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THEIR CHARMS AND MAGIC SPELLS in Demand by Lovern and Maters, New York Sun Sensational Correspondence from Reinholdsville, Lancaster county. A few miles across the country from here, in the barren hills near the old Dunk ard Cloister, is the unpretentious cabin of Dame Barbara Fischer. Her reputation as a woman who works wonders by mys terious charms, spells, potions, and pray ers is of wide extent. She is sural in stature, ared and gray, yet keen, sharp, bright and thoroughly independent. She will allow no one to to encroach upon her rights, and a short time ago the attention of the entire community was directed to a serious misunderstanding she had with her son, who charged Danny Fischer with having played a prank on a pet animal of his. She indignantly denied that she had interfered with his dog, and had never caused the dog to chase his tail until he dropped dead with exhaustion. The old woman had her friends and so did the young farmer. They freely took sides. Subse quently the wells of several neighbors be came exhausted at a time when there was no drought, and the cows of the old Dunk ard neighbors gave bloody milk. Those persons who had taken side with the son, were all very suddenly more or less affect ed in one way or the other, which gave rise to great speculation and gossip in all the country around. Generally speaking, the neighbors of the old woman are super stitious, and believe in all sorts of unnat ural relics of witchcraft and black art. Hence they are ever ready to believe in any story, however monstrously absurd, and they attach much importance to every move the old woman makes. To the strange visitor Dame Fischer will have little to say, and less to do. Anyone wearing the garb of a city resident and claiming her aid in anything outside of the most ordinary ail ment will meet with a very cool reception. The applicant for her aid in anything ex traordinary must be known to her per sonally, or must be introduced by some one with whom she is very well acquainted. A sufferer calling on her in person will be promptly treated, no matter who he or she may be, for all species of bruises, burns, nervous atietions, “ wild fire,” St. Anthony’s dance, felon, hypochondria, melancholia, and kindred ailments. Dame Fischer will lend prompt assistance to all who may personaly apply and exhibit their aviction. In a majority of instances the old woman uses no medicines, but de pends upon her *‘charm*’ to heal. This charm, or, as the natives hereabouts de nominate it, “‘pow-wowing,”’ consists of a simple breathing upon the wound or sore ; a blowing over it, as it were, accompanied by a gentle touch, a wave of the hand, and a silent prayer. The conditions for operating are implicit faith in the mode of treatment,a perfect surrender of all thought antagonistic to the operator, and zx serious promise to follow out all direc tions that may be given. Radical cares are impromised, and, strange as it may appear, this class of “* wonder workers ”’ have favorable reputations all over this section of the state for having helped many sufferers to absolute health. By far the most interesting feature of this class of backwoods healing art is that part which pretends to work magic spells, charms, curses, conjurations, and bad luck generally on enemies and objects of hate. Persons in need of black-art aid of this kind travel for miles to the “hex” who has the best reputation. She generally lives alone with her cats, her herbs, her cards, and her “mysterious book.’ Not far from this village, over toward Lancaster, lives an old woman who, a short time ago, had a score of men hunting gold at mid night. The men were reputable farmers’ sona, and so great was their confidence in the old soothsayer’s story of gold that they followed her directions with great care and spent night after night of labor ious work in seeking for the supposed hid den treasure, but which never was found. Menu and women come from near and far on every sort of mission ‘to Dame Fisher. ‘To a large circle of persons no physician in the land can render such ef fective service. Husbands take their wives and fathers their children, to have the old woman operate on them for any ailment to which human flesh is heir. If a child is demented, blind, dwarfed or in any way unnaturally afflicted, it is taken to the home of Dame Fischer for treat ment. If a farmer has his horse stolen he consults the old woman and implores her aid in recovering his lost property. She will undertake to help him every time. If an incendiary fire takes place Dame Fischer is consulted. If there is trouble among the stock of any farmer the old woman will help him out. Should any farmer have bad luck with his crops or his cattle he will seek the old woman’s advice, and liberally pay for all she tells him, because she is believed to be a good woman. To catch a horse thief and recover the stolen animal, it is necessary to search the animal's stall, find three hairs, cut them of equal length, knot them in the middle, and burn them, lighting of both ends at the same time. The hairs are to be burned on a shovel at sunset near the stable, and which ever way the two stubs point as they burn is the direction the thief took. The stub ends are then to be buried in the barnyard where the sun shines. There is a little more nonsense of this kind which constitutes the recipe for recovering a stolen horse. The more solid Pennsylva nia farmers, however, have the mounted horay-thief detective associa tions. “ To make a dry cow productive, to clar ify milk, to increase crops, to prevent strokes by lightning, to keep off incenili aries, witches, evil spirits, plagues, spooks and other bad luck, charmes of a similar character are advised, but all are different. To name the many absurd de tails of these so-called charms it would be necessary to print the contents of an en tire book such as these old women use. They are printed in the German language, and were brought from the old country, where they were handed down from family to family. They are seldom, if ever, brought to the light of day, and very few persons ever see them. These “pow wow’ books are regarded as sacred things by the owners of them, and are stored away in secret and dark places, and are only read near midnight. Those who desire the aid of these old Women in the performance of evil work must be well acquainted, and must pos sess the confidence of the old women. What transpires at the interview is a dead secret. An old woman hears “the wish’’ of her customer, receives her fee, and her visitor departs. The old woman has as sured the visitor that all will be well. She does nothing in his presence by which she can be brought into trouble, yet no parti culars of the visit must ever be revealed. Bad luck forever is the penalty for any breach of faith. What orgies, incanta tions, spell, conjurations, buils or stews she may afterward go through with is all done at midnight when no one is about. If a neighbor's babe is to be stunted in growth, if a rival's beauty is to fade away forever, if the business of a competing merchant is to be broken up, if a water power is to fail or a spring to run dry, if bad luck is to take any shape and be visited on any object of wrath or hate, the old woman's aid is invoked in all sincerity, with the absolute belief that the desired object will be attained. To secure jealousy is one of the chief ob jects of many visitors, and to effect this brings into play a number of unique but most absurd practices. To separate man and wife, the hair of a woman opposite in color and complexion must first be obtain ed. If the wife has dark hair, light hair must be secured, but never rea hair. To work a charm on any unfortunate and doomed couple, it must test be learned which of the two was born nearest running water. That person must be operated upon. Something that such persona wave worn some time must be procured and burned. The hair must be held in the smoke and then buried wider the eaves of their house. The name of the person op erated on is then written on a piece of paper and buried anywhere in a shadow cast by the moon. This absurd charm is supposed to have sufficient power to sep arate man and wife. There are several charms intended for young lovers who have had quarrels and who desire to make up their differences ; for the lass who wants to know whether her laddie is sincere ; for the jealous girl, envious of a friend ; for the anxious lover doubting his sweetheart and desiring to make her love more binding, and for the jealous young beau whose suit has not met with favor. The witch women have a su preme contempt for love powder or love potion. They absolutely detest and ridi cule any such method of controlling or se curing the coveted love of men or women. Their chief reliance is the potency of the witch hazel, a tree that grows on the mountain side hereabouts. With its branches and its blossoms much power is said to be wielded. The lass in love car ries its leaves in her bosom, and she dreams with them under her pillow. The pow dered bark of the hazel, its blossoms, sap, and root, all are employed for special and separate purposes. Whatever practices are resorted to for the purpose of destroyin beauty, wither ing forms, weakening intellect, or bring ing about mental or physical disaster, are never revealed. That efforts are made to operate in this line of business is absolutely true. [tis common thing in this section of the country to hear persons speak of friends or acquaintances 25 being be- Witched; and invariably with such com plaint is coupled the name of one or the other of the several old witch woman lo cated in the mountains. It is generally conceded, on the other hand, that they do a great deal of good in aiding the sick, which fact goes far to protect them from a prosecution.
Newspaper Details
Lancaster Daily Intelligencer
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, Mar 07, 1881
Page 1
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Anonymous
USA 19 Feb 2026
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