IS IT WITCHCRAFT?

One would have supposed that we had progressed a good long way from the days when witches were tried and often burned at the stake. But last week, in the County Judge's Criminal Court at Goderich, Miss Margaret Pollock of Morris Township was tried before Judge Dickson on a charge of fortune-telling.

Miss Pollock has had, it appears, a reputation as a clairvoyant for some years, and a couple of witnesses were brought to prove that she had on more than one occasion told people how to recover things which had been lost or stolen.

The particular case which resulted in the charge being brought against her was in regard to her alleged description of the location of some stolen grain. Miss Pollock claimed to have the power of communication with the spirit world, and said she had had it from childhood and for some time was not aware that she differed from other people in this respect. For years her assistance had been sought by people with problems of one sort or another. She made no charge for such help but admitted accepting a “gratuity."

A higher court will consider the case before sentence is given. The whole matter has caused much interest in the community.

Occultism in a Staid Court

Huron County Woman Claims Strange Power

Could Aid Location of Lost Articles

Whether or not the departed spirits have any knowledge of, or respect for, the Criminal Code, it still remains a fact that those who purport to be in communication with the departed, and who make use of the occult information which is said to be whispered to them in mysterious ways, are very much subject to the Code.

The fact came to public attention yesterday at Goode Hall, when a stated case appeared before the Appellate Division, with Miss Maggie Pollock, of Morris Township, Huron County, sister and housekeeper for a farmer of that district, as the defendant.

The peculiar charge against Miss Pollock was in December of 191%. It was alleged that she did unlawfully pretend, from her skill and science, to discover when and in what manner certain grain and oats, supposed to have been stolen from one John Leinhardt, could be found. It was stated that after he had lost his goods, Leinhardt visited and had been given certain information from "the other side," which let him know that a man with a rebuke had been the guilty party.

On the stand, Miss Pollock stated that since her early years she had possessed a "God-given gift," which she did not fully understand—the gift being the power of communication with "the other side." She maintained it was not mortal deceit or mischief, but that it was a peculiar power which had been given to her.

The wife of a Brussels barrister told of having profited by the strange messages which came to Miss Pollock. She stated that she had lost a valued heirloom, a ring worth $430. She visited Miss Pollock, who purported to be in communication with the visitor's dead mother, who informed her that the visitor had thrown her ring out of a certain door with a panful of dust. When the snow melted in the spring, the ring was there.

GIRL PROFESSES: OCCULT POWERS

Weird Story Told in Legal Case at Osgoode Hall

LOCATED LOST ARTICLES

A tale involving supposed communication with the dead and one which is in many respects the weirdest that has come before the Ontario Courts in many years reached Osgoode Hall yesterday.

It was originally told before Judge Henry Dickson of Huron county, and came to Osgoode Hall because the lawyer who defended the principal in the trial requested a stated case to bring before the Appellate Division. He wishes the court to determine whether the evidence which had been offered was sufficient to warrant a conviction.

Miss Maggie Pollock, sister and housekeeper of a farmer near Blyth, Morris township, Huron county, is the person about whom the case revolves. Through the years, she claimed at her trial she had gradually come to realize that she was possessed of a peculiar occult gift, and throughout the country her reputation of being able to reveal the hiding places of lost, stolen or strayed property had become known. Consequently, if her neighbors mislaid anything they came to her, asked her for the information they desired, and generally left a small monetary gift.

Ring Was Lost.

Not only is the case itself reminiscent of the days of witchcraft, but the very indictment on which she was originally charged conveys, with its legal phraseology, something of the atmosphere of the days when witches were condemned to die in manners most horrible.

It was charged that in the month of December, 1918, she did unlawfully pretend from her skill and knowledge in an occult and crafty science, to discover when and in what manner certain goods and chattels, wit, certain grain and oats, supposed to have been stolen from one John Lienhardt, "could be found," and further, "that she did pretend to use a certain kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration.”

During the trial several remarkable instances came to light. Mrs. Grace Sinclair, Brussels barrister, told of having consulted Miss Pollock when she had lost a diamond ring, an heirloom from her mother. Though her mother had been dead for six years, Mrs. Sinclair said the girl had said, "I see your mother standing beside your chair." Continuing, she had informed Mrs. Sinclair that the ring had been thrown out of a south door in the house with some dust, and that if patience were exercised the missing ring could be found when the snow disappeared.

Mrs. Sinclair did not wait, however, and, with her husband, melted quantities of snow without finding the least trace of the missing ring. Accordingly, she wrote Miss Pollock, informing her of what she had done, and Miss Pollock replied that her message had been to "have patience" and await nature's will.

After a thaw some weeks later, the ring was found lying on the ground in the position described by the girl during her alleged communion with the spirit of Mrs. Sinclair's departed mother.

See and Talk With Spirits

Miss Maggie Pollock, of Morris, “Saw” Aeroplanes and Motors Before They Were Invented

Before the Courts for Practising Occult Science

Stated Case Sent Up by His Honour, Judge Dixon, Soon to Be Heard at Osgoode Hall

The case of Miss Maggie Pollock, the Blythe lady, who was tried by His Honour Judge Dixon in October last on the charge of practising occult, attracted considerable notice in the Toronto papers on account of the stated case to be heard by the appellate court at Toronto shortly. Miss Pollock was charged before Police Magistrate Andrews on the 21st April last at Clinton, who sent the case up for trial by the county judge. His Honour Judge Dixon registered a conviction but sent up a stated case in a higher court to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to convict.

The charge laid against her was under Section 443 of the Criminal Code and was as follows:

In the month of December 1918, she did unlawfully pretend, from her knowledge in an occult and crafty science, to discover when and in what manner certain grain and oats supposed to have been stolen from one John Lienhardt could be found.

It was further laid to her account that she did pretend to use a certain kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration.

The farmer was called and proved a very unwilling witness. The accused herself was called. Others who had consulted her gave evidence. And then the judge declared that the thing would have to be stopped.

“It surely never could be possible, nor could the defendant expect me to believe, or any person with common sense,” he said, “that she could, by this communication with the familiar spirits or spirits of departed friends, tell where lost goods can be found. If that is true, then it would certainly turn things topsy-turvy in this world.It would revolutionize things, and it would make some of us sit up and wonder what would happen next. It might be a good thing in some communities to have a person of this kind. It might be the authorities might well consider the possibility of employing a person like Miss Pollock and keep her in continual employment.”

Miss Pollock had excused the use of her gift on scriptural grounds. With regard to this, Judge Dixon said: 

“I do not think the Bible ever authorized any person to make use of the gifts of the Creator in the way she professes to—for a charge of 50 cents—professing to locate articles which have been stolen. I call it pure fantasism and religious craze if there is any religion to be at all about it.”

“She might do a very great harm and cause a great deal of trouble in the community," he added, remarking that it was easy to fasten information upon persons, no matter how innocent they might be. Back in the Mosaic law, it was called witchcraft and it was forbidden.

It was sometime in November 1918 that Farmer Lehardt of Broad Hagen found that some oats had been stolen from the bin of his stable, which was over two miles from his house. On December 6th, after dinner, his son John, aged 26, hitched up and started off on a 21-mile drive to consult Miss Pollock as to who had taken the oats. On the way, he picked up his brother-in-law, Geo Benois.

“They were two grown men,” says the judge, speaking of them, “apparently made of what you would believe to be common sense to look at them. They look to me like crafty Germans.”

Together the two jogged through the bare countryside on the December afternoon, and at about three o'clock tied up to the yard of Miss Pollock's house.

“Is this where they tell you where things that have been stolen come from?” they asked two men coming from the barn.

“Some people come here,” was the answer, and the visitors were directed to the house.

Miss Pollock, when they stated the reason for their visit, told them that sometimes she could give information, but she had been on the sick list and didn't know whether she could that day. She would try, however, and she asked for something that John had with him every day. He gave it to her. Holding it, she closed her eyes. The imagination pictures the scene in the still farmhouse: the three of them sitting above the stove, no sound but the ticking of the kitchen clock.

After five or ten minutes, she opened her eyes and said that a stout man took the oats. “He brought new bags with him. He came first to a board gate and stopped a moment or two at the door of the stable.”

Then Miss Pollock closed her eyes again to open them after a few minutes with some more information.

Pieced together at the trial, the effect of her revelation was that the man had come in a vehicle which was heavier than a buggy and lighter than a wagon. The peculiar construction of the stable was described. It had larger boards than are seen nowadays. It was said that the man had a bay horse with a long neck. He was a well-built man, and after taking the oats, he turned west. He lived closer to the barn than Lienhardt. In a dark house, his stables were low on a ground that had been a marsh.

"That's all I can see," she had said when she came to the end of her revelation.

Lienhardt testified that, as far as he knew, Miss Pollock had never been in the neighbourhood of his home, which was 21 miles away. He had himself noticed wheel tracks in the mud, which turned west from the stables.

Miss Pollock herself, on the stand, declared that as a girl in her teens, she had been aware of a gift she did not understand.

“Of what nature?” queried the prosecutor.

“Of communication from the other side of life,” she returned, “because I would see people distinctly that had gone. Yet I didn't know. Others again, I knew. These things were not at all unnatural. 

They were perfectly natural. There was nothing unnatural, nothing superhuman, nothing beyond human. There was no pretence, nothing but simply as it is given to me.”

“Have you ever, have you any powers of your own?” asked the prosecutor.

“No, no, but as this intelligence comes to me, I feel as if I must speak it out. It is perfectly natural. There is nothing of cult, nothing pretended, nothing of any kind of deceit, no kind of sorcery or witchcraft. None of that is connected with it. It is simply a God-given gift.”

Miss Pollock ventured to prove the divine character of her gift by the words of Jesus: “To some shall be given gifts of knowledge.”

“It is beyond what we can get in this life, this intelligence,” she said of the information she received from the spirits. “They have passed on from here. Their eyes are open, their spiritual eyes have become clear. From the spirit side of life, these parties return with this intelligence. I see it as they give it. I have tried the spirit. I have done it for years and there was not a thing wrong.”

She referred to the works of Sir Alfred Russell Wallace, Sir Conan Doyle, W.T. Steed, and others, with whom she was familiar. B. Austin, President of Alma College, and his daughter, she declared, were people who believed as she did. Honour A. B. Richmond of the New York Supreme Court had attended a camp meeting at which she was and confessed that he had come to expose them, but was convinced, and now one of them.

Mrs. Grace Sinclair, wife of a Brussels barrister, was a witness called by the defence. She told of having consulted Miss Pollock at a time when she had lost a diamond ring, an heirloom which her mother had worn for 40 years. Her mother had been dead for six years at the time.

“I see your mother standing there beside your chair,” Miss Pollock had told her when she visited her.

Miss Pollock explained to the court that often spirits accompanied persons just as parents sometimes go around with their children.

The spirit of her mother had shown Miss Pollock that Mrs. Sinclair had thrown the ring out of a southern door in her house when she was throwing out dust, and that she must have patience and would find it when nature removed the obstacle.

Mrs. Sinclair went home and persuaded her husband to bring in boilerfuls of snow from beside the door. They melted it and poured it down the sink, but there was no result.

“She told me that she was tired of melting snow; message was to have patience,” was Miss Pollock's reply.

Some weeks after, when a thaw came, Mrs. Sinclair went to the door and on opening it, the first thing she saw was the diamond ring.

“I am absolutely convinced,” says Mrs. Sinclair, “that the woman communicates with my mother.”

It was just two miles out of Blythe on the eighth line of Morris, where the Pollock homestead stands, nestling against an orchard, about 15 rods from the road.

It was some 68 years ago that Mr. Jazz Pollock came out from County Tyrone, Ireland, and took up his abode in Milton. Here he met Jane Crichton from his native land, married her, and later moved to Blythe.

There was no village to speak of then, all forest and bush, and whether life in the woods and country environment accounts for the fancies Maggie had in childhood cannot be said. Suffice to say that Miss Pollock herself says:

“When about the age of 10, I used to see people in my room and around my bed and hear them, and tell my mother in the morning that I had such a dream, only I wasn't asleep. And my eyes were wide open. This I did repeatedly, but they never paid much attention except to say, ‘Oh, you're always dreaming.’ I was never fond of school, but answers used to come to me. At night, I used to hear lectures given by people when I was supposed to be asleep, and I told my mother, ‘If I could only talk as well in the day school as I could at night, I'd be all right.’ Of course, it wasn't me at all,” she added, “but other people that I heard.”

Miss Pollock said they seemed substantially real to her and were much the same as people here.

When they returned to Earth atmosphere, they came back as they were before. The women wore dresses with long shoulders and full gathered sleeves. The men in former garb. She said she could have made dresses like those they wore.

She explained this form is perishable, not the real person. The spirit is intelligence. As a disembodied spirit, it comes in touch with your spirit, mind, or intelligence. You catch the vibration or thought as it is transmitted to us.

At the age of 16, Miss Pollock left school in the fifth book and took a course in dressmaking at Clinton for six months. She was not in very good health and grew up, as she put it, long and thin like a willow. Then she had a vision and saw herself in Buffalo going to a house and carrying on her dressmaking work there. Later, thinking it might improve her health, she went there with a friend.

A friend, with whom she was going into partnership, met her, and they took a horse and car some distance. On entering the house, her friend met the mother, an elderly lame woman. Miss Pollock realized that she had been in that house and seen that lady before.

“Up until that time, I had never thought I was different from anyone else by the way of seeing and hearing things,” confessed Miss Pollock. “But as my work took me to different places and homes, I sometimes said things that seemed to startle customers.

‘What makes you say that? How do you know that?’ they asked. And then I'd wish I'd held my tongue and been more guarded,” smiled the medium. “Then I got curious about myself and I realized I had a God-given gift.”

Miss Pollock later visited Lily Dale several times and met kindred spirits. While at East Aurora, New York, she met the late Albert Hubbard and has a burnt leather autograph book purchased from his manufacturing company, which was presented to her by the Society of Physical Research.

Twenty years ago or longer, Miss Pollock claims to have seen airplanes, motors, and threshing machines.

“Do you know what I saw when I saw an airship in my vision, what I thought it was?” she laughed.

“Well, I thought it was a heavenly chariot full of angels. Then I noticed as it descended that it had wheels and that it came right down beside me. And the angels proved to be beings like myself, and then I could not understand it at all. Then, when I was driving, I had a vision of a motor car behind us, and that it ran without a track and stopped every now and then. And I thought that was very strange too.”

Besides finding the ring for Mrs. Grace Sinclair, as set forth in the appeal documents, Miss Pollock told of finding or directing a Mrs. Davison of Tilsonburg, who had come to her after hearing of Mrs. Sinclair's luck. It appeared Mrs. Davison’s son had given his sister a ring before enlisting. One day, while out motoring, a blowout occurred, and the daughter, getting out of the car, gave the ring to her mother, who slipped it on over her gloved finger. The mother also got out of the motor and walked about.

On resuming the journey, she discovered the ring was gone. “Now I don’t claim her promised anything,” Miss Pollock said. “I only do what I can to help, and this time I was right. I said, if they went through a gateway into a field nearby, the ring will be found in some long grass.” Weeks passed before they looked, though, and they had been skeptical. But when they followed directions, they found it.

Miss Pollock describes herself as a clairvoyant, audient, and psychometrist. When she impresses the observer most, it is her absolute belief in herself. She is convincingly honest and straightforward, and this is the reputation borne by the whole family and her father.

Asked if she did not ask or wish for material benefits herself, Miss Pollock replied:

“I would not give what little I know through the divine philosophy. It is my sincere religion. I am ready to defend what is truth, as far as I know. The truth is sacred to me. It is of divine origin. I have never learned it—it has been given through my own organ.

The many who have consulted me have given their evidence, their entire satisfaction of the benefit they have received. I know that our departed friends still live and can communicate with us. Through my organism, messages have been transmitted for which I have received many blessings.

It comforts the sorrowing, heals the broken-hearted. I pretend nothing. I claim nothing of myself. I love God with all the power of my being. I love through His divine power. I aid my fellow beings. I do nothing, nor can I do anything, of myself. God has given us no power, which is no circumstance to be used.

The fact that we possess it is in itself proof that it is our bounden duty to study and develop it.”

Miss Pollock also told that when in ill health, one day she heard a voice whisper, “If you will only work for us, we will cure you.” She had thought it very strange, but was resolved that anything she was doing was right or good, and she was willing to do it. A change then came over her, and her health improved rapidly.

Speaking of her mother's death, the day of her funeral, her mother appeared to her and asked that a little kerchief she had once sent her, with forget-me-nots in the corner, be placed in her hand to cover a discoloration. While sitting with her mother, other spirits were present, so real that she noticed a man standing to her left. Feeling very tired, she unthinkingly went to rest on his arm, with the result, of course, that her arm had sagged downward.

Her father, too, now in spirit life, appears often. For a long time, he went about his former duties, sat in his chair on the veranda, and went about as usual. One day, while she was lying on the couch, he came and stood near her, looking down.

“Father,” she said, “don’t you know you are now in spirit life?” He seemed very startled for a moment, and ever after just came back at little intervals instead of remaining as before.

Asked if she had ever been nervous about these visions she had from childhood, Miss Pollock replied with a firm negative. There is nothing about her delusions or weak sentiments. Her claimed gift, however, seems best shown at locating things.

Questioned about the whereabouts of Ambrose Small, the missing millionaire of Toronto, the medium stated that she seemed to see him on a street, his feet flying from under him, and he was taken into a motor against his will. The car she follows to a lone space where there is an expanse of water. After that, she cannot see him, but her impression is that he is not of this life.

The ministers of Blythe all take a very tolerant view of Miss Pollock’s case. One, indeed, even admitted to having driven some friends to have their fortunes told once. He did not think people took it seriously.

Reverend Geo Telford, Presbyterian minister, spoke in high terms of the family who had once attended that church. The brother William Pollock, having been an elder, said she is no enemy to the church. “There is no antagonism,” he said, “and I do not think her capable of any harm.”

Reverend Walter Hawkins, Anglican, would not condemn. “There is no doubt there are some things we cannot understand. From all I hear, they are a well-thought-of family. Miss Pollock helped us at a garden party once.”

Reverend Johnson McCormick, Methodist minister, spoke kindly also. “She has a wonderful imagination, I think. People go to her often for past events.” William Begley told of a reading he had when Miss Pollock had told him, and repeated a conversation that his son was having out West. He had written to his son about the matter, which had been confirmed later. Reeve James Cutt did not believe in spiritualism at all, but still had very high regard for the medium and her entire family. Town clerk McGowan was likewise impressed. All throughout the village, the people seem united in their sorrow and joy.

Miss Pollock is described as being very tall and straight, dark-haired, from 45 to 50 years of age, with small but exceedingly bright brown eyes, high cheekbones, and an olive complexion. In spite of her Irish ancestry, her appearance is more like that of the Indian or gypsy tribe. Her smile is pleasant, and her manner kindly.

GIRL THOUGHT SHE HAD OCCULT POWER

Case of Huron County Girl Charged With Witchcraft Again in Osgoode Hall

Whether or not Maggie Pollock of Morris Township, Huron County, is guilty of the crime charged against her of using "witchcraft and sorcery" will shortly be determined at Osgoode Hall. The case came up again yesterday with the receipt from County Judge L. H. Nickerson of Huron County of the three test questions upon which the Appellate Division is to decide the stated case.

Maggie Pollock was called to trial before Judge Dickson on a charge that she did "unlawfully, from skill and knowledge in an occult and crafty science, discover where and in what manner, certain grain, supposed to have been stolen from one John Leinhardt, could be found.”

The charge arose from an alleged interview between the accused and Leinhardt, in which, through the use of Miss Pollock’s occult powers that she believed she possessed, she described with reasonable accuracy the locality, which she had never seen, from which certain grain had been stolen, the nature of the conveyance used to remove the grain, and the direction the alleged thief had taken.

In his summing up of the test questions, Judge Dickson noted: "The accused gave evidence on her own behalf, and I found, as a fair opinion upon her evidence, that she has, and had, the faculty to communicate with the spirits at that time. I believe that the information obtained was validated through the exercise of her claimed powers..."

Charge of Witchcraft Leaves Judges at Sea

Cannot Decide Offhand Whether Girl is Guilty of a Crime Which the Law Does Not Recognize

In counsel, Mr. C. Garrow, explained that beyond peradventure, the woman was guilty "by skill or knowledge in any occult or crafty science pretending to tell where any goods lost or stolen might be found." She had told a farmer, whom she had never seen before, that oats from his barn were stolen by a man assisted by a boy, who had loaded them in a buggy drawn by a bay mare with a long neck, and driven westwards. This the farmer had afterwards proved to be true, and for the information had paid Miss Pollock fifty cents, to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.

Mr. Garrow asked if it would be an offense against the laws if the articles stolen had been located through occult science, but Sir William Meredith and his associates were loath to assume so impossible a thing. The Legislature assumed such a science impossible, they said. Judges were forced to reserve judgment.

F. Bayly, K.C., admitted that he did not know what "occult or crafty science" meant, but declared that he knew the intention of the statute, which was, he said, to prevent "this sort of thing." Sir William Meredith, for lack of any other proof, had to take the word of Miss Pollock's counsel that she had not been communicating with the devil.

Pending the decision of the Appellate Court as to the correctness of Judge Dickson’s finding, sentence was postponed. One year’s imprisonment is the maximum penalty for such an offense.

HELD GUILTY OF WITCHCRAFT

Appellate Division Refuses to Quash the Pollock Conviction

The Appellate Division at Osgoode Hall has refused to quash the conviction of Miss Margaret Pollick, who resides near Blyth, Ont., and who had been found guilty by a county judge in Goderich of witchcraft.

She was convicted on the charge that she did "unlawfully pretend from skill and certain knowledge in occult and crafty science, to discover where and in what manner certain goods, grain and oats, supposed to have been stolen from John Leinhardt could be found," and the judge suspended sentence on the understanding that she would practice no more witchcraft.

The Appellate Division says that in view of Miss Pollock's undoubted good faith the suggestion that sentence might be suspended might be carried into effect. In arriving at its decision the court gives its authority from laws enacted in the reign of George II., which repealed all laws on witchcraft from the time of Henry VII., and quotes Very Rev. Dean Harris: 

"The power to communicate with or receive communications from, or to see departed spirits has always heen classed as 'occult,'" says Mr. Justice Orde, who writes the judgment.

"The well-known Canadian ecclesiastic, Very Rev. Dean Harris, styles a recent work which is almost wholly devoted to the question of intercourse with spirits of the departed—Essays in Occultism, Spiritism and Demonology, and in a prefatory note says: 'Among the occult sciences I include the cult of spiritism.'"

Not Witchcraft but Clairvoyance 

Miss Pollock Appeals Against Conviction--Judgment Reserved

Miss Maggie Pollock, the Huron County woman who was recently convicted on a “witchcraft” charge, yesterday opened an appeal case before Justice Magee. Miss Pollock is a firm believer in clairvoyance, and gave information recently against two farmers living twenty miles from her home, whom she did not know. She charged them with stealing certain grain that had disappeared from her barn, but had no material evidence. Her “spirit” evidence was never either proved or disproved.

The county judge of Huron let her go on suspended sentence, following the charge of witchcraft, and stated that he was convinced that Miss Pollock is a firm believer in her powers.

C. C. Garrow appeared yesterday for Miss Pollock, while E. Bayley, K.C., supported the Crown.

It was found that practically no material evidence was available, nor was there any precedent at hand where a similar case had come before Canadian courts. Following a lengthy debate, in which spiritualism played a prominent part, judgment was reserved.

Occultism Discussed at Osgoode Hall 

In the broad light of noon today, the Appellate Division at Osgoode Hall had its attention directed to the darkness of the middle ages, "when the statutes recognized witches and dealt with them, and the penalty was death."

"We’ll have to look into this," remarked Chief Justice Meredith, as the court reserved judgment on the stated case submitted on behalf of Miss Maggie Pollock, the Huron County woman who was convicted by Judge Dickson at Goderich on a charge of practising witchcraft and sorcery at her brother's home near Blyth, Ont. Sentence was postponed pending the decision of the Appellate Division as to the correctness of Judge Dickson's decision. Miss Pollock's fate now rests with the Appellate Division.

Death, however, is not the punishment provided for the offence by the Canadian Criminal Code; the maximum penalty is imprisonment. Mr. Garrow appeared for Miss Pollock, and E. Bayly, K.C., for the Crown.

"Has this woman been communicating with the devil—or someone else?" queried Sir William.

Mr. Garrow explained that under section 44 of the Criminal Code it had been charged that Miss Pollock, "by skill or knowledge in any occult or crafty science, pretends to tell where any goods lost or stolen may be found."

Mr. Garrow told of the interview between Miss Pollock and the seeker of vanished oats.

"How much did all this cost?" asked Sir William.

"Fifty cents," returned Mr. Garrow. "And they were perfectly satisfied. They felt that they got their money's worth."

Mr. Garrow asked whether it would be an offence if the things stolen had been located through occult science. He urged that there was no pretence; the woman was absolutely sincere.

"What difference can that make?" asked Sir William. "'Pretend' here means putting herself forward as being able to do this. It doesn’t mean pretending, knowing that she can’t do it."

Mr. Garrow declared that the man who had consulted Miss Pollock had not been deceived at all.

Chief Justice Meredith: "We ought not to strain the law to protect these people who take money or nothing."

Justice Magee doubted whether the mere shutting of the eyes in contemplative mood, while imparting information from the spirits, indicated practice of any occult science.

Justice Ferguson: "I don’t think she pretended to any science at all, but inspiration."

Justice Orde asked where the line was to be drawn between this and fortune-telling.

Mr. Bayly: "I don’t know what ‘occult or crafty science’ means, but I know the intention of the statute, which is to prevent this sort of thing."

Twentieth Century Witchcraft

The Huron County "witchcraft" case is rather a ludicrous instance of the oppressive use of authority. Its victim, Miss Maggie Pollock, who lives amid the rich countryside of the Huron tract, may be pardoned if she does not see the joke.

It is pretty late in the day for the Attorney-General's department to begin pursuing old women who think themselves "witches" and are so regarded by their neighbors.

There is no charge that Miss Pollock flies around on broomsticks, or exerts "malicious animal magnetism" to the discomfort of her neighbors. Neither does she possess a black cat endowed with the power of speech and reason, and capable of acting as a medium of communication with the underworld.

Indeed, it seems to be a rather efficient witch who was able to deliver the 'goods' when consulted by a farmer as to who had stolen his oats. Even in that matter, her statements were cautious and resembled the tactics of the poker-player who detected a one-eyed participant in the game stealing chips. He remarked, "I don't wish to mention names, but there's a man here who is stealing chips. All I will say is that if it happens again, I'll shoot his other eye out."

Miss Pollock did not mention names, but described the horse that drew the wagon that carried the loot.

There is a possibility that her supernatural powers were assisted by a practical knowledge of who in that neighborhood was likely to steal oats, based on long residence in the community. At any rate, the owner of the oats got good value for his money, for when, on learning of the theft, he at once drove over to see Miss Pollock and paid her fifty cents for going into the trance that produced a very accurate message.

It is quite likely that if he had driven to Goderich to consult the Crown Attorney, the High Constable, and the other legal officials, he would still be minus his oats. Surely his belief in Miss Pollock justifies St. Paul's definition of faith: "The substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen."

Miss Pollock seems to be a much more advanced type than the old women of the seventeenth century who were put to death on the order of Sir Matthew Hale and other noted jurists. They were crude and moderate in method. She is said to be an authority on the works of Sir Oliver Lodge. If the latter's claim that he has proofs of telepathy, and that it is as ordinary a phenomenon in Asia as the telephone with us, is true, why should not an old woman in Huron County, Ontario, be endowed with occult powers as well as any bewhiskered old yogi in India?

Anyone familiar with the rural sections of Ontario knows that old women supposedly possessed of telepathic powers are as prevalent as illicit stills. Their neighbors have a deep belief in their powers based on results in the location of lost and stolen articles that are quite amazing and inexplicable. Nor do they resort to so cumbrous a method of evoking occult information as the tedious process of the ouija board.

It is rather a travesty on justice that, at a time when countless educated people are using the ouija board to question the future and pierce the veil of the unknown, the legal authorities should be harrying a poor old woman who seems to have been a human ouija in the case of the missing oats—and much more prompt and efficient than the kind that is sold in the department stores.

Blyth Woman’s Conviction for Practicing Witchcraft Based on Law in Reign of George II

Ontario Court of Appeals Finds That Huron County Judge Was Right in Rendering a Judgment of Guilty in the Case of Miss Margaret Pollock — Suspended Sentence Is Advised.

Toronto, June 11.—Canadian Press.

The appellate division of the Ontario Supreme Court at Osgoode Hall this morning gave judgment confirming the conviction of Miss Margaret Pollock, who lives near Blyth, Huron County, Ontario, of witchcraft.

She was found guilty by the county judge at Goderich on the charge that she did “unlawfully pretend from skill and knowledge in occult and crafty science to discover where and in what manner certain goods, grains and oats, supposed to have been stolen from John Lienhardt, could be found.”

Sentence was suspended, and the county judge indicated that he was inclined to suspend judgment if she would undertake not to work any more witchcraft. From his decision she appealed.

The appellate division, in confirming the decision, says that in view of Miss Pollock’s undoubted good faith, the suggestion as to suspended sentence, upon Miss Pollock giving recognizances, might be carried into effect.

In reaching its decision the appellate division interprets the law enacted in the reign of George II, which repealed all laws on witchcraft from the time of Henry VIII onwards.

Very Rev. Dean Harris, R.C., of Toronto, who yesterday celebrated his golden jubilee, is cited as an authority by Justice Orde, who delivered the judgment. Dean Harris in a recent work said: “Among the occult sciences I include the cult of spiritism.”

The Conviction Stands Against Miss Pollock

The Appellate Division at Osgoode Hall has refused to quash the conviction of Miss Margaret Pollock, who resides near Blyth, and who had been found guilty by a county judge in Goderich of witchcraft.

She was convicted on the charge that she did "unlawfully pretend, from skill and certain knowledge in occult and crafty science, to discover where and in what manner certain goods, grain, and oats, supposed to have been stolen from John Lienhardt, could be found," and the judge suspended sentence on the understanding that she would practise no more witchcraft.

The Appellate Division says that in view of Miss Pollock's undoubted good faith, the suggestion that sentence might be suspended could be carried into effect.

In arriving at its decision, the court cites laws enacted in the reign of George II, which repealed all laws on witchcraft from the time of Henry VII., and quotes the Very Rev. Dean Harris:

"The power to communicate with, or receive communications from, or to see departed spirits has always been classed as 'occult,'" says the well-known Canadian ecclesiastic. The Very Rev. Dean Harris styles a recent work, Essays in Occultism, Spiritism, and Demonology, which is almost wholly devoted to the question of intercourse with spirits of the departed, and in a preparatory note says: "Among the occult sciences I include the cult of spiritism."

MISS MAGGIE POLLOCK CASE

The famous Maggie Pollock case came up on Tuesday morning of last week before His Honor Judge Dickson again, the lady coming up for sentence.

It is recalled that when Miss Pollock was first tried for the offence of practising the occult science she was found guilty by His Honor, but an appeal was taken to Osgoode Hall by Miss Pollock's counsel, Mr. Garrow, to ascertain the opinion of the superior court as to whether Miss Pollock's practise should be considered as an offence against the Criminal Code.

The judgment on the appeal was to sustain the trial judge’s finding, and it remained therefore for Judge Dickson to decide the penalty. Miss Pollock is let go on suspended sentence and is bound over, on the surety of herself and her brother William, to refrain from practising the occult science or pretending to have communication with spirits and to have supernatural powers. His Honor pointed out to her that she could give it as her opinion that such and such was the case but must not claim to have supernatural intimation that such was so.

For instance, in locating lost articles, which seems to be one of the popular manifestations of Miss Pollock's clairvoyance, or whatever it is to be called, she could give it as her opinion that the article would be found in a certain place, but that is as far as she should go. It was a great cry for little wool.

MUST ABANDON CLAIMS TO ANY OCCULT POWER

Miss Maggie Pollock, of Huron County, was given a suspended sentence on this conviction—she can say, however, that she "believes" such and such to be the case.

Goderich, Oct. 13. County Judge Dickson to-day suspended sentence on Miss Maggie Pollock, the Huron County woman who was convicted here some time ago of practicing occult science, and whose case was appealed to Osgoode Hall by her counsel, Mr. C. Garrow, where Judge Dickson's finding was upheld. Miss Pollock was before the judge to-day for sentence.

The judge admonished her that the practice must cease and has bound her over in bonds of $200 from herself and from her brother to refrain from pretensions of occult power and from practicing the occult science. She may go as far as stating that it is her opinion that an article may be found in a certain place, but this must be the limit. She must not pretend that she has any supernatural power which gives her knowledge of the location of such articles. Should she be found guilty of practicing again she may be sentenced both for the new offense and for the old, but in the meantime sentence is suspended.

Some Wonderful Cases. 

Miss Pollock still believes she is possessed of supernatural powers and that her "God-given gift" should be exercised for the good of humanity. Certainly, some wonderful cases are quoted of her correctness in locating missing articles where there seems no reasonable explanation of her power except that of supernatural origin. Articles lost were absolutely located accurately by Miss Pollock when she goes into one of her trances, and Miss Pollock says this power came to her unsought and grew with her. She believes she should exercise it for the good of humanity and set forth her views on this matter in a beautifully written and worded letter to His Honor, Judge Dickson, some time ago.

This article also appears:

Oct 30, 1920 | London Evening Free Press • MUST CEASE CLAIM OF OCCULT POWER

MISS POLLOCK GETS SUSPENDED SENTENCE

Following the decision of the Court at Toronto, which confirmed the judgment of Judge Dickson convicting Miss Maggie Pollock on the charge of practising an occult science, Miss Pollock appeared before the Judge on Tuesday for sentence. His Honor admonished her that the practice must cease and bound her over in bonds of $200 from herself and from her brother to refrain from pretensions of occult power and from practising the occult science. She may go as far as stating that it is her opinion that an article may be found in a certain place, but this must be the limit.

She must not pretend that she has any supernatural power which gives her knowledge of the location of such articles. Should she be found guilty of practising again, she may be sentenced both for the new offence and for the old, but in the meantime, sentence is suspended.

The case is one that has attracted wide attention. Miss Pollock, whose home is in the neighborhood of Blyth, believes that she is possessed of supernatural powers, and that her "God-given" gift should be exercised for the good of humanity. Some wonderful instances have been quoted of her uncanny faculty of locating missing articles without her having any foreknowledge of the circumstances.

It was her effort to locate some articles believed to have been stolen which led to her being brought before the county judge. Miss Pollock says she has had since childhood the power, and she did not know that the power was at all peculiar to herself, thinking it was a perfectly natural thing, common to all people. Later, she discovered that she was different from other people in this respect, and for years she quietly employed her strange faculty at the request of neighbors or others who came to her to solve their difficulties.

Miss Pollock believes she should exercise her power for the good of humanity, and she set forth her views on the matter in a beautifully worded and written letter to His Honor Judge Dickson some time ago.

This article also appears:

Oct 28, 1920 | Mildmay Gazette • Miss Pollock Gets Suspended Sentence

MUST NOT PRACTISE OCCULT SCIENCE OR PRETEND TO HAVE SUPERNATURAL POWER

Miss Maggie Pollock of Blyth, who was convicted some time ago of practicing occult science and whose case was appealed by her counsel, Mr. Garrow of Goderich, to Osgoode Hall where Judge Dickson's finding was upheld, came up last week for sentence.

After admonishing her that the practice must cease and binding her over to refrain from such practice in a bond of $200, he let her go on suspended sentence.

It has been customary for people to go to Miss Pollock when they had lost articles, and after going into some sort of a trance she has been said to be able to tell them accurately where such articles might be found. She may now go so far as to give it as her opinion that such things may be found but must not pretend to any supernatural power.

Miss Pollock is said to believe that she has such power and that she should be allowed to practice it for the good of mankind. She set this forth in a letter to the judge some time ago, it appears, but evidently it had no particular effect, except perhaps to prevent a heavier penalty.

IS COURT DECISION PRACTICABLE?

The Toronto Star Weekly has an editorial article on the Pollock case. Early in the year, Miss Maggie Pollock, a young woman living on a farm near Blyth in Huron County, was brought before the county judge accused of practising an occult science. The judge convicted her; the case was appealed to Osgoode Hall, where the conviction was sustained, and recently Miss Pollock was brought before the county judge for sentence.

She was bound over in bonds of $200 from herself and her brother to refrain from pretensions to occult power and from practising occult science. She may go so far as to give an opinion as to where a lost article may be found, but she must not profess to be guided by such occult powers of any kind. In her own defence, Miss Pollock made a written plea that she be permitted to use her power not for personal gain, but for the benefit of others.

It is a case quite out of the ordinary, and it strikes us that it calls for a handling quite different from that which the courts, with their strictly defined duties and rules of procedure, have been able to give it. As the matter now stands, it would not be surprising to learn that the court proceedings have done little more than give the professed powers of this young woman a province-wide advertisement. She is forbidden by the courts to profess the powers she claims or to practise them, but she may give "opinions," and it is probable these will be sought by people from a far wider range of the country than had ever heard of her before the court proceedings began.

If a farmer’s wife loses her wedding ring and has been unable to find it, and if Miss Pollock can tell her to pick up seven chips from the ground, and if she does find it, or if a farmer believes that his gold watch was stolen from his vest pocket hanging on a nail in the barn, and if Miss Pollock can tell him that it fell out of his pocket as he was climbing a fence near an elm tree on his way to the barn and is lying in long grass near the fence, and if the farmer goes and finds it there—well, if Miss Pollock can do such things, would she not be a priceless person to have in the community?

Even if she can’t do these things, or practise anything of the kind, but if she thinks she can, and if other people think so too, of what avail is it for the courts to interfere, forbidding her to profess? Will not all who appeal to her do so on the complete mutual understanding that her opinions have occult value? Surely the better way in an intelligent world might well be to have subjected the professed powers of this young woman to a fair and thorough public test. The Department of Education has been entrusted with the handling of the experiment, interested as it is in the advancement of learning, and closely associated as it is with rural communities.

If proper authorities were to summon Miss Pollock to demonstrate her professed powers at a given time and place, in connection with cases prepared for the purpose, one of two results would follow: she would succeed or she would fail. If she failed, she would be discredited and effectually disposed of. If she succeeded, everybody who has lost anything could be told where to find it, and she could tell the world over. Why, in the name of all that is sensible, should she not be allowed to do it, plenty of it, all she can, and be paid by the Ontario Government, perhaps times the salary of a sheriff for doing it? There is a way to cope with this sort of thing more intelligently than by merely putting the ban of the law upon it.