He Died as He Lived

1915

"Begone!" cried a young skeptic to a clergyman; "I want none of your cant," when he showed him the great need of repentance. "I am not going to die, and, if I were, I would die as I have lived."

The physician came, to whom he said, "O tell me I'm not dying; I will not die!" "My poor friend, I cannot speak falsely to you; your soul will, ere long, be with your God." "My God!" he said. "I have no God save the world; I have stifled conviction, I have fought against God. I have resisted my mother's pleadings; and now you tell me that I must die. Do you know," he added in an awful whisper, "all that means? If I die today I shall go to hell! Take it back; tell me I'm not going to die. Father," he said," 'twas you who taught me this, you who led me on in this way; and now you say I'm going to die Stand back!" he shrieked; "I will not die!"

And a torrent of invective issued from his fever-parched lips, so terrible in their madness that it seemed like a wail from the sea of woe. No wonder the poor mother was borne, fainting from the room, and the father's brow was corrugated, while great drops of agony rested there. Oh, that infidel father! How must his heart have bled in that dreadful hour, when, in the midst of dire cursings, his gifted son fell back a corpse!

Chicago Woman Declares She Is Persecuted for Alleged Occult Power

1901

OUR CHICAGO BUREAU SPECIAL
Occidental Buildings, Sept. 6.

Persecuted for Witchcraft in Chicago

Persecuted and buffeted because some of her neighbors think she is witch with power to weave uncanny spells about her enemies — that is the complaint made by Mrs. Alexandrai Kostokas before a justice of the peace. Her tale of woe is directed particularly against Mrs. Mary Cohen and Thomas Kelley, who, she says, have made her life a burden by treating her as a practitioner of witchcraft.

A horse belonging to Mrs. Cohen died and Mrs. Kostokas was accused of exerting an occult influence over the animal. Then Mrs. Cohen's son was stricken with paralysis and the alleged witch was held responsible for the stroke. Mrs. Cohen also averred that her own illness was due to the sinister influence of her neighbor. Mrs. Kostokas says these stories have been circulated so persistently that others have really begun to think she is endowed with a supernatural power which she makes use of to the detriment of her neighbors. She seeks a way to end the alleged persecution and invokes the court's aid.

—Dubuque Daily Telegraph, Dubuque, Iowa, Sept. 6, 1901, p. 3.