The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1883-12-05
THE ODIUM OF FRIDAY.
A Day Believed by Many to BE Fated with
nl-Luck.

| nl-Luck.
A newspaper reporter who has at
tended thirteen executions declares that
he will never attend another. 1t Is sug-
gested that he is now eligible as a mem
Der of the Thirteen Club, and, If he
Joins that organization, he may be ex'
pected to give most Jealous support to
the efforts of the club TO remove the
odium attaching to Friday" Having
been greatly shocked and depressed by
the spectacle he witnessed at the gal
lows in the Tombs prison'yard last FRI
day, he may be supposed to be keenly
| sensitive 10 the custom which chooses
Friday as the one day on which muir
derers must expiate their crimes. In
the peramble to their resolutions call
ing upon the President, the Governors
and Judges OF courts having power to
sentence to death TO consider the pro-
priety Of selecting other days as well as
! Friday for the hanging Of murderers,
the members of the Thirteen Club ex-
press the opinion that "the supersti-
ton connected with the day Of the
week called Friday has been materially
aided and abetted by its selection as
hanging day" In this they are I'M
doubtedly right, aud there are serious
reasons why the change they advocate
is to be desired.
1t is fact not to be disputed that q
vast multitude Of people, even in this
land of boaste intelligence, are under
the influence Of the Friday superstition.
The statistics Of railway travel infallibly
indicate the dread which the day in
spires. 1t is vol known to all railway
men that the amount Of travel on Fri
day is less than on any other day OF the
week. Many travellers carefully calcu-
late 80 as to reach their destinations
before Friday, and still more refuse to
begin journey on that day. 1t is use
less to attempt to convince the victims
of the Friday superstition that no day
of the week differs from another in the
amount of misfortune it brings; they
are seemingly deaf and blind to all that
happens on Friday which is not melan-
chOly, or at least they have no memory
for other events Of that day. If told
that George Washington, Daniel Web
ster, President Van Buren,, President
Taylor, President Pierce, President
Hayes, Edward Everett, George Ban
croft, Longfellow, Charles Dickens,
Thomas Carlyle and other notable men
were born on Friday, they are likely to
reply that Jefferson Davis was also born
on Friday, that the Southern Confeder.
acy was formed on that day, that Col
Ellsworth was shot, and that President
Polk, President Lincoln, President
Pierce and Horace Greeley all died OF
Friday. There is no reason to believ,
that Friday superstitions are declining
on the contrary, it is by many though
to be increasing.
If the unanimous expression OF tn
Thirteen Club that other days of th
week should bear at least their share G
the odium attaching to Friday effect
the desired change in the "reprehens
bic custom" which makes Friday hans
ing day, it is possible that it will mar
the beginning of the decline in TIN
country Of the superstition which fc
centuries has regarded the day as III
lucky. II is true that Friday was che
sen for hanging because it was regarde
as unlucky, rather than regarded a
unlucky because it is chosen for hanl
ing; but to change the custom as
executions would lift from it grei
weight of gloom. Certainly it is
public misfortune to have one day
every seven associated with misfortuI
and filled with dark foerbodings, IN
Governors and judges may wisely hee
the suggestion of the thirteen tm'
thirteen members of the Thirteen Gu
AS to making all other days but Sunda
bear their share of the odium no
: attaching to Friday as hanging day.
Ne,C York Mail ana Express.