News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-12-06
THE ODUrM OF FRIDAY.
A Day Believed by Many to Be Fated with
III-Iuck,


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 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 to the custom which chooses
Friday as the one day on which muir
derers must expiate their crimes. In
the preamble 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 allotted by its selection as
hanging day" In this they are UNI
doubtcdIy right, and there are serious
reasons why the change they advocate
is to be desired.
1t is a fact not to be disputed that
vast multitude of people, even in this
| nd of boaste1 intelligence, are under
the influence of the Friday superstition.
The statistics of railway travel iufalljbly
indicate the dread which the day in
spires. 1t is well 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 so 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-
cholv, 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 chat Jefferson Davis was also born
on Friday, that the Southern Confeder-
acv was formed on that day. that Col.
Ellsworth was shot, and that President
Polk. President Lincoln, President
Pierce and Horace Greeley all died on
FRIDAY. There is no reason to believe
that Friday superstitiOns are declining;
on the contrary, it is by many thought
to he increasing.
If the unanimous expression of the
Thirteen Club that other DAYS of the
week should bear at least their share of
the Odium attaching to Friday effects
the desired change in the "reprehensi-
BILE custom" which makes Friday hang
ing day, it Is possible that it will mark
the beginning of the decline in this
country of the superstition which for
centuries has regarded the day as I'M
lucky. 1t Is true that Friday was cho-
sen for hanging because it was regarded
as unlucky, rather than regarded as
unlucky because it Is chosen for hang
ing; but to change the custom as to
executions would lift from it Il great
weight OF gloom Certainly it is a
public misfortune to have one day in
every seven associated with misfortune
and filled with dark foerbodings and
Governors and Judges may wisely heed
the suggestion of the thirteen times
thirteen members of the Thirteen Club
as to making all other days bat Sunday
bear their share of the odium now
attaching to Friday as hanging day
NelC York NAL and Express.