The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-05
SATURDAY. JANUARY 6. 1907.
WITCHES AND puRrrANs.

The Springfield, Mass, Union is inclined to be sarcastic, ironic and sardonic when 1t deals with those of it's brethren who are always signing and moaning for "the good old days. as they call them. That paper says:
 Let us hark back to the safe and sane days of our forefathers. The Puritans were an ideal people. They burned witches and drank rum to the of shoe buckles the women should wear. Christmas Day was a day of mourning. as was rightfuily intended, God-fearing. far-seeing men. whose impress upon our national life is be- coming altogether. too faint realized that joy is but the manifestation of our haser. selfish natures. In their larger and better understanding of things Christmas trees were useful only to hang Indians on. Quick to &rasp their theory that the only good Indian Is a dead one. they ap. piled themselves to spreading goodness throughout the tribes that infested these parts, and as their glad hosan- mas rose above the rifle shots, it was evident to all that the world was be- ing redeemed We owe much to the Puritans.
 This kind of talk isn't satisfactory 10 one of The Unions. New Eng land contemporaries, The New Bedford Standard. and it thus comments:
 es. exasperated by a Massachusetts criticism on a lynching affair. talks back and enforces it's emotions with the assertion that the Puritans burn to be very singular. When a leading clergyman of this city told his congre gation one Sunday morning not many years ago that alleged witches were burned in Salem, there was a feeling of surprise. But the clergyman was not a native of Massachusetts, and the Southern editor has probably not had the time to devote to minute exam ina ion of Nthe cOmmonwealth's record. They loosely repeated an assertion made so often and so confidently that investigation. But when a Massachu. setts newspaper, established almost half century, printed twice daily and Sundays. edited almost within sight of one of the noblest monumental me nIorials of the Puritan. tells it's read CTS that the Puritans burned witch es." observers of the spectacle from afnr must be pardoned if they regard it as something extraordinary.
 Then The Standard goes on to infer efitiaIly deny the story about burning witches. It does not deny it in plain language, but does so by implication. Fiske's historical works and get at the whole truth of the matter We are sorry The Standard is not more explicit It has always been believed that witches were burned at Salem, Mass, towards the close of the sev- enteenth century, and this belief has not been confined to the South by any means But 1t is possible that there has been exaggeration in the ac- counts. and that the witches were not burned but were put to death by oth- CT means. For example, the Interna- tional Cyclopedia. in an article on the subject, tells us that ''in Connecticut five or six persons were hung" Again we read. plymouth Colony was un- vexed by the terrible delusion, but Boston and it's vicinity were for a time under it's cloud. and in 1692. at Salem, nineteen persons were hung and one was pressed to death for the crime"
 All this does not prove that they burned witches in New England. it is true. The poor wretches were mere ly hung or pressed to death." which was possibly an easier death than burning them. Not being prepared to prove that the fire route was the one by which witchesv were required t. make their exit in the good old Puri- tan days we shall refrain from making such a charge. lest we fail to find the proof and then The Standard would exult over the discontinue of another "of our Southern exchanges" But didn't they burn some of their witches just little tiny bitF