New Britain herald., 1930-11-26
WITCHCRAFT FOUND
 PREVALENT IN NY.
Health Official Plans Campaign
 Of Education as AntidOte

New York. Nov, 26 tLP)--Along the streets of the lower East Side where human beings are crowded closer together than in cny other spot in the world, investigators have found that the cult of black magic has fastened itself on the lives of thousands of immigrants.
 The Bellevue-Y YorkyilIc health demonstration commission broguht out its report yesterday. and be- meath the mass of statistics, endow- ments and operating funds there was q strange story of how witch craft was gaining in the city which supposedly is one of the most en- frightened communities i'll the new world. In general. he investigators say. the wltchcraft follows the fla miliar pattern Of "heXes' against enemies, of torture by mental tele- pathy and of the complex powers of the spirits of the upper air who, according to believers, v-eigh life and death.
 Firm in Beliefs
 But this witchcraft. the commis- sion states. has gone further. It has stepped beyond the barriers Of race and anguage-Chjnesc, Italians. Croats, Czechs and inhabitants of all the Balkan nations, where his torians say witchcraft has it's orl- gin, are involved. Apparently there has grown Up d universal language of voodoo among these diversified peoples, and thousands of them are firm in the belief that charms and incantations will cure diseases such as tuberculosis.
 "Witchcraft workers and eyjl-eye healers are still nourishing and eX- plotting the superstit;ous, particu- larly the foreign born. i'll New York city" the report said. instances have been found in which Noodoo specialists have attempted 10 treat various types Of mental apd. physI- cal affliction either by mail or in person. Magic charms, potions and incantations are offered for the cure of tuberculosis. malignant levers anl other diseases requiring the best of medical care"
 Plans Campaign
 pr. Shirley ". WyUnc, commits sioner of health. Was so impressed by the report that he outlined n campaign which will consist chiefly of educational work. lie pointed ont that the menace of disease 10 tha community is heightened when the sufferers refuse medical treatment and become carriers Of the maladies.
 The familiar method of the witch craft practitioner is the use of charms against disease. A middle aged Chinese, in tho advanced stages of tuberculosis. sits beside window opening on Mott street, On his l knees rests the book of the hours and the years-thc chronicle of his ancestors.
 Into it ho pens the record Of his own life, the trivial and the vita happenings Of every day, 70 that h. 1 may go up toward death leaving the benefit Of his own experience for his children.
 Pin Kills spirits
 On table q blue flame liCkcr5 and the air is heavy with incense An artificial bat rests beside the flame and occasionally the Ch cse struggles over and thrusts pins into the cloth figure. The bat epresents the spirits that spread disease and if enough pins arc thrust into it the spirits will be cNterrrinatod, the ! Chinese thinks. Across town sits an Italian yoodoo worker sending out thought waves which the mind Of the Chinese must extract from thc atmosphere and turn against the spirits.
 Investigators say ,ho scene can he duplicated in thousands of 1cnc- mcnt houses where no physician has ever penetrated, Apparently there is little hope or converting the older generation. Most Of them are immi- grants, rooted in a superstition that is as old as the cave men, and for them medicine and its progress came too late in life. too late in his- tory.