Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-04-01

hte-o anu iuolguHlcanI JDl1gS WHICH
make an impression upon the minds OF
weak persons, and sometimes upon
stronger ones. The average old nurse
VIII by no means permit young babe
to see itself in a looking-glass, lest il
should be silver grown" Others will
not permit another to look over their
shoulderSiwhile they are before look
ing glass and some women ara so super
stitious that they will not pass before a
glass while another is. looking into it. 1t
is said to be unlucky to pass out of q
room containing more than one door in if
though any except the door you entered
1t by. LII a woman enters store first
on Monday morning it bodies i'll luck for
business the rest of the week.
If we pass from the city to the coun-
try it will be found that superstitious
notions increase. Farmers have their
signs for planting and for cutting their
crops, for shearing their sheep and for
many other things.
Root crops planted in the light of the
moon," or when the moon is on the in
crease, viii all run to tops and fall. On
the other hand, the increasing moon is
the time for planting cereals and tsbac-
co. The Pennsylvania and Virginia
housewives plant their gardens scrupu-
lo0sly by the signs of the zodiac, firmly
believing that there is powerful infiu-
enee, at work in the matter. When hogs
are killed in the decline of the moon
the bacon will shrink: but if killed
when the moon is near its full, it will
cure nicely and be plump and juicy.
Timber must be cut, also, in a certain
time of the moon, according to the use
that Is to be made of it. lift is intend
ed for building or for rails, it must be in
the decline of the moon. and if for fuel
tt must be cut when the moon is at the
IqiLtl The German farmers of the Shen-
andoah Valley have many superstitions
They believe in signs and tokens, omens
and ghosts, and some of them firmly be-
lieve in the existence of witches.
There once lived at a fiOurshing little
Village in Shenandoah county German,
whose principal occupation was that of
teaching. He was well educated, and
taught both English and German, but he
pretended to have faith in many of the
snpeistitious notions of the Dutch far
mers ct that section. His name was
johnny Snyder. He taught the village
senool. and was often sent for to write
wills and make coLveyances He was
sort OF factotum wherever he went,
and was held in high estimation. John
ny Synder had one weakness love for
hard cider-and when under its infiu-
ence he sometimes believed himself to
be . great magician. Synder professed
to have
GREAT POWER OVER RATS,
and many believed that he could rid
house of them by simply giving them
notice to quit. He would sometimes be
sent for to 60 a considerable distance in
to the country. and wo'd leave his school
to take care OF itself to accommodate
some friend whose premises were trou-
hled with nomads. 1t is said that be used
q form OF writing which he would
place in their hiding place, warning them
20 ie2ve Dy eer1aiff time, on pain of death
by fire or poison. Hundreds of people
were ready to testify that snyder never
Jailed to crive rats away whenever he
ATTEMPTED the job.
There are people who do not believe
that Johnny Snyder could drive away
rats by simply warning them off, but
they firmly believed in the moons
influence and signs and tokens quite as
mysterious. A gentleman of Intelli-
gence in Baltimore trims his finger nails
only in certain time of the moon, be-
cause he feels certain that in this way
he prevents them from growing into the
flesh. And so there are hundreds who
ridicule the superstitious notions of 9TH
er people and yet cling to notions of
their own equally as improbable and alb
surd in the opinion of those who disbe-
lieve in all these things Baltimore
American.