Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-02-15
L tCk I NEMBERS.

| ueVe III lucky numbers. The mystical
properties of numbers and the doctrine
OF chances have both something to do
in this matter. Card-players have a
number crochets of this kind-'luck nm
der the deuce, bad luck under the nine
of diamonds, an even number for the
trump card. One theory says that even
numbers are lucky, because each can be
divided into two, thereby denoting death
and dissolution. One nation made the
year consist of 359 days, in order that it
should not divide into twelve equal
months. Some of the early Christians
pronounced for odd numbers, because
God is in 3, and because He made holy
| the seventh day. The number and its
multlples were on other grounds made
lucky, because human being sheds his
teeth at Z, becomes youth ut twice I,
man at thrice 7, and reaches his grand
cllmacterlc at nine times 7. In some
parts of England the housewives put
their hens on an odd number of eggs.
because, with an even number, they fear
there would be no chicks. The current
year of our Lord is always lucky num-
Der IN the estimation of some persons
Addison said, ill the Spectator: 81 have
been told of a certain Jealous dissenter,
who, being great enemy to Popery,
and believing that bad men are the most
fortunate in the world, will lay two to
one on the number 666 against any other
number, because, says he, it is the num-
Der of the beast This mystical num-
Der has played great part in luck spec
ulations. Some ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
will have it that 666 is the Pope himself;
while, on the other hand, Roman Cath
Ole journalist has recently striven to
show that if Bismarck were spelled Bits
marck it would be exactly equivalent to
666 Number 3 is greatly in favor of
luck school-boys insist that the third
time will be fair, or will result in sue
cess. There is an old superstition or
maxim, call it which we may, that three
handfuls of sand on a dead body are as
good as a funeral The Romans had
notions about the breadth of a camp
fosse measuring an odd humber of feet;
the holding of markets at intervals Of
an odd number of days ; the taking of
the census at intervals of an odd number
of years; the dining at a triclinium or
three-sided table; the Graces being three,
the Furies three, and the MUSES. seven.
Greek cities had an odd number of gates.
The French peasantry have knack of
making out lucky and unlucky years for
great personases, by adding together the
year of our Lord the digits which com
pose that number, the age of the indi-
vidual, and the number of years between
his birth, his marriage, or some other
notable event of his life-an elastic pro-
cess, which can be made to prove almost
anything we wish. Chambers journal.
FROM WHOM ARE THE GERMANS
DESCENDED.
lately undertaken to seek out the origin
of that German race which has just put
itself at the head of military Europe.
One is Wilhelm Obermuller, German
ethnologist, member of the Vienna Geo
graphical Society, whose startling theory
nevertheless is that the Germans are the
direct descendants of Cain The other
scholar, M. Quatrefagas, a man of still
greater reputation, dcvotes himself to a
proposition almost rs extraordinary
namely, that the Prussian pedigree is
Finn and Slav, with only small pinch
of Teuton, and hence, in an ethnographi-
cal view, is anti German!
That NJ. Quatrefages should maintain
such pOstulate, his patriotism, if not
his scientific reputation, might lead us
to expect; but that Obermuller should
be so eager to trace German origin back
to the first murderer is rather more sur
prising.
RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES.
Russia and the United States are like
great national colossi, each standing with
one foot on each side of IL hemisphere,
so that the time will come when the trav-
eler can make circuit of the earth on
the transcontinental railways of the two
powers, connected by ocean steamers.
Russia has twice the population of the
United States, but not half the intelli-
eence or wealth. One of the most sig
nifcant indications of the relative position
of the two people is their railroad sys-
tens. The Americans, with vast sea
coast, and 50, 900 miles of lake and river
navigation, have $4,000 miles of rail,
while the Russians, with less than 10, 600
miles of inland navigation, have not
5000 miles of rail. The Americans have
completed their first transcontinental
railroad, and are now working at their
second and third. The Russians have
not made preliminary survey for their
first one.
WONDERFUL STATEMENTS. - Unless
hundreds of our most responsible citi-
zens have conspired to delude the com
munity, medicine has at last been
introduced which is specific for almost
every human ailment, not involving the
entire DaralyZatiOn or partial destruction |