Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-12-20

Silly Superstitions Which Have Graiiu.
ally Given Way to Common Sense.
We are apt to regard various old saws
that.have been preserved to us as the epit-
ONE of the wisdom of old observers, and
possibly of some value for that reason, as
the old observer had SO little to distract at
tention and thought that his or her Observe
ton was likely to be closer and Of more
worth than the generalization of to-day,
when people are skipping from point to
point, and, like rolling stones, staying no
where long enough to gather any moss.
But how many of these old laws and dicta
are painfully absurd on their face, almost
cruel to recall, when we remember that
there were people who had no recourse but
to believe in them; people, too, who could
hardly be blamed in their day for any sort
of belief, while both st. Augustine and
Melanchthon had belief in the existence aid
horrors of the wehr-wolf
Among these legends are huge mass Of
instructions as to which day of the week,
for instance. is the best one for cutting the
hair and trimming the nails; rules, to be
sure, that are observed by people of more
or less intellect and good breeding to-day,
not, they will tell you, that they really be-
ieve in them, but, that in case the instruc-
tons might be true, they prefer to be on
the safe side and escape the penalties. In
structions also abound as to the fit day for
cuSdSluR ScitdIfGSs luz StStrUHS OL JUL
neys, for buying houses, building and other
matters According to these old dicta, if
one puts out of bed in the morning the left
foot first, Lothing could go right for the rest
Of the day. If one did not want ghosts to
visit the bedside at night, one must not put
the heels of ones shoes toward the bed in
taking them of. In the same room with a
newborn child fire must be kept burning,
to ward of the evil spirits that might make
q ohonrpolin of If tho child hQ
taken downstairs before it has been taken
upstairs, lest it should never rise in the
world; it must not be shown itself in the
glass before it is three months old, or it will
die; it must not have its little nails cut in
that time, or it will prove liar; If its
mother touches blade, Or axe, or scissors ON
the day of its christening, 1T will meet it's
death by some sharp instrument; if the
sign Of the cross be not made over the
baby's mouth when it yawns the devil viii
enter in at it.
To whip a child ON Sunday is to ruin It.;
but to whip it on Good Friday is to make
it wellbehaved all the rest of its life. Nor,
according to these words of wisdom, can q
child be allowed to walk backward, for the
child who walks backward drives its
parents by just so many steps toward the
bottomless pit; nor may you allow child
to read and eat at the same time, unless
you are viking to ruin its memory. Other
matters, too. come under the jurisdiction
of these ancient prohibitions. The, we'd
ding ring should not be too small unless
one wishes for misfortune. OF the bridal
pair, the one who first kneels in prayer, or
first rises in prayer, is the one who first
dies. These and a thousand others like
them are remnants of the beliefs Of former
days, and we can well congratulate our
selves that we have escaped from the
prison walls of reliance on such notions,
and can afford to laugh at our fallen fet
terA-Hoyp:r's Bdzdr.