Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/404

368 All of the victims were women, and they were mulcted, so they said, of sums ranging from $1 to $100; but woman-like they refused to prosecute for fear of publicity. One of the letters received by the police reads as follows: 'The Professor talked me right out of my money, and instead of bringing back my husband, as he promised, he seemed to drive my husband away, for I am now alone. My husband has gone to Pittsburg. The Professor said that if I had him arrested, he would tell all my story, and would swear besides that I was after another man instead of my husband.'

"One other contribution to the stock of complaints is a tiny yellow envelope stamped on the outside: 'Phychio Magneto, Nepal, India.' The woman who gave it up confessed that she had paid $5 for the envelope, which was supposed to contain an all-powerful powder, which had only to be placed under the pillow for so many nights to accomplish as many wonders as Aladdin's lamp. The powder failed of its purpose, and the remnant of it still left in Captain Boardman's desk needs only a test to prove that it is nothing more than common table salt."

From the above-mentioned facts it does not follow that the whole people of the United States are grossly addicted to superstition. The foreigner who would draw such a conclusion would show either astonishing ignorance or bad faith. The inhabitants of the United States constitute at the present one of the most civilized nations. They have spared no pains for diffusing public instruction throughout their country. I have mentioned the superstitious beliefs of a few of them only to illustrate the fact that these beliefs exist everywhere and are not peculiar to Haiti, where they are found under the same character as they assume elsewhere. In Haiti, as elsewhere, religion and a broad diffusion of knowledge alone will cause superstition to disappear. Violence and ill-timed repression might only serve to make those who would be too severely dealt with seem as victims and martyrs to the cause. A belief, by being