The New York herald., 1922-10-08
A Church That Fought Witches.

SachusettS, is preparing to celebrate
its 250th anniversary. This church
has peculiar place in the early his
tory OF this country, for within il in
1892 was the beginning of the Salem
witchcraft craze, in which during the
five months of its course hundreds of
persons we're arrested, many tried,
nineteen hanged and one pressed to
death for refusing to plead to the in
dictment against him. Few instances
of the witchcraft delusion have at
tracted so much attention, none have
mad the details more fully and
minutely preserved. 1t was, said JOHN
FIsKE, the most gruesome episode in
American history.
When in 1872 the church was built
Danvers was called Salem village.
The church. plain two story frame
building, was with the parsonage the
center OF. the community which was
made up Of a group OF farm houses
three or four miles from the town of
Salem. This church stood until 1901;
it was succeeded by five other build
ings before the present modern struc-
ture was erected.
In 1892 its pastor was the Rev.
SAMUEL PARRIs, who had come to the
village from the Barbados. He was
coarse and arrogant in his manner
and he involved his parishioners in
a quarrel which for truculent bitter
ness was said to have been scarcely
equaled in the envenomed annals of
New England parishes. 1T was a
spectacle" said JOHN FIsKE, such
as old Nick must have contemplated
with grim satisfaction" &
The clergyman brought from the
West Indies two servants, JOHN
INDIAN, and woman, half negro, half
Indian. known as TITUBA. They we're
familiar with the voodoo rites prac-
ticed by the colored people on the
West Indian islands and they fire.
quently entertained the pastors
daughter and niece with tricks Of
magic and incantations. Other girls
joined these two until circle Of
ten was formed, which met frequently
at the parsonage. Under the tuition
OF TITUBA they learned to go into
frances, talk gibberish and crawl
around the furniture like snakes.
a.. h. lrr n
afflicted children" To the surprise,
perhaps. Of some of them their par
ents began to take their actions seri-
ously. and when two OF them were
chided for their "evil behavior" they
said that they were bewitched. Then
the Rev. Mr.. PARIS took the affair
into his own hands with a great
flourish OF trumpets. AT Sunday
church services early in March, 1892,
he announced that the souls of many
persons in the village we're endan-
gered by witchcraft and diabolical
operations. "1t seems the devil has
been raised amongst u.s. he said,
"and hts rage is vehement and terri
BILE; and when he shall be silenced
the Lord only knows
Some OF the AFFLICTED children we're
commanded to point out their tor
mentors and they named TIrUBA and
two forlorn old women OF the village.
These we're arrested and sent to jail
to await trial. This was the begin
ming: but the craze once started no
person seemed able to stop IT, TITuBA
confessed that the devil, as a man in
black with a yellow bird, appeared TO
her and made her torture the girls.
She named the two old women as her
accomplices. BY thus turning Kings
evidence her life was spared--she
was sold as a slave to defray the ex-
penses Of her. trial--and the two old
women were condemned to death.
At one time there were 1875 persons
in the Salem Jail awaiting trial. ANN
PUTNAM was the most useful OF the
witnesses for the prosecution. She
could he depended upon TO have seen
the devil In some form or another
acting as aid to most Of the accused.
On her evidence ~ Rev. Groncr
BuEEotGus, q graduate Of Harvard