The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-03-23
What Is Your Hoodoo?


dividual hoodoo. Some high-foreheaded
philosopher has said that his life is like
a game of cards, success in which lay
not so much in winning the game as in
playing poor hand well. But, like the
other sciences; that of philosophy add
vances, and the thoughtful student of
natural effects has at length dimly
learned to suspect that success in any
thing, humanity speaking, is only to be
really obtained by escaping from ones
hoodoo. This fact has been virtually
admitted, though in blind, dumb way,
by all peoples and all classes since the
existence of the world. Whether it pre-
sents itself in the fetish of the savages,
the incarnation of the gypsy or the rest
less promptings of fatality that impel
the Caucasian gambler to destroy the
precise pack of cards with which his
losses have been made, the primary
cause remains the same, and at the
bottom lies that most withdrawn of ma
lures secrets-the hoodoo.
Let the lip of the supposed superior
intelligence of our day curl never SO
superciliously at the popular fancies re-
garding what is vaguely called "luck,"
there is still something to be said for
the defendant. The sailors adherence
of sailing on Friday; the housewives
caution anent getting out of the wrong
side of the bed; the old country distaste
for meeting black cat; the worldwide
avoidance of spilling the salt at the table
may be lightly put down as "super-
stition," ''relics of barbarism," and all
that, but yet that great regulator and
originator of all theories-experienc
the slow acquired certainty of centuries
remains unchanged and unaffected, as
all natural results will be to all time.
The cold fact is that all these so-called
'superstitions" are but the outcropping
of that great, mysterious force of mega
ton in nature. which, always for want
of better word, be it understood, we
shall call the "hoodoo."
The cleverest paper ever written by
Gail Hamilton was devoted to 1.-THE
Total Depravity of Inanimate Things"
in which she particularly instances the
intelligent malice and aforethought with
which dropped article of small size, a
collar button, say, instantly rolls into
the most secret and inaccessible nook in
the whole floor. In said article she was
unconsciously formulating phase of
the hoodoo. We have known men to
be hoodooed by pair of boots, a watch,
o cane, a hOrse-aDything, in fact, may
be the medium for the transmission of
this contrary current of negation from
the great outside reservoir where it is
stored by nature, so to speak. The
great art, therefore, is to discover ones
hoodoo, and remove or destroy it, and a
most important part of the writer's
patent hoodoo theory is that all persons
can so discover their hoodoos if they
will. We do not use the comparison
"evil genius in this connection, for it
is now at least evident that this quality
of negation is purely natural, passive
and normal influence, which never va
ries, but acts with automatic and inn
partial constancy. The writer remem-
bers man in the southern part of the
State who was hoodooed by his revolver,
a certain ornate weapon presented him
by friend in the East. The scrapes
and trouble that pistol got its actually
well-meaning owner into were some
thing incredible. Finally, by an in
scrutable inspiration he recognized his
hoodoo, and wrote to his friend, its
giver, that he would return the weapon
by the same mail, of course recognizing
the fact the hoodoo of one person was
not necessarily that of another. Before
packing the pistol he withdrew the car.
tridges and placed 1t upon the mantel.
piece. While momentarily absent from
the room the thrifty China boy entered
and replaced the loads. His employer
returned, and, picking up the revolver,
pointed it at his own temple and pulled
the trigger. His hoodoo was buried
with him by order of the Coroner
Derrick Dodd.