The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume], May 31, 1891, Image 9

About The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914

Image provided by: Washington State Library; Olympia, WA

                
IrHE NET AND RACKET.
badminton Has Not Driven
Tennis From Favor.
BOSSIP OF THE CHAMPIONS.
I y Mabel Cahill, the John L. Sullivan
•f the Xew York Club, and Other
i Great Flayers.
1 # #
i jriw YORK. May 25.—[Special Corre
' jpoodence.J—The tennis season of 1891 has
fairly begun, and from present appear
ances it will be the liveliest one that has
aver been known in this country. There
was a prospect earlier in the season that
badminton might supplant the older game
in favor, but every one concerned now
scouts the possibility of such a result. No
one, naturally, takes a keener interest in
the question than the makers of tennis
goods, and they report the largest advance
tale* on record. It is one of the not to be
forgotten consequences of the popularity
of lawn tennis that the manufacture and
nleof neta, rackets, lawn markers, shoes
and uniforms has become a great industry.
It is only a few years since all these goods
were imported from England, the home of
fee game; now they are practically all
Bade here, and th» business amounts to
something like $10,000,000 a year to the
trade. This is looking at the other side of
the sport, but the point of view is not an
unimportant one.
The clubs in and about New York are in
nnmfctr almost legion, and they are pre
paring busily for championship events,
mcticaliy the season begins with Decora
tion day, the month of fine weather before
that date being given np to practice play
ing. Of course, play begins earlier South.
The Washington City tournament for the
championship of the Southern states was
held in the middle of May. Tomorrow
the New York Tennis Club will hold its
spring games, and from now to the end of
the season in October there will be a
tournament every day—for not a summer
hotel of any size is without its tennis
courts, the smaJlest villages have their
clubs, and matches and return matches
t are shrewdly relied upon to keep up the
interest in the game.
Undoubtedly the success of tennis is
OLLIE CA MPBELL.
largely due to the fact that men and
women can play it together. For flirta
tion purposes it may not quite eoual the
sedate and sluggish game of croquet,
but for a judicious combination of
sport and opportunities for tete-a-tetes
its equal has never been invented.
Indeed, tennis is the ideal ladies' game.
As it requires agility rather than strength
to play tennis, there is no reason why
women should not play quite as well as
men, if it were not for the perpetual haudi
cap ot skirts. As it is, an active young
woman is about a match for a stout and
middle-aped man, with equal practice, and
some of the l>est women players can hold
their own with any but the very best men.
i his is a test not to be recommended,how
ever, as the practice of playing with one of
the other sex rather tends to break a man
up. as he is divided between his gallantry
and his desire to excel. Thus it may easily
happen that a man will show tip in better
form at the end of a season with compara
tively little practice with men than if he
had considerable careless playing with
women. Championship games are, of
course, always between players of the
•tne sex.
•Since Scars, of Boston, who was an ex
fi.>rdinary tennis player, met with a dis
cing accident, the honors of the game
Jwe rested with the Brooklyn players
Henry \V. Stocum, jr., son of General ll!
W. Slocum, the champion of iw>, and Oli
"Ollie" Campbell, the present
bolder ot the championship, both having
park in past years,
though Mr. Slocum is ;IOR a member of
P:. George's Club, of New York. There is
perhaps no place in the country where bet
ter provision is made for tennis playing on
| » large scale than at Prospect park, and
■ „ there are few days in spring or summer
when a considerable number of games are
lot going on there simultaneously.
The frequency of va ant lots in the resU
yace sections of Brooklyn rather favors
KINKY W. STOCFM. *R
information of small neighborhood clubs,
Asocial amusement rather than tine
**y the result.
Jill!! orlt Vf 3 the younc woman
f«g l f rather expected to win chief chain-
honors this summer. This is
-» Mabel K. Oahiil, of the Net York
£** lennis Club. Miss Cahill is an
- woman ami won lame in the old
nir\ at tennis tournaments before com
lhl* Bhe is a vigorous, aihletic
younp woman, with merry, iaugh
yes, ana quick, vi« -rous movements.
It4mlv r^ Sen ».' 10 ' ,^r woman's cham-
I P**nn P h 3 K " °* Will not
■**», withom ««*»»»*•
t * n l her s:s! "'
amp i° nfhll> for <*oubks. Miss
VA probabiy play in double# wiU\
SIXTEEN PAGES.
Miw Ballantine, of the New York club.
Miss Robinson, of Staten Island,
Mrs Morgan, of Short Hill*. N. J.,
the Misses Kiting. Frazer and Temple, of
Westchester county, and Miss Colby, of
Orange, N. J., are among the famous play
ers who may contert for the honors with
Miss< ah:i! and the Roosevelt sisters. Of
course, there will be dark horses, too, who
at the last moment mav appear to wrest
the leadership away from the well-known
plavers. It is always more difficult to
predict women's piaying than men's.
They have more time for practice, they
are quite as numerous, if not more so. and
they are far less likely to enter champion
ship contests than men, even if quite pro
ficient. Thus local pride may almost at
any time force to the front some splendid
player before unheard of outside of her
county. It is the peculiarity of the plav
ers of both sexes that they are at their
best while quite young and do jiotlong
retain their supremacy.
Badminton came to the front last winter
as an indoors game, for which it was well
adapted by the smallness of the court re
quired. A tennis court is 78 feet by 27
wider than an ordinary city lot and nearly
as deep. The badminton court is only 44
feet by 20, and can be recommended for a
home game where spare is verv limited.
The net is shorter and higher. The short
service line is 6 feet 6 inches from the net.
The base line is 15 feet t> inches farther
back on either side. The net itself is 16
feet long and 5 feet high in the middle.
In the play a shuttlecock is used in
stead of the white ball used in ten
nis. This is made of rubber and
feathered to steady its (light. Ordinary
tennis rackets are used instead of the ola
faehioned "battledores." The game is, in
fact, a sort of cross between lawn tennis
and the older game, and is said to be the
invention of an English officer in India,
who found the climate too hot for ten
nis. Perhaps that is the reason why old
tennis players call badminton a lazy peo-
Sle's When such sturdy at hletes as
[amihon Cary and .Stanley Mortimer and
such clever tennis experts as Miss Annie
Webb, Miss Turnure, Miss Minturn and
Miss Elsie Mitchell play and enjoy th<s
game, however, it can safely he assumed
that, there is plenty of exercise in it.
The rules of badminton are so simple
that they can be summarized in a para
graph. There is no authoritative Ameri
can body like the National Tennis Associ
ation, but the English rules are used:
The sides toss for choiceof ends or service
before the first game of a match, and change
to the other sideof the netafter each game.
The single-handed and double-handed
game consists of fifteen ares. At "13 all,"
the side which first reaches thirteen has
the option of "setting^'five; at 14 all, of
setting three. In three-handed or four-
handed jrames the game consists of twenty
one aces. First set is at 19 all; second at
20 all. A fault made by a player whose
I side is in puts a baud out; if made by a
j player whose side is out it counts an afe to
i the in side. It is a fault if the service is
I "overhand"; if the rirs-t part of the path of
: the shuttlecock is inclined downward ;if the
' service falls into the wrong court; if the ser
! vice falls short of the service line or outside
the bounding line; unless both the server's
teet are in his own court; if the shuttle
cock falls outside the bounds of the court;
if the shuttlecock does not pass between
the posts, or if it pass under or through
tiie net or touch anything except the bat
of the striker, or the top of the net ; if the
shuttlecock !>e hit twice intentionally by
tiie same player; if the shuttlecock be
! struck before it crosses the striker's side of
i the net; if the striker touch the net or its
supports with his racket or otherwise,
i The player in the right-hand court com
! mencea the game by serving to the plaver
' in the adverse right-hand oourt; if tfiat
leaver return the shuttlecock, it must be
; hit : ack by the in side and then returned
by the out side till a fault is made by one
j side or the other. The game is continued
, in this manner, count being chanced after
j each ace ;s made. The service lines nre
disregarded alter the serve is returned,
j Iho innings always begin with the player
j in the right-hand court, and serves arc
i made alternately from each court into the
one d. t.; iia.lv opposite. In two. three
and tour-handed games, the side begin
ning a game has only one hand in its nrst
innings if there are two a side, and only
two hands if there are three a side. Inatwo
h and el game only the ptrson served to may
take a serve; not so in a three or four
handed game. The service must not begin
till the opponent is ready, but any attempt
to return is taken to indicate readiness.
Any unforseen or accidental hindrance
may be given by a "let" bv the umpire on
appeal from either side "before the next
service commences or before the players
have changed sides at the end of a game.
A "let" cannot be claimed it" an attempt
I ha* been made to strike the shuttlecock
Pitiably the next winter there will be a
! badminton association iu this country r or
the new game may he taken under the
l government of the tennis association.
Magistrate (severely^—Why 'id
drive through the crowded thu fhfarea
at the rate of t:!teen miles an htur? I>o
you tlunk that the streets belong o you?
Culprit (earnestly protesting >-B_it,yg(Ur
honor, 1 drm a beer wagon.
PLAN OF A BADMINTON OOt'P.T.
A GAME OF BADMINTON
Fightint for Ills Hi. *• t
New York Sun
THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCEE.
LIFE IN AUSTRALIA.
Described by Frank P. Slavin,
the Champion Pngrilist.
A LAND WORTH LIVING IN.
Food la Cheap, All Sports Flourish, and
When Ton Buy a Drink Yon Help
Yourself as You Do Here.
A find that Americans that do not travel
much and who do not associate with those
who do travel, have very queer ideas about
Australia. It is a country so far away
from the I nited States that such people
seem to think the natives are a peculiar,
half-civilized kind of people; that they
live in the woods or the mountains, and
altogether lead a rough and rather preca
rious kir\d of existence. Of course this is
not the fact.
The Australian colonies are seven in
number, and comprise Australia and the
islands of Tasmania, New Zealand and
part of New Guinea. The total area in
square miles is over 3,000,000,
while the area of the king
dom of Great Britain is only about
120,000 square miles. We have all kinds of
a climate there. In South Australia the
weather is something like what you
have in New York; in Victoria,
the principal city in that section, it
is very cold and bleak in the win
ter time, but lovely during the summer
season. In New South Wales the sum
mers are dry and hot. Up North, in Cook
town, for instance, it is as hot in the
winter season as it would he in New York
during the summer season. But it is a
dry heat that does not make you feel
uncomfortable. On the eastern coast we
get three months snow in the year.
QUITE "FLY."
Certain parts of Australia are quite wild,
and we have but few large towns, but
such as they are the inhabitants are quite
as "fly" and up to the times as the resi
dents of London or New York.
Melbourne is the principal city of Aus
tralia and is visited by many Americans,
who say the place reminds them
very much of San Francisco; others,
again, say it is a good deal like
Chicago. The town is only a little
over forty years old and the rush
of people from Great Britain and other
countries and the great industry of sheep
and cattle raising has caused it to be filled
with a mixed nationality, but I think it
all the more interesting on that account.
Briefly here are some peculiarities about
life in Melbourne:
Cabs not being much in demand, you
can ritie to some places for only six cents
in the day time and twelve cents after 12
o'clock at night. The real Australians
live mostly inland; they are thin, big
boned, red-faced and have long hair. They
eat a great deal of meat. The people, as a
rule, are not as dressy as the Londoners
or the New Yorkers. You couldn't tell
by a man's dress to what class of life he
belonged. There are some, however, who
are quite swell in their attire, and every
man who can afford it wears a "bell-top
per," which is the colonial name for a tall
hat.
Workmen belong to their labor unions
and only work eight hours a day. The
people are fond of amusement, and the
theaters are as good as they are here.
There are very few boarding-houses, and
they are only for the accommodation of
single men. Married couples have to
board at the hotels or keep house.
• HARACTERISTICS,
All the small taverns in the country have
a quoit ground near the building. This is
a sport of which the stockmen and the
workers in the sheepfolds are particularly
fond and they will play it for hours to
gether. The restaurants in the cities are
good and cheap; you can get a good broiled
steak, vegetables, bread and butter for 25
cents. We have the finest temperance cof
fee houses in the world. The "Federal
Coffee Palace" and the "Grand Hotel" are
remarkable enterprises of this kind. The
Australians are very fond of tea; whether
you live in the city or the wildest part of
the country you will lind the "billy" (as
stockmen call the teapot) always in use.
Colonial beer is weak stuff and English
bottled beer is quite expensive, being from
37 to .">0 cents a bottle. Whisky, gin and
brandy are about U! cents a glass, and a
man can do as he does in New York—pour
out his "nobbier" (or drink) from the gen
eral bottle. The verandas attached to
houses and stores are very useful in keep
ing the heat off pedestrians.
Forty years ago, during the gold dig
ging excitement, there used to be some
queer stories told about the scarcity of
women in the colony, which was very
much in the condition of your California.
They say that parties of gold diggers re
turning from the mines would stop at a
cabin which was known to be occupied by
a married man and demand that he'should
bring forth bis wife. The man would have
to comply with the request; but the party,
though it was a pretty rough one. would
not offer to do any harm. They would
look admiringly upon the woman," no mat
ter how homely she was. viewing her as a
sort of curiosity, a bit of human bric-a
brac, and then they would present the
husband with a few ounces of gold for the
pleasure he, or rather his wife, had af
orded them, and resume their journey to
the coast.
There are plenty of women in Australia
now, though' they are naturally to be
found in the cities. But theherdmanor
miner who works in the rougher part of
the country can nearly always get a wife
to share his fortunes if he is a decent sort
of a chap, and will come to town after her.
HORSE RACING FUTRISHES,
In the cities the sporting life is about
the same in Australia as it is in London or
New York. Horse racing there, as here,
is a very popular amusement, and the con
tests are always done by the watch, the
horses running to time as they do here. I
think oar race courses are far better than
those of England or America. Our tracks
are level, and the managers aim to cater
for the amusement of the general public.
At the race course at Melbourne 230.0U0
P*ople can l>e seated, nh ile if they get an
audience of 80,000 or 90.000 in England
they think they are doing well.
You can go from Melbourne to the race
tra -k, about two miles and a half from the
city, for $4. which includes a seat on the
grand stand. In England it costs £J 10s.
Thousands view the ra>es from a hill just
back of the grand stand, while the "flat"
is free. As many as forty horses some
times start in one race. and the purse will
amount to $70,000. The Australian Jockev
Club was established as long a»o as
and its rat e course is very prettily situated
about two and a half miies from the heart
of Sydney. It is oval :n shape and a mile
and "a quarter around. There are three
handsome stands, and the number in at
tendance on each race day ;s about 25.0001
K *N< \KOO KI STINT.
Awav from the cities hunting furnishes
a great deal of sport, i tie country abounds
in itaiisraroos. which are tine eating, being
ciear of fat except about the tail, tasting
much like venison. The favorite dish is
what is caifr-'i a ■"steamer," This is made
of steaks an i chopped tail with a few
slices of sait pork, slewed with a very
small quantity ot w*ter for a couple of
hours ji a close vessel. Ihe early fillers
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, SUNDAY, MAY 31, 1891.
used to drive these animals back from the
settlements into the forests yet unex
plored.
There are several varieties of the kanga
roo. The forest kangaroo is of a gray
color, has long fur and inhabits the forest.
The walaroo is black, with shaggy fur. and
lives in the hills. The red kangaroo has
smooth, short, close fur of a reddish color,
looks very much like a sea otter and lives
in the forests. Each of these varieties,
when full-grown, weighs 200 pounds or
more. The another variety,
weighs about sixty pounds and inhabits
the bushes and the* broken hilly country.
The rock kangaroo lives in the rockiest
portions of the mountains, and the kanga
roo rat is no larger than a small rabbit and
lives in the hollows of trees. It hops over
the ground very swiftly and furnishes good
sport in the chase.
LOTS or SPORT.
There is the Tasmanian devil kangaroo,
which is sometimes seen in the menager
ies. It does not take kindly to captivity,
but dimply gets in the corner of a cage and
stays there. There is a breed called the
zebra wolf, which has a dozen or more
stripes on its back. This kind makes ter
rible ravages on sheepfolds and poultry
yards. It lives in the most out of the way
places, and you rarely find it in captivity.
When chased the kangaroos hop on their
hind legs, rushing onward at an amazing
rate, wagging their tails as they leap,
which, by the way, serve them as a sort of
balance and keep them from tumbling
over. They jump over ditches and down
gullies a hundrea feet deep. They fly over
the brushwood and clear everything but a
wire fence, which brings them up "with a
round turn." Sometimes they are cap
tured by being driven into a Y-shaped pad
dock, or section of enclosed land. They
are very much given to snorting, holding
in their breath for some time and then
blowing it out, making a great noise.
At certain seasons of the year they are
very numerous near the water. They
come up to the shore in perfect shoais and
get stranded in the shallow streams, where
they really "tumble over each other," and
are very easy game to capture. Some huu
ters train their dogs to go in and fetch
them out. These are the smaller kind of
kangaroos and weigh only from eight to
twelve pounds; they are very delicate eat
ing, particularly the roe, wnich is quite
large and which, speaking from the culin
ary point of view, would make a good
"side partner" for the shad roe found in
your New York markets.
POWERFUL KICKER.*,
In hunting the kangaroo in the field the
dogs seize them generally by the hip and
throw them over; then they fasten upon
their throats and quickly finish them.
Few dogs care to attack a large kangaroo
singly; some of the two hundred weight
variety will often go hopping away with
three or four dogs hanging upon him. and
there have been cases where tney have car
ried a man a considerable distance.
When a dog gets very close to
a large kangaroo the animal will sit on its
haunches and fight the dog and exhibit a
great deal of what followers of the "manly
art"' call As the animal fights
the dog it will keep turning round and
round so as always to face him, and keep
pushing him off with his forepaws. Some
times it will seize him quickly and hug
him to death like a bear, or rip him open
with the long, sharp claw on its powerful
hind leg. Large kangaroos frequently cut
and kill dogs with this terrible weapon,
which will tear out the bowels at a single
kick.
The large kangaroo is a dangerous ani
mal even for man to approach when at
hay. Old kangaroo hunters immediately
hamstring them when thrown to prevent
injury to themselves or the dogs. The
native Australian hunters give them a
heavy blow over the loins, which paralyzes
their hind legs. They are very keen
scented, and can tell the presence of a hu
man being at a distance of four miles.
AUSTRALIA* PEAKS.
But there is plenty of other game besides
kangaroos in Australia. Bear hunting is
enjoyed by some, though they are very
small fellows, and comparatively harm
less. They climb trees sixty or seventy
feet high with the agility of a monkey.
Hunters often kill them with a club. They
have thick hides and bushy fur, and their
skins are considered valuable, though they
are very difficult to remove. Opossums
are plentiful in the bush region; they
come out from the hollows of the trees on
moonlight nights, when you hunt them
with a keen-scented terrier. You have to
"moon them," as the bush men call it,
which means that you mustn't fire at
them until they are on a line with the
moon, as otherwise you might miss your
aim. The skins are very valuable.
One of the great drawbacks to hunting
life are the tlies. You have to wear a veil
or you will be eaten up with the nasty in
sects. They are like the ordinary house
fly, though there is one poisonous variety
which raises a bad swelling. The ants,
which are quite as numerous, are just as
bad; when they find no one to sting thev
indulge in regular "set-tos" among them
selves, fighting with great desperation,
like game cocks. In the wild regions you
can lind the laughing jackal, a clumsv
noisy creature, but a great enemy to tfie
snake, and as there are as many snakes in
Australia as they tell us there used to be
in Ireland, the jackal is bound to lie really
useful and is protected bvthe government
The animal jumps about a snake until it
can get a clinch on its neck, when the rep
tile is quickly dispatched.
TESTS ANP GAME.
Snakes are very plentiful in the wood
land; they hide in the piles of wood, and
though they attack men at certain seasons
of the year, the woodmen become as used
to them as we do to mosquitoes and kill
them on sight with a hatchet.
Every one knows that Australia suffers
from the rabbit pest—hares we call them
over there. What your Artemus Ward
would call their "numerousness" may be
accounted for from the fact that the breed
ing by one rabbit during the year will re
sult in 3,»X> of the species.
The soldier birds "are curious animals,
who seem to have got that name because
they act as sentinels, and by their cries
warn other birds of the approach of the
sportsman.
In the interior, along the rivers, wild
duck and blue crane can be found. The
wild turkeys shot on the plains weigh from
twelve to twenty-rive pounds. They are
found on the s'heep-grazing lands and
cattle farms. They are very shy, and the
hunter generally" approaches "them on
horseback or in a buggy, of which they do
not seem to be atraid, Because they are so
much among the cattle.
Turkey hunting is very good sport, and
only an Australian knows whatajuicv
mealthe bird will make. I'p in the mining
districts there is considerable cock-nght
ing, though it is against the law, but a
great deal of money changes hands when
such events occur. In the large cities
there are no faro banks, but there is a
great deal of gambling with dice, the
favorite game being hazard.
Fkask P. Slavis.
MORTALITY.
How many times have I lain down at night,
And longed to fall into that gull" oi sleep,
\Vnose dreamless deep
Is haunted by no memory of
The weary world above:
And thought myself most miserable that I
Must impatiently he
long upon the brink.
Without the power to sink
Into that nothingness, and neither feel nor
think:
How many times, when day brought back the
light
After the taernful oblivion
of such unbroken slumber.
And onf< again began to cumber
My soul with her forgotten t-ares and sorrows.
And show m iou* perspective the gay marrows,
stretching monotonously on.
Forever narrowing, but never done.
Have I not loathed to Live again and said
It would have been far better to be dead.
And yet somehow, I know cot why,
i.emsuued ainud to 4.c.
-pr. D. Hwcm.
WITCHES IN VIRGINIA
I ncanny Creatnres Among the
Alleghany Mountains.
FOLK LORE FULL OF POETRY.
The Country p e „pi e rear Withered
Ha*a Reputed to Fractiee the Black
Art—Examples of Their Power.
T may seem in
credible that
If many of the su
j|7 *J 1\ perstitions of the
/CTolKtffc wv colonial times
B^ sur '^ ve " lt ' ie
ml l' e f 3 l hat are com
mon among the
white folks of the
region. Here
anions the Alle-
, » tliC
ghames "witchcraft celebrates p»ie He
cates' offerings," and within easy reaching
distance of Fincastle there are a number
of withered hags, who, less than a century
ago, would have been burned at the stake
for the black arts they are supposed to
practice. They are reputed to be
witches, and to meet one of them at mid
night would appall the bravest inhabi
tant. At least two of these women belonged
to fine families in the long ago and were
noted for their beauty and their jewels. In
the olden time witchcraft was not confined
to the Puritans of New England. Princess
Anne Court House, a little village southeast
of Richmond, Va., witnessed the ducking
of Grace Sherwood in the waters of Lyn
haven bay for witchcraft. The belief in
witches has never died out in this vicin
ity. A favorite name of the Virginia witch
is Sally, due to the fact, probably, that
one Sally Slate achieved great fame in this
region years ago through her infernal arts.
She was guilty of many ugly tricks before
RALLY FRIDDLY.
she turned old Csrsar— her neighbor's
hired man—into a horse, and went forag
ing upon bis brawny back. lie was a
strange negro from Georgia.
He had come into the country one day
and been employed as blacksmith by a re
spectable farmer. He had never heard of
Sally Slate.
He had never seen her queer little old
house up under the tulip trees.
Put the very night he arrived at his new
home he was visited by her. so he de
clared when daylight came. "Bress
Gawd, massa," said he in relating his ad
venture, "an old 'oaman, wit red beard an'
a hump on her back came to me las' night.
'Git up,'she says, an'up I hopped. Den
she straddled my back, an' I went
a pacin' off sech as I never seen
no hos do afore. She rode me into
a co'ntiel, and we didn't stop for no
fence, but trabbled up a shaft o' moon
light. She tilled a valler bag wit corn, and
den made me kerry off her an' de co'n to a
little house up vander, whar a whole yard
ful o' black cats meow-ed us a welcome.
Den she gim me a slash wit a blacKsnake
whip an' ses 's'cat,' an' I tuck to my heels
an' paced home. Yoh can't spec' me to
work today, massa, I'se too fagged out."
Of course, he was allowed holiday, and
the whole neighborhood took up his story
with profound belief, and now repeat it
with awe and trembling, though Sally
Slate has long since entered the body of
her own black cat.
Lidy Hughes, a noted witch, yet lives,
in a destitute condition, at the county
poorhouse. She has a son, moderately
well-to-do, but disclaiming her because of
her witchcraft.
She also nas been shot with a silver
bullet, shot by proxy, for the death of a
cow. By proxy? Yes. Her neighbor
drew upon paper, with juice of the p'eoon
root, and with the art of a skilled mount
aineer, indeed—Lidy Hughes' portrait.
This he tacked upon a beech tree in the
woods where the cow died. And, upon
shooting the portrait with a silver bullet,
Lidy next day appeared very lame in the
hip-joint.
She is lame yet from the silver bullet.
I asked her how she had killed the cow,
after her own confession to it, in which
she owned to having league with super
natural powers.
'•I didn't kill thet heifer." she said. "I
nuvver even seed her; but I'se pirty cheer
the thruth when I ses it died from lack o'
belly-timber. It nuvver hed a haight; tu
eat all winter long. Yea, thet's jest about
the thruth."
Sometimes her evil genius gets angry
with her. as it did when she stirred a soap
kettle not long ago. The matron of the
infirmary left her in charge of the kettle,
which was boiling at its highest out under
the sycamore trees on the creek bank.
For a few minutes all went well, and the
soap did its best to odorize the country.
Then suddenly, the witch was heard to
yell, and upon running to her, it was found
that the kettle, tirestones and all the ap
paratus was sizzling in the bottom of the
creek, while old Lidy cried with all a
witch's agony that she was burned, burned.
There was not a drop of hot soap on her
clothing. The matron assured me with all
the candor she could summon th3t Lidy
positively had no sign of a burn.
Yet, her back and limbs were badly in
jured.
Even the animals on the poor farm are
reported as afraid of Lidy.
£he can scatter a wnole flock of sheep in
a held by merely standing in the cabin
door, and pointing her oaken cane at them
half a mile away.
The paupers fear her more than ueatn.
The * hole county can testify to a strange
power she possesses and to the peculiar m
liupnce she has over the ignorant.
She gets on verv well however. The
matron told me that Lidy always bad
crtam and butter, when nobody else could
have it; food that she particularly en
joyed.* This s«ras si range because the
olti woman is bed-ridden now. It may ue
explained, however, by the tupposiuon
that some one of her more able-bodied
\ictims procured such dainties for her
clandestinely.
These \ irginia witches are not like the
misty-robed creatures of Irvine's artistic
, aust, who are beautiful, ridine through
the storm and gathering around the blaz-
l n ®? caldron, in garments of moonlight,
fotled bv the scarlet Mephisto.
The irginia witches are only poor,
scant-garbed, hunger-crazed creatures.
1 hey are usually of bearded chins and
otherwise hideous. That they posssess
power unusual to the human being is with
out doubt. Perhaps it is, after all, an un
developed. unconscious germ oflthe occult
science, yet to be explained away.
But here is one illustration that scarcely
comes under any science yet named. Sally
Fnddly, living on Pott's creek. Alleghany
county, furnishes her neighborhood with
a striking story. It is rather hard to say
that the story is believed, but so it is, for
the credulity of the mountaineer, in cer
tain directions, is altogether limitless.
Sal!y Friddly keeps behind her closet
door a tow-linen towel. It has hung there
for forty years, all told.
Now. when Sally Friddly wants a neigh
bor's cow to yield to her own milk pail,
she puts into said pail a silver dollar—it
SALLY SIMPSON, WITCH OF THE THREE WALKI7TH.
may be the long-lost dollar of 1804. Then
she goes to the tow-linen towel and repeats
some such jargon as this:
"The milk for her,
The cream for me.
Saw, Brownie, saw."
Or "Saw, Daisy," or any name her neigh
bors' cows may possess.
She always gets the cream! She is very
considerate and does not take milk from
one cow oftener than once in every two or
three weeks. This enables everybody to
fare alike.
There are a great many people whom I
know—both white and colored—who never
go to bed on a windy night without first
sprinkling salt around their beds. This
keeps the witches out. Another protec
tion is to set up a knife, fork and spoon at
the head of the bed; and then, so say the
sufferers, one can see the witch that visits
one and tell exactly who it is. Placing
bent pins in the track of a reputed witch is
another method of proving witchcraft. If
upon returning in the same tracks she
limps, then the pins have struck home in
their uncanny mission, and she is a witch.
There is one advantage in being a witch
now rather than a witch a hundred years
ago. Then one was tried, ducked or
burned. Now one is feared, respected,
pampered, appeased; and, in some in
stances, actually supported by their vic
tims.
Such is Sally Friddly.
In the case of Grace Sherwood, the pio
neer witch of Virginia, one jury of women
searched her body for signs of witchcraft.
The names of this famous jury I will
copy down for the benefit of their possible
posterity.
"Eliza Barnes, forewoman; Sarah Nor
ris, Margt. Watklns, Hannah Dimiss,
Sarah Goodaerd, Mary Burgess, Sarah Ser
geent, Winniford Davis, Ursula Henly.
Ann Brights, Exable Waplies, Mary
Code."
The woman was found to be somewhat
peculiar, and her jury foreswore a second
examination. She was brought forth at
every court for more than a year—eighteen
months—because no second "jury of women
could be obtained to examine her.
At her own suggestion she was tried by
water, Luke Hill and uxor still preferring
their charge against her. The old record
runs thus; "Whereas Grace Sherwood be
ing suspected of witchcraft have a long
time waited ffor a flit upportunit ffor a
ffurther exammacon A by her consent it
approbaron of ye court it is ordr; yt. ye.
Sherr. take ye. sd. Grace fortwith A But
her into above mans, debth, A try her how
she swims, therein, always having care to
peserve her life from drowning A as soon
as she comes out. he request as many
antient and knowing weamen as possible
to search her carefully for all * * * not
usual toothers; and yt. as they find ye
same, "to make report on oath to "ye truth
thereof to ye Court, and flurther it is or
dered yt. som women be requested to *hift
her A serch her before she goe into ye
water yt: she carry nothing about her to
cause any ffurther serspicion."
The court went in boats and berlins to
witness this ceremony. To the horror of
ail present, she swam the waves of Lvnha
ven bay and was then taken to jail and
placed in irons—"to be brought toaffuture
trvall there."
The stories of modern witches are legion;
and thev are much more tangible pictures
than those of Queen Ann's reign.
Albert Lynch, a respectable and reliable
colored man, tells of a night in a lonely
old field schoolhouse, where a witch held
an orgy over his body and called in to her
assistance a queer ana curious community
of unknown creatures, that danced by the
light of fox-fire, and at the first roulade
from the chanticleer, the witch and her
retinue skedaddled up the wide old chim
ney mouth ! We C3n explain this by call
ing it a dream, or the workings of a rest
less. undisciplined brain.
But how can we explain the fact that in
one district a woman declares the witch of
another "won't allow her butter to come,"
*E«. *OLASD.
or her life in other channels to run
smoothly ? How explain the fact that a
witch declares certain things trill happen
and a year later they do happen
Witches can nearly always name the
cob-thief of a neighborhood! They can
trace anvthing stolen from a dull axe to
a eo:d ring. In early life they have, as
far as I can learn, been subject to epileptic
That a woman of this kind has a strange
influence over her fellow -men ignorant,
unlettered, undisciplined though they be.
cannot be denied any niorp than it can be
explained. She grows up with the power.
She makes prophecies and they are veri
fied.
Sometimes she is dubbed crazy quite
eariv in life, and the stigma clings to her.
Ann Hotel, lorsieily Aan Croft,haa been
a famous character in the county for
thirty years. She is still a vonng woman.
She professes to have powers instilled in
her from hirth by a witch mother. Sh®
has epileptic tits, talks with a drawl and a
na«<al whine, and emphasizes her words in
a peculiar manner.
She was a casper's daughter, horn in this
county—Boteturt—and as a girl worked in
the family of one very respectable, if not
learned, old gentleman—Moore by name.
The substantia!, nnpainted old" Dutch
house, tilled with curious old books and
furniture, among which were German
black letter volumes and a valuable hall
clock with chimes —proved a tempting
home to the house girl, Ann Croft. So,
in the hope of retaining it during her nat
ural life, she bewitched Mrs. Moore—so
the story goes—and in a very short time,
married the gray old man, then about 00
years of age.
She was at that time about 19.
Her fame as a fortune teller and witch
was then wonderful.
Her enemies said that she inflicted the
troubles she foretold; her friends that she
was a surprising medium through which
the future revealed itself. She undoubt
edly hit the truth in many instances.
For example, she happened to be at a
lady's house in her travels, and upon
opening her book declared that a coffin
appeared between her lines. Her hearer
was visibly affected because one of her
sons was away at war.
"Xoj" said Ann, divining her thoughts,
"he will not die in battle. He will choke
to death.
There was hut one wny to do this, so
thought his mother. He would be cap
tured and hanged as a spy.
Despite the dictates of her reason, she
grieved for her son. A month later she
heard that he had died in a Southern hos
pital of diphtheria!
They say this is only one of a thousand
instances that have verified her predic
tions. For my own part. I could never re
member the fortune she rehearsed for my
benelit. When she struck a truth in past
events I was not surprised, because here,
as in all small towns, everybody's past is
his neighbor's to remember; and I felt
sure some one had talked to her before her
visits to me.
She is still in great demand as a fortune
teller, chiefly for amusement, with the
youne. She is very lavish with her lovers
for all who seek them, and many a quarter
finds its way into her pocket.
But she seems to be a real oracle for a
certain class who seek her whenever they
lose an article, and she invariablv discov
ers it for them. A poor man lost "his coat.
He could illy afford such a loss, for he had
no other. All through the summer it was
searched for. and when fall came and he
AVNE HOT SI.-
felt the need of it. he walked a few miles to
hear what Ann could tell him about it.
"It hangs in a dark place, upon a knife
stuck in the wall," she read from her won
derful book.
f'pon renewed search it was found at the
house of his sister-in-law, and sure enough
it hung upon the butcher knife behind the
closet door. The sister-in-law had left it
there when she went from home the spring
before.
The incident is vouched for bv the par
ties interested. All these small things,
homely and unimportant as thev are, yet
swell her reputation and keep ner in de
mand.
But there's an evil side of her.
It is a most uncomfortable creature, in
deed, who is so unfortunate as to offend
her.
Do as he will he cannot forget it and the
end always shows him making her some
present.
When she tells a fortune she begins by
turning the book in her hands three or
four times, and opens it at random. She
then gazes with a burning intensity, while
the veins swell in her temples and her
eyes become inflamed and tearful. H"r
mouth twitches and verj slowly she chants
her wonderful message.
Her book is a charmed one.
If she leaves it. and one barely touches
it, she tells one immediately upon her re
turn.
Now, one rcallv curious thing is this:
No person, it seems, can ever remember
what is in the book.
Having long made her a study, since
early childhood. I have never lost an op
portunity of looking into that book. lam
under the impression that it is a Sabbath
school edition of some American tract
work or » condensed form of Baxter's
"Saints' Rest."
She professes to read between the lines
and violently opposes anyone opening the
book. Whatever it is it inspires some
wonderful revelations about simple folk.
Her husband died after a fpr years, and,
bv some quirk in the settlement, she lost
all the property. She declared her dead
husband toid her. through the powers sue
possessed, to dispose of it.
"He came every night," she told n.e,
"and said he could not rest in his grave
until every book and stick of furniture was
gone."
So the grand old books were given away
—some were burned. The beautiful elewk
that had chimed out its notes in the
"Faderland" and in the old mansion for
more than a century was sold for a five
dollar greenback! And then the court
came in for a turn, and Ann lost the
weather-beaten house.
But she did not mourn a homeless widow
long. She found and married a tramp
Frenchman, Eugene Hotel, who threatens
to return to an amabU rrure in France,
every time he gets mad at her.
She claims to call up the dead inspirit
term. Upon one ocassion she and tlie
despicable her husband, were refused
entertainment at a county house. She
repaired to the little church near the house
and held an orgy all nightlong, which was
witnessed by the terntied inmates of the
house, they declaring that the graves
yawned anil the night was peopled with
ghosts. They were onlv too glad to have
her at breakfast, smiling her baneful
smiles and appeased. Ann lives now
about four miles from Fincastle, and she
visits the village every summer. If not a
welcome visitor, she is a humored one,
and is usually paid for the guesses she
makes, and which few realiy like to listen
to. so near the truth are they.
Mrs Koland, connected *ith very re
spectable people, and now old and feeble,
has been for year 3 considered a witch.
Ignorant people so consider her. Others
say she is a living representative of his
dark and awful ma jest v. She is intolera
bly wicked in a church-going, dress
worshipping community. For years she
lived iri an uglv house on Main street
alone: and yet s'he talked incessantly to
long departed friends. She has been
wealthy; and her people are able to keep
her out of the poorhoose; yet, it is said,
she who once robed in silk and ieweis an 1
possessed slaves to murder if she desired,
will die in the conntv almshouse. Th«
reason for this is that she is a witch. She
has suffered; she is a disappointed, child
less. helpless old woman : and the strange
luntintud on page l' r
( PAGES 0 TO 16. )
PEOPLE OF MEXICO.
Frank Carpenter's Observations
in Our Sister Republic.
NINETEENTH CENTURY AZTECS.
Bote* and Strawberries th* Tear ROD AD
-The Great Plateau The Orient
SILAO. Mexico, May 2a—[Special Corns
pondence.j—One hundred thousand Amer
icans will spend at least $100,000,000 in
Europe this year in sight-seeing. They
will rush from one part of the continent
to the other, carrying a little America
along with t|em, and arill have their 200,*
•»»( eyes worn out with picture galleries
and cathedrals, and their 200,000 legs wtH
limp from the effects of their tramp. Thetr
100,000 stomachs will be turned inside out
at least twice by the billowv Atlantic, and
their 100,000.000 of dollars will be largely
spent in discomfort and discontent.
Europe they will find to be no
longer a foreign country. The tourist
has taken its picturesqueness out
of it; and the customs of its people are al
most the same as ours. The most foreign
countries in Christendom can be novr
reached in a Pullman sleeper, and the only
water that needs to be crossed is the
ragged litte river known as the Rio Gramie.
Mexico is a land of different civilization
from ours. Its people are a people in
themselves, and I hud it one of tlie strang
est countries of the world. It is l.ws
known in guide book literature than any
country in Europe, and it is land of won
ders and a continuously changing kaleid
coscope ot strange things of both man and
nature.
We know very little of Mexico. Fres
cott gave us a picture of the country in
the time of the Montezumas. Passing
travelers have wri'ten the impressions
that came to them while looking out of
express trains going at the rate of forty
miles an hour, and we have a hazy idea of
the republic as sort of a tail to the I'nited
States. The truth is that the country ia
an empire in itself, and just what sort of \
an empire and how much it is worth, even
its own citizens do not know. It is sup
posed that there are about 1i,n00,000 peo*
pie in the republic, but they have never
been accurately counted, and" the most of
th»-m are of a character and race about
which the world knows nothing. The
men known as Mexicans are the ruling
class, and these are numbered by thou
sands instead of millions. The
real people of Mexico are the Az
tecs, millions upon millions of
whom have not a drop of Spanish
blood in them, and many of whom poa«
sess no element of nature in common
with the Spaniards, the half-breeds or
with their civilization. Most of these In
dians speak Spanish, hut they have their
own tongues as well, and it is said ther»
are at least one hundred different dialects
used by them in different parts of Mexico.
In some parts of this country you will find
nothing bat these Indians, and Senator
Hearst, a year or so ago, traveled over
some of the back districts of Mexico,
where be was th« firnt white man the peo
ple had ever «een. They regarded him as
a great curiosity, carried him on their
shoulders for miles and delighted in doing
him honor.
The word Indian gives no proper idea of
these Aztecs of the nineteenth century.
They are nothing like our Indians in ap
pearance or civilization. They are as ad
vanced as the lowest classes of many parts
of Europe, and they have manners and a
civilization peculiarly their own. They
have shown themselves possible of great
development, and some of the most strik
ing men in Mexican history have come
from them. Juarez was an Indian;
Hidalgo was an Indian: and the president
of Mexico today, Senor Diaz, has some In
dian blood in his veii.s. The congress of
Mexico is largely made up of the descend
ants ol the Aztecs, and it is believed hy
many that the future possibilities of Mex
ico are to come from this race. The pure
Spaniards of Mexi«-o are few, and they and
the people of mixed Indian and Spanish
blood, make up, it is said, less than one
fourth of the whole population. Still it it
from them that the whole country has
been judged in the past, and it remains to
be seen what the influence of railroads ami
the consequent development will have on
the masses.
The best part of Mexico has not been
prospected as yet by the miners. A min
ing engineer who has been travelling in
the southern states of the country, tells
me that the great mines of the future lie
in the south rather than in the north.
Still the north has been worked for apes,
and gold rind silver are turned out there
by the millions of dollars' worth ewry
year. Even the northern mining regions
are comparatively little known, and Col
onel Bivins, a well-known American
miner who owns valuable property in the
state of Ouanahuato, tells me that he has
obtained a concession for a Philadelphia
syndicate to some wonderfully rich bit
unknown gold territory on the Western
coast of the country. The agricultural
resources of Mexico are as little known
and have been as little tested as its mines,
and there is enough untitled land here to
feed the whole l T nited States if it were
cultivated. Just now coffee planting is
being largely undertaken and new sugar
and coffee rieids are being planted in a
number of the states.
Americans know but little of the Mexico
of the present. They wonld consider it an
evidence of ignorance if a Mexican had &
never heard of the name of any one of the $
United States, but ninety-nine Americans
out of one hundred cannot name without
looking at the geography five of tha
twenty-seven states which make up thia
great republic, and the majority of them
look upon the whole country a.* about a*
large as one of our medium-sized states.
The fact is. Mexico is one-lifth us large as
the United States, including Alaska, and
it is six times as big as Great Britain. It is
more than three tunes as large as Ger
many. and you could lo*e three countries
as big ;w France inside of it. Across tha
top of it. where like a great horn
it is fastened to the United States,
it is ns long as Indianapolis is
distant from New York city, and a Una
drawn from the root of the born at Cali
fornia eatacoruered across it to its tip ax
Guatemala, wonld be as Ion? as the dis
tance from New York to l>enver. I his
horn is al>out 130 miles wide at the bot
tom or tip. and about !<OO miles wide at its
roots where it joins on to us. fn its *ur*»
it embraces tne Gulf ot Mexico, and the
Pacific ocean washes it# other side. It is
not a smooth horn by any means. Great
mountains lie all a>ong its top, and this
top is a vast rolling table-land, the most or
which is a mile above ths sea. I had
imagined this great Mexican plateau
which runs from the north to the sooth
throughout the entire country be tiat.
It is rolling and is made up of desert
wastes, rich valleys and of mountain,
which have for the past 200 years been
furnishing a ereat part of the gold and
silver of the aurkL
Mex'co is a land of good-sized cities. Its
capital, which is away at the south, has
more titan 3DO.W inhabitants. Guarfa
lahara has lOP.Mtf), ami there are a number
of town*, the naiues of which we prac-
la tli« Occident.