Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-02-14
SAYS DEATH TO
seventeen WAS
W|TCKS SPELL
Parents Of Marasmus Victims
Accept Queer Verdict of Voo-
doc Doctors Blaming Woman.

READING, Pa, Feb. 14.-rhat sew
enteen of the twenty children of Mr..
and Mrs. Frederick Carl, of this city,
died as the result of being "bewitched'
is The startling statement made today
by the parents. A ~2S-year-old daughter
died and was buried last week. The
majority of the children died when
quite young. The parents have v
been i'll a single day, while their chill
dren wasted to skeletons.
The regular physicians said the chill
dren were afflicted with marasmus, a
wasting of the flesh without m FEVER
or apparent disease, while "pow-wow'
doctors declare that the infants We're
afflicted by witchcraft, and that the
person who took their rest" was a
woman Some of the children scratched
their mother on the neck n face,
screamed for hours and manifested
other queer symptoms until they died.
While physicians declared that sew
eral Of the older children died of tuber-
c~ulosis, Carl believes they were be-
witched. He said: s
Cured by Witch Doctor.
when one of our. children was i'll
the doctor said it would not live over
night and at the suggestion of a neigh
Dor l called in a hexerei doctor, who
had the reputation of curing people
from whom their rest had been
taken He hung something in u bag
around the child's neck and gave it two
kinds of medicine. He said that it had
been pewitched by a woman, but would
mention no name. From the time the
xt-t+4I, 1Aata.a bA0nfa IN frnnf tho child
1t began to improve and is one of the
three living today
On one occasion when II of his
daughters was i'll, Carl declares, an
old man who heard him tell a friend
about his loss of so many children,
said he could help the child n was
invited to try. He bought a piece of
muslin, a needle and thread, a pen and
red Ink and the seventh book of Moses.
After examining the child he said that
it's rest" had been taken by a woman.
He pcw-wowed and then copied a verse
OF a lip of paper. using his red ink.
n put h paper in a little muslin
bag and hung it at the head of the
cradle, and the child improved. The
verse read as follows:
"Trotter head, l forbid thee my house
and premises. l forbid thee my horse
and cow stable. l forbid thee my bed
stead that thee mayest not breathe
upon me. Breathe in some other house
until thou hast counted every fence
post. and until thou hast crossed every
water, and thus dear day may come
again, in the name of God. the Father.
the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen"
Give TRANCE Instructions.
The pow-wow doctors gave particu-
lar instructions to the parents not to
accept anything from any person nor
give anything whatsoever to anyone for
nine days The woman who it was
supposed bewitched the children died
seven years ago and the children who
have died since were declared to have
had consumption, but Carl is of the
opinion that they were bewitched.
During former Coroner DR.. r.. e.
Strasser's term in office he made a
crusade against the pow-wow or
hexerei doctors, but they are still doing
business in Berks county, and Will
probably continue to do so until mora
drastic action is taken. Eastern Penn
sylvania and especially Berks county Is
the stronghold of pow-wow doctors and
superstitious people.