The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1914-06-03
YET FEARFUL OF
WITCHES POWER.
Some Modern Instances
In Point.
"A FEW INTELLIGENT PEOPLE
Who Still Stand In Dread OF
Influence Of Evil
Spirits.
you'D HARDLY THINK n. EH2

A woman tried for witchcraft! We
hold up our hands and wonder at
the bigotry of those narrow-minded
Puritans in Salem. Mass. Such a
situation seems so remote from any
thing that would be possible to-day!
So we are in the habit of saying. but
it Is not an impossibility.
Only a short time ago woman
was tried for witchcraft in a court
of law in Southern Pennsylvania.
That was not the name used in the
charge that was brought against her.
but that was the accusation that was
lodged in the minds Of every one
who was interested in the case,
which was tried in a region so thor
oughly saturated with traditional
superstitions that not even the pres
ent prosperity and general educa
ton can destroy them. Technically,
the woman was convicted of obtain
ing money under false pretenses, but
actually she was convicted of being
a witch--a hex" doctor who pow
vowed
In the home of prominent law
yer in Camden county there is hole
in the post of ogaRy -bedstea6-
filled with salt which witnesses to
his belief in witchcraft. At one time
h..
woman who, when convicted and
fined, left the court muttering mean
tations and vowing vengeance. That
night the lawyer was suddenly at
tackled with violent pains in the
head. The curse had come upon
him and The feared the wretched old
sponsible for it, Only witchcraft can
drive out witchcraft. No doctor of
medicine would do in such case. A
day laborer. who was born with
caul over his face, was brought in
through the back door and taken to
the bedroom of the suffering lawyer.
guished and candle burned at each
side of the bed. Looking at the pa
tient through the veil. which he
AYERS is the identical one that he was
born with. the hex" doctor mutter-
, ed his peculiar ritual, tied a rattle
snake around the sufferers neck
81 I'm, hn OF
leg of the bed. filling it with salt,
over which he had chanted incanta-
tions. This done, he announced
that the evil powers had notified the
witch. who lived in hut at some
distance, that she should no longer
hold dominion over the body of her
enemy, the lawyer. The patient be-
lieved that his pains ceased from
that hour
A prosperous merchant in Carlisle
permitted the body of his infant
child to be covered with coating of
green paint in obedience to the or
ders of "hex' doctor who had been
NoiiCu III " Ndiu tiiC cfi oPiii'o'
A stranger in Carlisle pretended
that he had suffered from pain In
the stomach which he believed to be
due to the evil eye of an old woman
of the town who was generally be-
lieved to have. the ability to exercise
this baleful power. A hex" doctor
visited him, and when he thought
he had discovered faith in their
mysteries the stranger withdrew and
later summoned him to his house,
where he was informed that he had
discovered that an old witch had
made wax image of the stranger
and stuck pins in certain portions OF
IL. Hence the pains.
Could he be cured? asked the pa
tient. The HEX doctor assured him
that bis powers We're superior to
those of the witch. and he undertook
to prove il, Getting wax image,
he placed II in front OF the fireplace,
showed a brass bullet into an old |
muzle-loading pistol and extin-
guished all the lights but that made
by the fire. The doctor knelt upon
the floor and the patient was told