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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (May 14, 1916)
MAGAZINE SECTION SECTION SIX Pages 1 to 8 PORTLAND, OREGON, MAY 14, 1916. L", I I. ." i . ir m a .-a m . - m. a- .ar ,mr m . a n w ww a. a .. m ar m . .m mm ar s m v mwaawr w m k mm mm a m a a ar - mi -jk ffMAsm . ' . i, . . ' ' ' -.s- if f jr i . r 1 1 v - Astonishing Revival of ProsecutingActivity That ETmphasizes the Old Question, "What Is a Witch?" H Curious Design from an Old Book Showing a Witch and Her Machinery of Divination. Three Witches Pictured as Riding a Pig. Mediaeval Illustration of a Witch "Eiding Forth." 'AVE the wheels of progress turned baclc- ward? Is there a return of the conditions that once resulted In the putting of women to death for practising -witchcraft? The police of Newark. N. J, are accused of Indicating that they think so hy arresting the ReT Sarah Darling, arraigning and holding her In ball for trial as a witch. The Rer. Mrs. Darling's arrest on this charge Is not only an extraordinary event in Itself, but what Is said to be etUl much more remarkable Is the acknowledgment of the New ark police that for a year, and more they have seriously been conducting a "war on witches." For this purpose, according to report, a squad of "wizard police was organized, for the astute minds of the guardians of Newark's citizens realized that it takes a wizard to catch a witch. However that may he. the Rev. Mrs. Dar ling, who cays that she is a regularly ordained minister of a Spiritualist church, grimly realizes that it Is "up to her" to prove In court that she does not commune with evil spirits, ride a broom stick and wear a bell-crowned hat. "The Rev. Mrs. Darling Is a witch within the meaning of the statute." declares Michael Long, chief of the Newark police. "The in formation she gives out at her circles breaks up homes. One man complained- to us that his wife had become a raving maniac as a result of the things the Rev. Mrs. Darling told her. it was only after many complaints that w ar rested her. Newark has made up Its mind to put an end to witchcraft. "Last year," continued Chief Long, "forty five arrests were made In Newark for witch craft. This year we are going to run lnery body whose name appears on our list of suspects ." In addition to New Jersey, practically every other state has laws against fortune tellers, witches, wizards and the like. Prosecution Is usually based on the ground that these persons . are possessed of no supernatural powers what soever, but that they ere simply plain frauds who prey upon the superstitious fears of their patrons whose money they take without giving any real service. Persons who believe In the honest and entirely scientific plausibility of fortune telling have particularly protested against prosecutions. The belief In witches Is one of the oldest In the world. Sorcerers practised their art In the days of ancient Babylonia and Egypt In the . famous code of Hammurabi, who lived 2000 B. C urn-: m: JJtf MUM 1 it w : I fcr ... ' Fr or - sj: "" i !. I i . ,ri ' f J .- , .-'. r. i 1 Xt3 .. - i .--V i.. -r - , - The Meeting with the Witches at Shown in Shakespeare's Play, VMacbeth." Witches as Pictured in Ancient Prints. The Famous Painting by Hazlitt Showing a Woman "Oracle" Participating in a Sacrificial Bite in . Ancient OauL being a contemporary of Abraham, Is this law: "If a man has laid a charge of witchcraft upon a man and has not Justified It. he upon whom the witchcraft Is laid shall plunge Into the holy river, and If the holy river overcome him, he wbo accused him shall take to himself his bouse." . In the Bible there are several prohibitions of witches, the most famous of which is that In Exodus xx 11, 18: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." The sorcerer Is also condemned In the New Testament, as may be seen by Acts Till.. 9. . and xlil, 6. and other passages. The earliest record of a witch being Durned to death is dated 1275, the witch confessing that she fed her offspring the flesh of babes. At Toulouse, In 1335, sixty-three persona were ac cused of being ' witches, eight of whom were burned, and the others Imprisoned for life. In 1324 Petronllla de Midla was burned at Kilkenny. Ireland, by orders of the Bishop of Ossory. Some 75 years later there were wholesale witch prose cutions at Berne. Switzerland. In the United States one of the most famous recorded trials for witchcraft was that of Grace Sherwood of Princess Anne county, Virginia, who In July. 1706, was "put Into water above man's tiepth to try how she swims." According to Cod . nectlcut laws, adopted In 1642. "any one that be a witch or consulteth with a familiar spirit shall be put to death." In Massachusetts. Wlnthrop's Journal (1648) records that "Margaret Jones of Charlestown was found guilty of witchcraft and hanged." ioant Wi ILmot E.'UaGtft Witches as Named in an Ancient Book, The Witch Goes Forth. ma. A