| Show r i ABEWITCHEDJAMILY V The Remarkable Event That Trans pirefl inaMlchlsan Town I Flint Micli Aug S lMnch excitement ex-citement has be n created in th s community by the qneer doings of a family by the name of Whitney living In the township of Mount HorriSj eight miles north of this city who are laboring under a stracKe hallucination and imagine they rethe victims of witchcraft Piom the many conflicting storiae that are tfloa your correspondent has Gifted out from the stacks of chaff the grains of truth herewith presenkd Until recently two families therein law by the name of Clark end Sumner lived in a small double house on a farm In the township of VIenna Vi-enna Clarks family consisted of a wife and three children and Sum nets of a wife and one child Thej livedon the best of terms until about two mouths ago when a 2yearold child of Clarks was taken sick with a serious Illness which rc suted fatally July 1 After the cmla was burled the families claim to have herd strange noises about I the house at night such as the buzzing of a swarm of bees and the retching of a person In the act of vomiting Then the cry of mil der wsuld break on the mi n ght air A short time ensued when Mrs Sumner and another child of CJarka were tewed with the tame mysterious illUl Sand S-and the strargenolets continue they became frightened and both families moved to the Inmes 0 tbe wives mothers Mrs WhItney in the township oMount Morris The next night after their arrival they clam to have heard blmilar noise alto bleating of sheep and the neigh mg ot a horse The secnd night they Bay the noises continued and were accompanied accom-panied by a peculiar stench resem blini turning flesh This part of the story seems pr Lable from the fad that fifteen bengs were huddled together in a bo se 16 by 22 feat in a wretched cond tion of squalor and nastiness In a day or two two more of Clarks children were sttlrkn with a similar illners ad bedlam reigned supreme Impressed J Im-pressed w th the idea that they were beviched Whitney and Clark lot two od wu ktJti aid cammenced Bring through the windows to drive away the etches This continued for two nights when the neghbor > becomiog frightened at th irqtrange perfo manreo Informed the cffi era who proceeded to inveaigae the affair The officers were rested by Clark and Whitney and threatened wIth death if they approached nut after considerabe parleying they suffered the officers to escort them to Fan but no admsslon to the house fag permitted AssIst tant ProaeutSng Johnson with a posse of officer visited thr place on Tuesday las I and were met by Dr I D FulUr of Clio whose olothea were saturated wI h blood from a wound received frcm the hauls of one of the half crazy women who resisted his entrance en-trance The doctor said he had visited the house to see it I he could be service to them and waj at bbed by a Mrs Livingston a daughter of Mrs Whitnty in the breast Two pnysicians were summoned and the djtora womJ Vas dressed when it wai found the knif had penetrated pene-trated the beJStbone and thus > a7f > rl so riinfffcroaa cr fatal result Three of the1 jnmatei were arrested and loged in jail Saturday afternoon eight more of the bewitched or bedeviled families were arrestedas disorderly persons brought to this city and lodged In jal The rest fled and escaped the officers Some of them had cut off the ends of their fingers and toes slit the ears of their cattle etc to use the blood to drive away the witches Wlien found Mrs Sum ner wa entirely naked The authorities au-thorities are ut a lOEs to know what to do with tbisjstrange mesa They found the premises in terrible confusion con-fusion Toe glass in the windows is nearly all crofeen out by firing money Lnd other things through them V o drive off the witches and tbe filth and wrechedness beyond description It is hoped and truated the bars of the jail will keep outtjbe evil spirits and they may recover their equilibrium j |
