Page:Under Dispute (1924).pdf/35

 The South Church of Boston was first heated in the winter of 1783. There was much criticism of such indulgence, and the "Evening Post," January 25th, burst into denunciatory verse:

Three blots on the Puritans' escutcheon (they were men, not seraphs) have been dealt with waveringly by historians. Witchcraft, slavery and Indian warfare gloom darkly against a shining background of righteousness. Much has been made of the fleeting phase, and little of the more permanent conditions—which proves the historic value of the picturesque. That Salem should to-day sell witch spoons and trinkets, trafficking upon memories she might be reasonably supposed to regret, is a triumph of commercialism. The brief and dire obsession of witch-