News Summary 5
The Plague Returns To
London: Some 70,000 dead!
(London,1666) In an epidemic that has ravaged London for over a year, the plague
leaves in its wake, by some accounts, close to 70,000 (perhaps as many as 75,000) dead out
of a population of about 460,000. It is thought that the disastrous London Fire led
to a quelling of the disease, for deaths attributed to the dread disease have fallen
dramatically since its occurrence. The disease which starts with tell tale spots
upon one's thigh signal, to most, a terrible and painful death knell. There is no
known cure for the disease. History tells us that in the fourteenth century, The Black
Death killed about one-third of the population of Europe, (others reckon it closer
to one-fourth) or 24-25 million people In four years--about twenty-five to thirty-seven
percent of Europe's population. There is no known cure for the disease. See more on this story.
Of
Wills Most Curious
Of recent date, we have come into possession of some most curious wills which we
should like to share with our esteemed readers. While most wills are deadly serious,
if you will pardon our choice of words, and heirs scramble after the monetary remains of
their mandates--these wills seem to be penned to provide a more humorous, whimsical or
diabolical result. See more on
this story.
Warning Out--Or Better Said, Get Out
of Town!
Down on your luck? Want to move into town? Need to find a place to
stay?. Want to let your widowed daughter come home for a while. Not so
fast. And perhaps, not at all. In an attempt to secure their respective
municipalities from charge by "sojourners, inmates, hyred servants, journeymen
and other persons," New England towns continue to enact laws designed to leave them
firmly in control. See more on this story.
Guilty of Bundling? Check Your Social
Status.
Among the more peculiar sexual practices of New England is an event called
bundling. It is attributed to "the more ordinary and less refined"
families of New England, perhaps a somewhat self-serving statement, but a custom which is
widely prevalent. See more on this
story
Ghost
Spooks Newport, Rhode Island
A poor woman dead and buried of the small pox. But does she lie easy in her grave?
Local residents think not. Many attest to strange apparitions. More on this story
A Walk
On Witch Hill
There are five of them, all women. They look pale, haggard,
despairing. At sight of them a murmur ripples through the crowd, succeeded by solemn
stillness. . .More on this story
A
Visit To Salem in 1875
"Of the house nothing remains except a slight depression in the soil; of the
orchard and garden there is no trace; yet hard by I chanced on a bank of aromatic thyme
once held of singular potency in witchcraft. . ." More on this story
Quaker Mary Dyer, Others Hanged
In a continuing escalation of punishments for Quakers, Two men and just recently,
Mary Dyer have been hanged in Boston. Defying numerous court orders for her to
banish herself from the colony, she has now met her fate on the gallows. More on this story
