The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-06-08

hurt that tney may ule Deloie uolu-
ing.
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 Village. 1t is indeed a quiet
little neighborhood to have made so
much noise in the world. Somehow,
enterprise avoids it, as we see it to-
day, cold and lifeless. The first ap-
pearance of everything is so peace
full, so divested of all hurry or ex-
citement, as to suggest hereditary
calm-a pastoral continued from
generation to generation. Then as
the purpose which brought him
hither comes into his mind, the Wis
itor looks about him in doubt wheth-
er this can really be the locality of
that tragedy.
Yes, there are the houses that
were standing when those events
took place, still solemnly comment
Grating 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
witchcrat examinations, took place.
A little farther on we come to the
spot of ground, as yet unbuilt upon,
where the parsonage with the lean
to chamber stood. The sunken out
lines of the cellar are still to be seen,
and even some relics of the house
itself remain in the outbuildings at
tached to the Wadsworth man
sion, which overlooks the witch
Grounds" and which was built in the
same year that the old parsonage
was pulled down. 1t was in this
Ministry House." as it was then
called, that the circle of young girls
met, whose denuciations, equivalent
to the death warrant of the accused
person soon overspread the land
with desolation and woe; and it was
here that the alleged midnight con-
vocations of witches met to celebrate
their unholy sacraments, and to re-
new their solemn league and cove
nant with Satan by inscribing their
names in his fatal book.
Hundreds of innocent persons
were thrown into prison, while twen-
ty were executed, at the instance OF
some young girls of the village, who
went into convulsions, real or pre-
tended, as soon as they were con-
fronted with the prisoners at the
bar. The convictions we're had upon
s.specter" evidence-that is to say,
the strange antics of the possessed
girls were considered as proof posi-
tive of the criminal power of witch
craft in the accused, shown, too, in
open court-with which they stood
charged. The statute assumed that
this power could only proceed from
familiarity or compact with the
evil one, and punished it with death.
The evidence, however, was of two
kinds. When interrogated by the
magistrates the girls first gave their
evidence calmly, like ordinary wit
nesses to criminal acts, and then
went into spasms, which all believed
were caused by the prisoners. Their
incoherent rawlings and outcries were
also taken as good and valid testi-
mony and are so recorded.
These remarkable proceedings are
not, however, without precedent.
The tragical story of Urban Grandier
develops the same characteristics.
His popularity as a preacher having
excited the envy of the monks, they
instigated some nuns to play the part
of persons possessed, and in their
convulsions to charge Grandier with
being the cause of their evil vista
ton. This horrible, though absurd
charge was sanctioned by Cardinal
Richelieu on grounds of personal dis
like. Grandier was tried, condemn
ed and burnt alive, April IS, 1884,
more than half a century earlier
than the proceedings occurring at