Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-12-10
RELIGIOUS BENEFITS OF SUPER
STITION.
How 1t Has Helped Out Religious senti-
ment i'll the Past.
Atlantic Month1yJ

|1hAo A>N~''te--S
may still urge its claims upon QUIZ re-
l11ctant consideration. Mr.. Andrew
Lang may pronounce it AL essential
element of humor, or a purely specula-
tive genius like Mr.. Pater may venture
to show how adroitIy it can be used rs
q help to religious sentiment; but every
age has yet vices of its own, and. being
singularly intolerant Of those it has dis
carded, is not inclined to listen to any
arguments in their favor. Superstition
burned old women for witches, dotards
for warlocks, and idiots for werewolves;
but in its gentle aspect, it often threw a
vail Of charity over man and beast. The
Greek rustic, who found water newt
wriggling in his gourd, tossed the little
creature back into the stream, remem-
bering that it was the unfortunate
AscalaDirs, whom the wrath OF Demeter
bath CONSIGNED to this loathsome doom.
The medieval housewife, when startled
by a gaullt wolf gazing through her
kitchen window, bethought her that
this might be her lost husband, roam
ing helpless and bewitched, and so gave
the starving creature food
| Owas it war wolf in the wood?
| Or was it mermaid in the sea?
| Or was it man, vile woman?
| My ain true love, that nsshaped theea
The West Indian negress still be-
slows chicken soup instead of scalling
water on the invading army Of black
ants, believing that if kindly treated
they will show their gratitude in the
only way tilat ants can manifest it--by
taking their departure.
Granted that in these acts of gentle
ness there are traces of fear and self
consideration; but who shall say that
all our good deeds are not built upon
some such trestle work of foibles? "LG
nWtlt 9oHroitpas 81 loi11. sila rG2aite ne
lsutenoA pas con1pdg1oie." And what
universal politeness has been fostered
by the terror that superstition breeds,
what delicate euphemisms containing
the very soul Of courtesy Consider
the Greeks, who christened the dread
f,1ries "Eumenides, or gracious ones;' y
the Scotch who warily spoke Of the
devil as the 'sgood man, lest his sharp
ears should catch more unAattcring
title; the Dyak, who respectfully men
tons the smallpox as "the chief the
East Indian who calls the tiger slord''
or grandfather and the Laplander,
who gracefully alludes to the white
bear as ''the fur clad one," and then re-
alize what perfection of breeding was
involved in what we are wont to call
ignorant credulity.
Again, in the stress of modern life,
how little room is left for that most
comfortable vanity which whispers i'll
our ears that failures are not faults
fro,, hot WE
must rise or fall upon our own merits
that vigilance wins success, and incapac
: ity meansruin. Butbefore the world hac
grown so pitilessly logical there was nc
lack of excuses for the defeated, and OF
untlattering comments for the strong
Did some shrewd Cornish miner open {
rich vein of ore; then it was apparent
, to his fellow toilers that the knacker
! had been at work. leading him on b,
$ their mysterious tapping to this more
fruitful field. But let him proceed
, warily, for the knacker, like its Ger
man brother, the ko'old, is but capri
cious sprite, and some day may beguil'
him into a mysterious passage or lons
| forgotten chamber in the mine, whence
he shall never more return. His bone
Y will Written in their prison, while hi
g spirit, wandering restlessly among tn
8 subterranean corridors, will be heart
3 on Christmas eve, hammering wearil
4 away till the gray dawn brighters il
the east. Or did some prosperou
!. farmer save his crop while his neigh
Q boris corn was blighted, and raise upo
his small estate more than their broade
4 acres could be forced to yield, ther
was no opportunity afforded him 70
pride OF self-congratulation. Only til
d witch's art could bring about sue
: strange results, and the same sorcerie
that had aided him had, doubtless, bee
the ruin of his friends. He was a luck
man if their indignation went no fu
s Their than muttered phrases and avcrte
G heads Does not Pliny tell us tn
n story of Crius Furius Cresius, who's
it heavy crops awoke such mingled ange
e and suspicion in his neighbors' hear
u that he was accused in the courts
e eoniuring their grain and fruit into b
e own scanty ground? If a woma
a aspired to be neater than her gossip
o or to spin more wool than they wei
1T able to display, it was only because Il
1t pixies labored for her at night; turin
u nGT WHEEL DIloh1y III UAAC AAioOAAA1oh
rs splitting the wood and drawing Il
is water, while she drowsed idly in h
Is bed.
And every night tho pixies good
Drive round the wheel with sound subduei
And lenve-in this they never fail
:, A silver penny in the pail.
- Even to the clergy this engagil
- theory brought its consultations. Wh'
- the Reverend Lucas jacobson Debe
~ pastor of Thorshaven in 1910, foul
- that his congregation was growing sill
~ he was not forced, in bitterness
10 10 spirit, to ask himself were his sermo
u dull but promptly laid all the blar
a .s upon the biergentrold, the specters
re- the mountains, whom he angrily &
s le cused in lengthy homily, of disturbi
~ ~ his flock, and even pushing their d
~ courtesy so far as to carry them
w. u. bodily before his discourse was co
~ pleted.
lie Frontier Discipline.
he The Argentine Republic employs
ce corps Of frontier guards, largely
ag cr,lited from the rowing tribes of t
dis pampas, but controlled by SPANS
Ia, American officers, who seem to enfol
ct, subordination by rather pecul