The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1886-11-27
OUR SUPERSTITIONS.

Foolish Beliefs Entertained by Majority
of the American People.
1t will, perhaps, surprise many Amer
leans to read, as they may do in re-
cent letter to French paper from the
United States, that the people of this
country are among the most supersti-
tious in the world, exceeding in this re-
spect the French. the Germans and the
English.
This statement can not be proved, for
Il is not true that any large number OF
Dur people equal in superstitiousness
The French peasantry, or even the En-
glish yeomanry. And yet it is undenia-
ble that our sailors are full of supersti-
lions, and that many of our farmers
are the absolute slaves of fallacieS about
the influence of the phases of the moon
upon their crops and upon the weather.
Many women, too, are apt to shudder
at the breaking of a mirror, fearing bad
luck, and a whole family of supersti-
lions has been grouped about the cat.
The idle and foolish fear, in the South
and West that it is bad luck" to re-
move cat from one house to another
with moving family, has probably
been the cause of the deSertion and cruel
death of more than one unfortunate an
imal. Many superstitions, indeed, are
wicked, and all are foolish.
The belief in the ''unluckineSs" OF
Friday is common all over the Christian
world, and retains certain hold in this
country, in spite of the lucky circum-
stances that America was discovered on
Friday. that the Pilgrims landed on Fri
day and that the Declaration of indie
pendence was adopted on Friday. The
superstition arises from the belief that
our Saviour was crucIfied on Friday.
How unworthy to suppose that the
event which saved mankind should have
doomed the world to perpetual ill-for-
tune on the day of its occurrence!
The fear of the number thirteen is not
so common in this country as it. is in
Europe. The superstition has its origin
in the fact that the apostles, with the
Saviour, made thirteen at table. The
superstition in its original form was to
the effect that if thirteen men were seat
ed together, one of the number was
sure to prove a traitor or criminal and
be hanged. As executions ceased to be
of common occurrence, the notion sim
ply that one of the thirteen would die
within a year replaced the former SUI
perstition.
The accidental spilling of salt is often
noted by the American housewife as
''unlucky," but rather, it seems, by way
of Jest than seriously. This supersti-
ton also goes back to ancient times,
when the exchange of pinch of that
necessary article, salt, was sign OF
friendship, quite naturally, and its re-
fusal token of hostility The over
throw of DISH containing it was held,
therefore, to toreshadow the end of
friendship.
Superstitions about the moon are very
old and of very varied origin. Men of
science tell us that there is, so far as in
tiuence of the moon upon the weather
is concerned. but one chance for any
such effect; and that is in the possibility
that the very slight amount of heat that
the full moon radiates may have some
little influence in dispelling clouds an6
rendering the atmosphere drier.
A good story is told of a colored NAL
in the South who, though ignorant, was
wise enough to get along without squar-
ing all his acts by the state of the moon.
He was successful gardener, and the
vegetables he produced were always the
earliest and the finest.
do you plant your seeds in the new
of the moon, Gabriel, or in the old of
the moon?" he was asked.
Go 'long!' said Gabriel; 81 plants
my seeds in de ground, an lets de moon
take care OBJ herse'fn' Youths COM
pdniOn.