THE SOUTHERN SENTINEL — SEPTEMBER 5, 1857
HOW THE DEVIL LOST.
Talking about witch stories we have seen nothing to equal the following, condensed from the Mechanicsburg, Journal :
We heard a few days ago an old story told that was as good as new, and here is the substance of it. It should be dedicated to ‘delinquent subscribers’ We have a good many ‘friends’ who, we hope, will read it with tears in their eyes:
A young man who ardently desired wealth, was visited by his Satanic majesty, who tempted him to promise his soul for eternity, if he could be supplied on this earth with all the money he could use. The bargain was concluded—the devil was to supply the money, and was at last to have the soul, unless the young man could spend more money than the devil could furnish. Years past away, the young man married, was extravagant in his living, palaces, speculated widely, lots and gave away fortunes, and yet his coffers were always full.
He turned politician, and bribed his way to power and fame without reducing his pile of gold.— He became a filibuster, and fitted out ships and armies, but his banker honored all his drafts. He went to St. Paul to live and paid the unusual rates of interest for all money be could borrow, but though the devil made a wry face when he came to pay the bills, yet they were all paid. One expedient after another failed, the devil counted the time, only two years, that he must wait for the soul, and mocked the efforts of the despairing man.
One more trial was resolved upon, the man started a newspaper. The devil growled at the bills at the end of the first quarter, was savage in six months, melancholy in nine, and ‘broke,‘ ‘dead broke,’ at the end of a year. So the newspaper went down but the soul was saved. [Mineral point Democrat.]
From— Southern Sentinel. (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.), 05 Sept. 1857. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
