The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1921-10-30
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n Halloween is I'm ono way the most
I interesting Of the anniversaries We
y coll ahrlte. II is altogether joke.
and yet II perpetuatcs iu humorous
form certain beliefs which up to
very recent times we're most serious
is held. and which brought death
ard indosrrihahlc misery 60 great
mum hers Of human beings.
with Halloween. I'm playful imag
nation We associate witches iWps
and mischevious roblius Of species
miscellaneous But behind all these.
I'M the old time conception. and, as
30 we're. pulling the actuating strings,
was the mysterious powcr Of evil,
pcrsonified by the devil
Halloween. in fact. Is devils
carnival People in c.:ii"r days actu-
ally believed that ON this annual oC-
casion satan was privileged 30 Let
loose his inns and other dilb0lical
agents. to stir up dovilnent of one
? sort or another: and 90 avoid mis-
han. IL hehcoved pious and orderly
folk to be- wary ~ NenturinE abroad
and to resort I'm precautionary way
TO prayer and Scripture reading.
It is difficult for us I'm the twcu-
tieth century 90 realize that even as
late as 500 years ago. or later. be-
lief In witches was as well and as
generally established as rs recogui-
tion OF any uatural phenomenon to-
day The understanding was that
they were persons most often old
women. who had sold their souls TO
the evil one In return for the be
stowal OF certain supernatural pow
ers which they employed for malife-
cent purposes.
Creatures OF the Dark.
Associated with witches were owls,
bats and black cats--all Of them
creatures Of darkness. one may no
tice that they figure conspicuously
nowadays among the Halloween toys
sold In the shops. They were tho
"familiars" OF witches, possessing
supernatural attributes Of their own
and able to render themselves invisl-
BILE at will The DEVILS wings are oh.
Wously those OF bat, and the name
Mephistopheles Is derived from
Greek word. -Scaning lover OF the
dark.
In olden times the generality Of
people had no acquaintance with
physical sclence-in other words. tho
laws of nature. Hence, whatever
they could not understand was at
tributed TO the supernatural. Nova =
days intelligent persons do not bc-
lieve that there Is such a thing as
the supernatural. when a phenome-
non Is beyond our comprehension.
we assign IL to some natural law
which We have not yet Erasped-as,
for instance, electricity.
What We call the supernatural Is
the power Of mystery, In earlier
days it was made up largely Of un-
known and maleficent forces which
lurked behind everything IN nature.
Summed up, these forces represented
a cosmic Influence Tor evil, which
was liable To asaail ANYBODY at any
time, Among other things 10 was
responsible for epidemics OF disease.
The devil and his agents were back
OF II ALI
In the middle ages the devil was
to the generality of mankind as real
a parsonage as President Harding Is
today. Nobody then thought OF
doubling his existence as a terrifying
fact, and his influence in all human
affairs was so great that not even
the most sanity individual was for a
moment safe against his machina-
tions. Every unusual or disagree
able thing that happened from a de-
structive storm to an attack OF