The belief of past ages in witchcraft is still entertained by many people in this (Berks) county. Hearing of several men in the city who were said to be able to give well authenticated cases of witchcraft, or “hexing,” as it is called here, your correspondent visited one of them and was told the following story:
    “Several years ago a family with whom I was well acquainted lived on Cedar street, this city, and directly opposite them on the same street lived a woman who was known to be a ‘hex’ (the Dutch for witch). There was a child born in the family of my friend. It was a beautiful child, had the sweetest disposition of any youngster I ever knew, and never cried or gave its mother any trouble at all. When the child was about three months old this old ‘hex’ came into my friend’s house, and, taking it out of the cradle, hugged and kissed it, at the same time muttering in the language in which the Bible was first written. When she left it was at once noticed that the child was as completely spotted as a leopard, and it cried continually, as though suffering great pain. It would cry at night as long as the ‘hex’ across the street remained at the window, but as soon as the witch would retire its cries would cease and it would get some rest. This state of affairs kept up for some time. The regular doctors could do nothing for the child; everybody knew the poor little thing was ‘behexed’ (bewitched), and the mother, worried nearly to death through anxiety and loss of sleep while attending the little sufferer, would not be satisfied until they sent for a witch doctor (the identical doctor still Lives in this city).

    “He came in answer to their call, but previous to his arrival had sent them a note, warning them not to speak a word to him. He wrote several words in the Ethiopian language on a piece of paper, placed it in a certain place in the Bible, and after putting the book under the child’s pillow, informed the mother that if they would refuse the ‘hex’ across the way everything she asked for her baby would get well. The same day the old ‘hex’ sent over for some trifles—I think it was for a smoothing iron or a pinch of tea—but the mother refused to let her have them, and from that moment the child commenced to get better.
    “The third night after the witch doctor had been there a big black cat came to the bedroom window and scratched to get in. The child’s father, knowing that the old ‘hex’ had sent the cat, picked up his boot, and, hurling it through the window, sash and all, struck the thing and knocked it to the ground. The fact is, when the boot struck the cat it struck the witch herself, for she had turned herself into a cat in order to got into the room at that child. The next morning the ‘hex’ came limping around and said she had fallen down stairs during the night, but she never bothered my friend’s child any more, and everybody knew well enough that the words the doctor had put in the Bible were too strong for the devil in the ‘hex.’ This, my dear sir, is a fact, and the child who was bewitched is now a man and has children of his own, and works on the Philadelphia and Reading railroad.”
    Your correspondent felt a very perceptible chill course its way up along his backbone after listening to this recital, and the old gentle man noticing that something was wrong continued:
    “You probably don’t believe in witches, but I know there are witches in this city to-day who can do just as they please with you or me. Why, they sign a contract with the devil, with a pen dipped in their own blood, and he gives them the power. I knew a man living in the neighborhood of Boyertown, in this county, who was bewitched by a man living on Tenth street, in this city, ten miles away from him. What do you think of that? The witch would come to his house in the dead hour of the night, sometimes on a horse and at other times in a big stone wagon, and no one could see him but the man he was torturing. The man’s daughter could see the window fly up when the witch came into the room, and could see and hear the window fall when he went out, but could not see the witch himself. He would sit on the poor man’s breast and hammer and pinch him dreadfully, and would keep it up nearly every night until he had him so sore that he could scarcely move around at all.

    He came to Reading one day and consulted the witch doctor, who wrote some words on a slip of paper, folded it up, and, giving the man a horse shoe nail, told him to go to a certain tree early in the morning, before sunrise, stick this nail through the paper and drive it into the side of the tree next to the sun, just far enough to hold the paper to the tree. This, he said, would hurt the witch and probably keep him away. If the witch would not stay away he was to hit the nail another tap the next morning, but was warned not to drive the nail clear through the paper or he would kill the man who was the witch. The witch continued to trouble the man, however, and when he went out to tap the nail the third morning he was so angry that, taking the ax in his hand, he struck the nail so hard that he sent it entirely through the paper.
    “Upon the instant the nail penetrated the paper he saw the form of his tormentor fall dead before him, and he went to the depot and told several parties that he had killed such and such a man in Reading that morning. They laughed at him and said he was crazy; but sure enough the witch, who was walking in his garden in this city, ten miles away, as the doctor said he would do and as the man said he had done, fell dead in his tracks just at that time. The man who killed him got well and was never troubled again.”
    The names of the parties were given in both the above cases, and the old man told his story with such an air of sincerity that after leaving him I made inquiry in the localities he had mentioned and found the opinion generally prevalent that just such things had occurred. More especially was this the case in reference to the man who was said to have dropped dead in the garden; and there are not a few in this city who would swear that it is true substantially as herein given. Witch and ghost stories, implicitly believed by those who narrate them, can be gathered by the dozen in this county. They are told by the muscular farmer lover to his buxom country sweetheart; are related to the children in euphonious Pennsylvania Dutch by their parents, and are the subject of many long arguments and conversations in the country stores.


From— Bismarck Weekly Tribune. (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]), 29 March 1889. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.