Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 231, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1911 — Styrian Peasant Superstition. [ARTICLE]

Styrian Peasant Superstition.

A law suit for libel brought by an apothecary in Pollan, In Styria, against a young peasant reveals an extraordinary superstition prevalent among the country people. They believe that apothecaries and doctors have the right to kill at least one man and one woman ever year la order to mak« medicines out of their bodies. An accidental movement of the apothecary at Pollaii, Herr Kobermauser. when giving medicine to a boy named Put* led the latter to heHere he was going to be killed. He nut away, but got such a fright that he feU Ul. The in habitants believed his story and boycotted the apothecary, who was at length compelled to prosecute. Puts was sentenced to fourteen days’ imprisonment, hut hit parents, who had spread the »tory were acquitted on the ground that they had acted in good faith.