THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 103 



craft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits," was declared 

 to he in full force in South Carolina, ahout the year 1710, 

 seventeen years after the famous jail opening in Salem. 



The speaker defended Salem and the Massachusetts Bay 

 Colony as being at the time of the witchcraft delusion, 

 ahead of their time, and that their action in discontinuing 

 all prosecutions against supposed witches in 1693, opened 

 the eyes of the world, and that from that day witchcraft 

 was doomed and the delusion rapidly passed away. This 

 happy result is directly traceable to the action of the Bay 

 colony in 1693 at Salem. 



The ch)sing speaker was Hon. Abner C. Goodell, jr., 

 who rehearsed what he had said at Danvers briefly. He 

 said, however, that he did not agree with Mr. Rice regard- 

 ing the ministers. He thought if a concensus of their 

 views had governed, there would not have baen any exe- 

 cutions, for they did not believe a spectre could act through 

 an innocent person. He defended the judges from too 

 harsh a criticism as they only followed English authorities 

 who regarded witchcraft as one of the worst of crimes. 

 He alluded to a most valuable work on witchcraft, Rev. 

 Samuel Willard's, which contained the opinions of Philip 

 Englishand John Alden after their return from banishment. 



Monday, March 7, 1892.— Rqy. A. P. Putnam, D.D., 

 of Concord, Mass., lectured. His subject was "The Wen- 

 ham Lake Ice Company." Dr. Putnam first spoke of the 

 great value of ice for its various purposes and alluded to 

 the manner in which the Greeks and Romans preserved 

 their snow for summer consumption ; and then spoke 

 briefly of the old New England family ice-houses half 

 under ground or set into the declivity of a hill. He also 

 gave a history of the early export ice trade of New Eng- 

 land which was begun about 1805, by Frederick Tudor of 



