The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-17
Husband of Witch Predicts
Disaster for Hawthornes.
Almighty to Punish Descend.
ants of Cruel Judge.
TRIAL OF WRITER RESULT
House of Seven Gables Story of
Family.
LIS Swindle Charge Result of
BanefuI Influence?

new York, Jan. 17-Has the once
famous Hawthorne Curse" asserted its
oale1ul influence again after = rest of
more than half a century?
a number of the gray-headed, stoop-
snouioered spectators in the court
room OF United States District Judge
Hough, who have listened CLOSELY FOR
several weeks past to the Testimony In
the mfne-swfndl' 'ng case against Julian
hawthorne. novelist and son of tba
great American romancer NathaniaI
haWtnorne. declared today, with visa
SNAKES or their heads, that the cursa is
once more active.
Few of the present generation bav.
even heard of the Hawthorne cursa,,
and its weird begir ming in tho lur,d
Gays or Salem witchcraft. unless thew
happen to have stumbled upon a stor,
OF 1t In some musty old volume Ceorpo
PARSONS Lathrop, who was himseIf a
writer or note. graphically described
the CURSE In an Introductory note
Sa,ic wricn ne wrote for The House of the
seven Cables" one of Nathaniel Haw-
tnorne's best-known tales. The note ia
found in the Salem edition, published
in 1893.
Husband of Witch Inv6kes Curse.
Jonn Hathorne, (as the name was
sren spelIeol, the great-grandfather of
Nathaniel Hawthorne" said Mr. IA
throp, was a magistrate at Salem IN
the latter part of the seventeenth CEN
tury, and officfated at the famous trials
Tor w1tchcraft held there 1t is of rec
ord that he used particular severity
toward certain woman who was
among the accused, and the husband
OF this woman prophesied that Cod
would take revenge upon his wife's per-
secutors
This circumstance doubtless fur
nished a hint for that piece of adj
ton in the book which represents n
Pyncheon of a former generation as
having prosecuted one Maule, who de-
clared that God would give his enemy
blood to drink
The Family Believed in Curse.
TT became a conviction with the
hawthorne family" continues Mr.. La
throp, that a curse had been pro-
nounced upon its members, which con-
tfnued In force in the time of the ro-
mancer (NathanieD; a conviction. per-
haps derived from the recorded proph-
ecy of the injured woman's husband
just mentioned; and, here again, we
have a correspondence with Maule's
maledictfon in the story.
Furthermore, there occurs in the
American Note Books august 81,
family. to the following effect; Philip
English, a character well known in
early Salem annals, was among those
who suffered from John Hathorne's
harshness, and he main
tained in consequence lasting feud
with the old Puritan official. But at
his death English left daughters, one
of whom is said to have married the
son of Justice John Hathorne, whom
English had declared he would never
forgive. 1t is scarcely necessary to point
out how closely this foreshadows the
final union of those hereditary foes.
the Pyncheons and the Maules through
the marriage of Phoebe and Holgrave.
Traits of Hawthornes.
1.-The romance CHouse of Seven
however describes the MauIes
as possessing some of the traits known
to have been characteristic of the Haw-
for example, so long as any
of the race were to be found they had
been marked out from other men-not
with an effect that was felt rather
than spoken of-by an hereditary char
acteristic of reserve"
Wiseacres declare themselves unable
to understood how the son of so fam
ous a man could become enmeshed in a
the one now being unfoided before
Judge Hough, except through the bale
full operation of a curse.
Julian Hawthorne has never been
anything but a writer said one old
who had listened with close
v cupped ears to the mass OF evil
ience against the novelist, until he
fell in with that gang of mine pro-
noters and was persuaded to change
he whole course of his life and plunge
INTO the arena Of business. where ne
was an entire stranger. 1t certainly
ooks as though he was possessed py
some occult influence"
-e