Oak Bluffs High School - Beacon Yearbook (Oak Bluffs, MA)

Page 22 text:

20 THE BEACON THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION Alice LeVere The city of Salem in Massachusetts is famous the world over as the Witch City . This is due to an un- fortunate witchcraft delusion among the colonists which had brought on a few isolated cases of executing, par- ticularly for witchcraft, from the ear- liest days of the Massachusetts Bay settlement, in fact, from the earliest days of history, witch persecution had been known. How the delusion actually started is as follows: During the winter of 1691.- 1692, a company of young girls were in the habit of assembling at the home of the Reverend Samuel Parris, the clergyman of Salem village, which at the time included what is now Dan- vers Center, Danversport, Tapleyville, Putnamville, and parts of Danvers Plain. At these social parties, fortune telling, palmistry, necromancy and magic were practised. These young people attained considerable skill in these black arts. After a while some of the young girls began to crawl under chairs and tables, try to force their way through small holes in the Walls, and bark like dogs, and they ascribed their peculiar actions or ailments to supernatural sources. At first they acted this way in order to impress the people that they were bewitched, but gradually these actions grew upon them. The whole neighborhood near the First Church in Salem Village became in- terested at first, and finally alarmed. An examination by the village physi- cian, after which he pronounced them bewitched, sowed the seed of delusio 1 which overspread the whole settle- ment and caused the terrible tragedies of imprisonment and hanging. Matters went from bad to worse in the parsonage. The bewitched girls began to exhibit their afflictions by doing all manner of queer things dur- ing church meeting. One morning they mocked the visiting parson, the Rev- erend Disdot Lawson, While he was delivering a sermon on the arts of the devil. Public opinion all turned in one direction and the belief that these peo- ple were bewitched became universal. The people suspected of being in the possession of Satan were complained of, and the courts began to prosecute them. Among the first to be examined and imprisoned were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tibuta, an Indian serv- ant of Reverend Samuel Parris. Tibuta confessed to being possessed, and im- plicated the others by admitting that she :I 11d her husband, John Indian, had taught the children the black art. About the early part of 1692, Sir William Phipps became Governor and established a special court for trying cases of witchcraft. One of the first to be executed was Bridget Bishop. Another victim was the elderly and highly esteemed Rebecca Nurse of Sa- lem village. This old lady suffered one of the most unjust court trials in the history of Massachusetts Bay, and she was hanged in great shame. Only a few years after her death her sons and daughters established her innocence. Altogether, about nineteen people were executed during the Salem witch- craft episode, eighteen of them being hanged on Gallows Hill, and one be- ing crushed to death. Contrary to popular opinion, not one victim was burned. The delusion spread far and wide, and almost three hundred peo- ple were accused of witchcraft. Al- though the fever reached about twen-

Page 21 text:

THE BEACON 19 its foundation. We knew that the ter- rible catastrophe we had been trying to avoid for a week was a reality. lVe were all thrown against the wall and at the same time I was wrenched away from my mother. There was a terrible commotif n, lights went out, people were screaming, and i11 the darkness I tried to find my mother. Then I knew that it was hopeless, for we were trav- elling downstream at a great rate. Wzitcar was rushing in through the empty window frames. By now there was very little left of the house. An- other rush of water carried me along with it until it deposited me on what was once the roof of a hencoop. I held on till daylight, and I was then picked up by a row boat passing, which was filled with people. From that morning on, I lived a life far apart from my old one. I had trav- elled many miles that night and was in a new region. None of the occu- pants seemed to know me or pay any attention to me. The angry waters had subsided and we rowed up to the en- trance of a large brick building, that seemed to be unharmed. Here I found many more youngsters such as myself. Within the next few days they had all been claimed, except myself and another girl about my own age. A month or so later we were removed to a real children's home. Here life proved very unsatisfac- tory to both of us. I couldn't under- stand why my mother didn it come f xr me. Didn't she care enough for me to do so? I had been in the home abo it a year when I was adopted by a very wealthy young woman. I was taken from the home immediately, and I went to live i11 the most beautiful house I had ever seen. I grew up to be one of those pam- pered, typical daughters of the rich. I was in society and had everything my heart could wish for. Yet I was not so very happy. As I grew older, I realized that my mother had been killed in the flood or was yet alive somewhere. I resolved to try a11d find out about her when I came into my own money. Nothing seemed to come of my great hopes and desires. It was- n't lo11g after my resolution that I Went with some of my friends to an old mansion which had been closed for ages. About a month before, very prominent people had moved into it. They had entered into the social life of the town immediately and had asked us to take part in a tennis tour- nament they were putting on. As I passed through the grounds, I marveled at the beauty of them. Noth- i11g was cultivated. It was a typical old fashioned garden. Some way or other, I had parted from the rest of the boys and girls. I then decided that I would explore the grounds. As I rounded a corner, I stopped in amaze- me11t, for there under a spreading oak tree was tl1e realization a11d hopes of all my dreams. I knew her instantly, for she had changed very little with the passing years. Yet there was a look about her I had not remembere-1 seeing before. Her face had a wistful, patient look. Her eyes moved con- stantly as if she were seeking for someone that she never hoped to find. At her feet lay a large collie dog. She had been reading a book, but it. now lay idle in her lap. Rays of sun- light fell on her streaked hair, that had once been a beautiful golden hue. She really looked like some creature from fairyland. Around her were many old fashioned flowers, such as holly- hocks and lilies of the valley. That is where I found her, in the midst of an old fashioned garden with her two companions, one her thoughts and the other her collie dog.

Page 23 text:

THE BEACON 21 ty towns in Massachusetts and even penetrated into Maine, Salem suffered the worst eifects of it and thus it has gone down in history as the Witch Cityn. S. O. S. Wilfred Lawrence This message is for all readers of lit- erature who want a change in the sys- tem of writing books. Some day, very soon, I shall write a novel that will startle the world and show these present day petty authors a tl1i11g or two. They have been sui- focating the public with a lot of hot air and choking them with Hindi- gestible baloney and calling it lif- erature . VVhen my book is placed on the market, every reader will realize the best-sellers are trash-just that, and nothing more. The story will be a romance, of course, and in that one point it will resemble the present-day tales. In the first place, my characters will be altogether different. In books writ- ten these so-called authors, the hero- ine is young and beautiful. Her tress es may be golden, raven, or coppery, but they are always wavy or down- right curly. Her eyes may be blue, fir black, if she goes out with another man, but they are always fringed with luxurious eyelashes. When she takes a coy glance at her lover, his heart turns a flip-flop. fPardon me for the indelicacy, but so does my stomachi The heroes of such stories as these possess resemble a handsome Apollo. He is the type that girls, women, and old maids look at once, then look ai again. Villains are invariably dark anl vicious looking, with a corkscrew mus- tache. They are the trouble-makers and many times the money-makers. Of course, there will be incidental characters to speak the necessary lines when the main characters are too pre- occupied to do so, but I doubt if I shall even bother to give those bodies any consideration--heads will be quite enough! Now, as to the plot of the play or masterpiece or something-that is where I excel. Mine will be far differ- ent from any others. Oh! Time out. The telephone is ring- ing. Hello, yes, -bang. Did you hear that? The boss just fired me. I guess I committed a person- al foul, and you know something, my boss doesn't wait until you get four fouls before he throws you out. Now back to the subject which will bri11g success to me. Since I am out ol? a job, I might as well offer my book and make some competition in this racket. As I was saying, my charac- ters and their qualities, habits, and customs will be very much contrary to those commonly portrayed, and thc plot will be changed. Miss Alley fthe heroinej will meet Mr. Durgin fthe heroj at some place never before used for a setting fI have yet to find that placej, but Harry C. Dorr fthe vil- lainj appears upon the scene, and the fireworks, or battle, or baseball game, or wrestling match, if you can imag- ine such maneuvers, will begin. Of course there will be battles of wits and even iist-fights, but, in the crisis, the villain will kill the hero. In gratitude. the heroine fwho has tried her best to faint, but can 't-she had never fainted in her life, and had neglected to practice before the crisisj will con- sent to be-his sister forever and ever and even ever.