We will give you an instance of this "St. Anthony's" witchcraft business that came under my personal observation. A lady was standing upon a bridge that spans one of the many streams that rushes down from the Adirondack Mountains, gazing at this crystal stream and watching the fishes below, and while standing there she was toying with a beautiful diamond ring that had been given her by her lover. In a careless manner she allowed this ring to slip from her finger, and it fell into the waters below.
With a sudden cry those who were near her were attracted to the spot and she explained to them her misfortune, and it was not long until there was quite a crowd about her, offering their sympathy and also their assistance.
Some volunteered to wade into this stream and search for the ring, which was done, and a number of buckets of mud were carried up out of the stream from the point the lady had stated she had dropped her ring, but the ring could not be found.
At this point one of our Catholic "dupes" appeared and explained to the lady that if she would put her trust in St. Anthony and would pay $500, that St. Anthony would restore to her her ring.
This lady being a Catholic also, of course, was easily persuaded to do this, so they knelt down and prayed to St. Anthony and beseeched him to restore the lost treasure, and it was not long until all of those in the crowd that belonged to the Catholic Church were in sympathy with this distressed lady, and they were also kneeling and supplicating St. Anthony to restore the lost treasure. They prayed for an hour, but still the lost treasure would not appear; then the ringleader of this barbarous belief informed this lady that the ring had been swallowed by a fish. He pretended to be inspired and claimed that he could catch this identical fish with the bait of St. Anthony's bread. Everything was soon prepared and the line was let down into the water, and sure enough a good sized fish was caught upon this St. Anthony's bait, and the crowd went into rapturous delight, as they were quite sure they had the identical fish that had swallowed the ring.
As soon as the fish was caught a collection was raised by a priest who was in the crowd for the benefit of "St. Anthony's Bread Box." All of the Catholics in the crowd contributed, of course, as they were afraid not to, for Catholics believe that if they do not do what a priest tells them to they are sure to have something awful befall them, and, of course, all of these Catholics believed in the witchcraft of St. Anthony and believed that he was the actual restorer of all lost things.
The Protestants in the congregation were determined to see what was inside of the fish, so they followed the one that carried it to a butcher shop and the fish was cut open, but naught was found in it but what is usually found in any old fish that never saw or heard tell of a diamond ring.
Now, this is one of the thousands—yea, tens of thousands of such instances that are forced down the throats of the ignorant, superstitions followers of Catholicism.
Now, what I relate above is true in every conceivable manner, and not one sentence or statement is misrepresented.
This belief in the power of St. Anthony is simply abominable and belongs to the dark ages of heathendom.