
oefoe goes on to relate how the tic
opie began to tell each otber;S ar
cams, and the various direful interH DO
4tations placed by old women IN sy'
He also relates how the min &c:
ers, instead of cheering the neonIe the
their pulpit utterances. -endeavoraS fai
terrlfy them into a state of renent-
e. but usually produced only a feel.
OF helpless horror at what they now. :
ked upon as a visitation of nivina
attn for national crime-and. conside Iess
,lg the course of the CromweIIians in oou
and. it is by nc means clear tha, aw
belief was erroneous or strained al,
they did in their extremity - d
'th hearing from Defoe. He gaas COZ
0ne mischief always introduces IL cor
err these terrors II apprehensions n npl