Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-05-30
Bliseellaneous 8eadias.
WITcHcRAFT IN OLD SALEM.
in the Days When People
Believed the Devil Took on Human

Persecution in the Days When People
Believed the Devil Took on Human
Form.
The place where a great crime has
been committed has always something
strangely fascinating about it. Most
people will go a greater distance to
see the scene of a murder than they
would take the trouble to do for any
other purpose whatever. The house
where a great man has been born Is
often quite unknown and unvisited
even in it's own neighborhood; the
house that is associated with a mur-
der or a homicide rarely is.
I'VE may lament them" said Judge
Story in a centennial address at Sa-
lem, "the errors of the times which
led to these prosecutions. But surely
our ancestors had no special reasons
for shame in belief which had the
universal sanction of their own and
all former ages; which counted in
it's train, philosophers as we'll as en-
thusiasts; which was graced by the
learning of prelates as we'll as the
countenance Of kings; which the law
supported by it's mandates, and the
purest judges felt no compunctions In
enforcing. Let Witch Hill remain for
ever memorable by this sad catastro-
phe, not to perpetuate our dishonor,
but as an affecting, enduring proof OF
human infirmity-a proof that perfect
Justice belongs to one judgment seat
only-that which is linked to the
throne Of God"
What was this belief, then, which
had such high and legal sanction? 1t
was this: That the devil might and
did personally appear to, enter into,
and actively direct, the everyday life
Of men. And he did this without the
intervention Of any of those magical
arts of conjurations such as were once
thought indispensable to induce him
to put in an appearance. For this
there was Scriptural authority. chap
| ter and verse. He was supposed TO
come sometimes in one form, some
times in another, to tempt his victims
with the promise that upon their sign
ing a contract to become his, both
body and soul, they should want for
nothing, and that he would undertake
to revenge them upon all their ene-
mics.
The traditional witch was usually
some decrepit old village crone, of a
sour and malignant temper, who was
as thoroughly hated as feared, but this
did not exclude men from sharing In
the power of becoming noted wizards
though from the great number of
women who were accused, 1t would ap-
pear that the arch-enemy usually pre-
ferred to try his arts upon the weaker
and more impressionable sex. The ia
tai compact was consummated by the
victim registering his or her name in
book or upon a scroll of parchment,
and with his own blood. The form Of
these contracts is nowhere preserved.
Sometimes, as Is instanced in the ne
gotiations between Oliver Cromwell
and the devil before the battle Of Wor-
cester there was a good deal Of hag-
Cling. The bargain being concluded,
Satan delivered to his new recruit an
imp or familiar spirit, which some
times had the form Of a cat, at others
Of mole, of a bird, of a miller fly, or
of some other insect or animal. These
were to come at call, do such mischief
as they should be commanded.
Witches, according to popular be-
lief, had the power to ride at will
through the air on a broomstick or a
spit, to attend distant meetings on
Sabbaths Of witches, but for this pur-
pose they must first have anointed
themselves with a certain magical
ointment given to them by the fiend.
what our forefathers believed, what
was solemnly incorporated into the laws
Of the land and what was solemnly
preached from the pulpit. A perusal
of the witchcraft examinations shows
how familiar even children were with
all the forms of this superstition.
In the course of the trials at Salem
several of the accused persons, in or
der to save their lives, confessed to
having signed their names in the Dev-
lis book, to having been baptized by
him and to having attended midnight
meetings of witches, or sacraments
held upon the green near the minis
ters house, to which they came rid
ing through the air. They admitted
that he had sometimes appeared to
them in the form of a black dog or
cat, sometimes in that of a horse, and
once as a fine, grave man." but gen.
orally as a black man of severe aspect.
These fables show the prevalent form
of the belief among the people. 1t
was generally held to be impossible
for a witch to say the Lords prayer
correctly; and it is a matter of record
that one woman, while under eXami-
nation, was put to this test, when 1t
was noticed that in one place she sub
stituted some words of her own for
those of the prayer. Such failure OF
memory was considered, even by some
learned judges, as decisive proof Of
guilt. Even the trial of throwing a
witch into the water to see whether
she would sink or swim, was once
made in Connecticut.
The scene of the witchcraft outbreak
Of 1892 Is an elevated knoll Of no
great extent, rising among the shaggy
hills and spongy meadows that lie at
some distance back from the more
thickly settled part of the town Of
Danvers, Mass. formerly Salem VIII
lage. 1t is indeed a quiet little neigh
borhood to have made so much noise
in the world. Somehow, enterprise
avoids it, as we see 1t today, cold and
lifeless. The first appearance Of ev-
erything is so peaceful so divested Of
all hurry or excitement, as to suggest
a hereditary calm-a pastoral contin-
ued from generation to generation.
Then, as the purpose which brought
him hither comes into his mind, the
visitor looks about him in doubt
whether this can really be the locality
of that tragedy.
Yes. here are the houses that were
standing when those events took place,
still solemnly commemorating them,
as if doomed to stand eternally. This
village street is the same old highway
through which the dreadful infection
spread from house to house into the
| remote corners of the ancient shire,
until, as we read, there were forty men
| of Andover who could raise the devil
as well as any astrologer. Here, too.
| is the site of the old meeting house,
in which those amazing scenes, the
| witchcraft examinations, took place.
A little farther on we come to the spot
of ground, as yet unbuilt upon, where
the parsonage with the leanto cham
ber stood. The sunken outlines of the
cellar are still to be seen, and even
some relics of the house itself remain
in the outbuildings attached to the
Wadsworth mansion. which overlooks
the witch Grounds" and which was
built in the same year that the old par
sonage was pulled down. 1t was in
this Ministry House." as IT was then
called, that the circle of young girls