The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1882-09-28
THE CRANKY SIDE,
The Supers:itions and FolIIes OF the Aver
age Man.
From hc .1tlnnta Constitution.

some things, but it is the poorest weather
for farmer to save fodder or crab grass
hay ever saw. What we pull down
ono day we close the next and what we
don't pull is fast getting too old and rus.
" to be OF any account, and SO reckon
we Will have to give it up. That is bad.
very bad. But then we have got Il good
lot OF clover and pea vine hay put away,
II these dog days don't last more than a
week longer the crab grass will keep green
enough to cut, and most everybody can
s;iaceze along. Il manages i,e corn 10
strip the fodder of anyhow, for they saw
that the blades are the lungs of the plant
and ought TO stay on until the fruit is
ripe. The farmers don't pull fodder ut
AL IN Kentucky, but will say this, that
it is about The best long forage Il man
can have i'll his barn. Indian corn is n
wonderful plant anyhow, aud is one good
thing VIC got from the Indians, if no
more. 1t is now a standard article of
iood over all the world though remem-
Der when | WAS boy and there was n
great famine over in Ireland our people
sent over a cargo to Liverpool to 'bo
ground up aud given to the sufferers and
the London 7smrs noticed it with its nose
turned up, and said they had heard that
cattle and hogs could subsist on such food.
probably the poor Irish would eat it
rather than starve. Corn bread and
hominy use to be almost altogether south
err, dishes, but now you fine egg bread
an ana pearl grits very popular everywhere.
The Yankees who came south long
time ago said that it scratched their
throats but after while their throats got
hardened 10 it and they liked it. Last
year the people of Ohio used up two
million bushels in making starch, and
now since they have found out how to
make syrup out of it there is no telling
how much Of It will go that way, for it
makes very good syrup, and can be made
ABOUT as cheap as sorghum. We are sun
drying some new corn now for new meal
and big hominy, and if there is any dish
better than the old fashioned lye hominy
don't know it. The Indians called It
connasency, and our forefnthers learned
from them how to make it. l remember
the time when most every old fashioned
house wife had n big wooden mortar and
used to break the corn with pestle. /
reckon they had the same sort Of mortars
| IN Solomon's time, for he snys, "thourh
thou shouldst bray fool in mortar with
pestlc, yet will not his fooishness depart
from him" used to believe he tried il.
but don't now.
SoNN AMI MAlUEMhTItS.
There are some curious thing .bout
corn, and one is where co the red cars
and the speckled ears come from when
you don't plant any but white corn, and
another is, why don't We find an ear with
an odd number of rows on it. You can
find four leaf clover, but have never
found the odd row on IN ear of corn vet.
1t is always fourteen, or sixteen, or TWEEN
ty or some even number, arid | would
like to understand what corn knows
about mathematics, and what objection
nature has to odd numbers But nature
is full of mysteries. was looking at
some honeycomb tho other day, aud
wondered how 1t could be made 30 true
and uniform and perfect even under
microscope, and yet be all made in the
dark. and would ike to know how
the lightning bug kindles the fire in his
tail 30 suddenly, and I've noticed that
there ID not only light in il to show him
how to travel, but there is power in it
that pushes him forward and always up.
ward. lie rises rs he lights, which he is
n good emblem. When man sets him
self up "a a preacher, or teacher, or II
statesman, and undertakes TO throw light
around upon the people he ought to 10
live by precept and example that he
would rise higher and higher as he lumi-
mated. And right before ME in front of
the piazza are two vines climbing cane
-one madeira and tho other a jessa-
mine-and they cross each other Mt every
round climbing in opposite directions,
and have tried to make 'em reverse,
but they won't. You may tie one with
q string, but it will squirm and twist out
Of it and go according to its nature.
This weather is good for some things.
navcr saw as Ans Il prospect for srtrrnins
and sweet potatoes, and then the flowers
keep OIL blooming and don't have to
water 'em every day like did last sum-
mer. But these dog are very un.
popular, for they say that fresh meat
wont keep, and milk turns sour, and
children have boils and grown folks have
headache, and mosquitoes sing around
and snakes perambulate. They say that
dog days begin when the dog star rises
with the sun and lasts about month,
and the ancients who worshipped the
stars believed that when the dog star and
the sun got SO close together they went
TO tussing and the malignant influence of
their quarrel was felt all over the uni
verse. This superstition has been hand
cd down to Us from tho generations who
have gone before and 1t shows how long
superstition will hang on to our nature.
sENsELEss sUpERsrIrIoNs.
1t is like seeing the new moon over the
left shoulder, or through the brush of
tree, or like beginning journey, or TO
make new garment on Friday. It ia
astonishing how we let thcso senseless
superstitions take hold of us, even when
We don't believe in them at all. STAYED
over night with man of more than or
dinary sepse-a strong minded, well-bal-
anced man and when asked him why
the carpenter who built his new house
didn't cell up that hole overhead he said
ne wouldn't let him, for it was bad luck
to finish house, and that plank was left
OFT on purpose and when that man for
got anything and went back after it he
always made o cross mark on the ground
and spat in it before he turned round.
There is clever old woman living near
us who makes lye soap for my wife and
she makes it by the moon, and declares
most solemnly she can't make good soap
any other way. And Green Foster told
me that if man had big lot of children
| and wanted his hog meat to make heap
of gravy he must kill his pork in the
dark of the moon, for then it would
shrink and juice away but if he wanted
it to swell up and make big show he
must kill it while the moon is on the
increase. I'm sorry didn't know that
! yhen I syaa raiaino mo nock fnr fhav