Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-07-29


N stroyed the whole of the
by manufacturing section of Sa-
lem, Mass, there still sits the
ancient city dreaming long dreams Of
a historic past
More and more, as the years slip
by, Hawthorne comes to be the pre-
siding genius Of Salem. and reverend
pilgrims in increasing numbers come
back to seek the few abiding traces OF
his life there; and though they go to
Gallows hill and also view the relics
of the old merchants and their por-
traits and the pictures Of their ships
they go first to the house where Haw-
thorne was born, to the other where
he lived and worked. and to the sleepy,
dignif1ed old custom house from whose
drab duties grew the strange flower
OF weird romance. It may be that out
of the Ghettos and Warsaws which
now surround the old custom house
will come again as great merchants
as once dwelt there, or as great a
writer of romance as he who worked
on its SCARED old wooden desk, now
preserved with such care in the Essex
institute, but one may be pardoned for
having his doubts.
Madness of Wltchcraft.
Never again, the world surely hopes,
mysterious a madness as the Salem
Witchcraft delusion, yet in 1t were set
the roots of temperament which made
Hawthorne what he was. Its gruesome
mystery seems to brood In all he wrote
and one cannot visit the haunts and
the scenes of it's terror today without
feeling some atmosphere of 1t still hov-
sring the place. Hawthorne's ancestor
sat in Judgment over the witches, and
Judge Hawthorne, invisible indeed but
grimly Unlocking, seems to me to pre-
side over many tale which he wrote.
AS relentless fate Knocked the witches
while it gripped them and killed them
with trivialities, 80 1t does the char
acters In Hawthorne's stories, nor in
the progress of events is there room In
the tale, in the one case or the other,
for the saving grace Of humor. From
Hawthorne to Hawthorne came the
somber impress of the days of witch
finding.
The spring sun and the spring rain
fell alike gently on Gallows hill. yet
# stands bare and wind-swept today
as it did when the witches met their
fate there, as it stood since the gla-
ciers ground over it, no one knows how
many thousand years ago. The tough
rock Of which it was built shows every
where the traces of the fires which
melted and reset 1t In its present
form, its twist and celebration burnt
into 1t as the story of the deeds
wrought on it's summit is scared into
the annals of old Salem town. Here
and there on it's fantastic lodges one
sees zigzag marks struck pale as IL
lightning had welted the tormented
stone and left the impress of It's sud
den anger there. The softening years
can do little with this rock. A curse
far older than that of the witch find
ing has set its seal upon the height,
and though the gentle things of earth
strive patiently to ameliorate the evil
dence, they do little to wipe out the
bleakness Of the place. The green of
spring grasses climbs patiently toward
the topmost lodges, indeed, and draws
with 1T the gold of potentilla and the
white of wild strawberry blooms.
Dandelions set the round image of the
sun IN sheltered places, and little lilac
consultations of bluets star the moist
er spots down the slope, but the bar
rem soil Is too shallow and the summer
turns all these to a brown garment of
sorrowful sackcloth and sprinkles 1t
with the gray ashes of drought
Salem's golden days began a CEN
fury or more after the witchcraft de-
fusion had burnt to ashes In the fury
OF its own fire. Certainly the descend
ants Of the men who feared the devil
and his emissaries feared little else.
He might be formidable dancing at
Night with withered crones on the
weird hills of Salem pastures. but they
2aughed In his face when he came on
the high seas with shotted guns and
foreign sailors outnumbering their
own guns and crews two to one. They
beat the devil and they outgeneraled
him. those Salem sailors OF the sew
enteen hundreds. whether he came in
English privateer or French man-o'-
war or score of feluccas or piratical
junks. api they brought great treas
ures hons to Salem town. They ex-
piored uncharted seas. visited ports