The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-10-19

Practices simpiy because Everybody Else
Does--How Much Is Reasonable and
How Much Is Merely Arbitrarys
Every human being grows up inside q
sheath Of custom, which enfolds II as the
swathing clothes enfold the infant. The
sacred customs OF ones own early homo,
how fixed and immutable they appear TO
the child II surely thinks that all the
world In all times has proceeded on tho
same lines which bound its tiny life. II
regards breach of these rules (some Of
them, at least) as wild step in the dark
leading to unknown dangers. The elders
have always said (snd, indeed, 1t seems
only reasonably that by this time Of day
everything has been so thoroughly worked
over that the best methods Of ordering
our life-food, dress, domestic practices,
social habits-have long ago been deter
mined. II SO, why these divergences In
the simplest and most obvious mattersf
And then one thing after another gives
way. The sacred. world wide customs In
which we are bred turn out to be only
the practices Of small or narrow caste or
class; or they prove to be confined to
very limited locality, and must be left be-
hind when we set out on our travels; or
they belong to the tenets of Q feeble sect;
In history and no other.
Are there really no natural boundaries2
Has not our life anywhere been founded
on reason and necessity, but only on arbi-
trary customs1 What Is more important
than food, yet In what human matter are
there more arbitrary divergences of prac-
ticeY The Scotch Highlander fourishes
on oatmeal, which the English Sheffield
iron worker would rather starve than eat;
the fat snail which the Roman country
gentleman once so priced now crswls un-
molested in English or American gardens;
rabbits are tabooed In Germany; frogs are
unspeaksble In England; ssuerkraut Is
detested In France many races and
gangs Of people are quite certain they
would die If deprived Of meat; others
think spirits of some kind O necessity,
while to others again both these things
are an sbomination.
AND YET, WHY Norf
Every district has It's local practices In
food, and the peasants look with the
greatest suspicion on any new dish, and
can rarely be induced to adopt It. Though
1t has been abundsntly proved that many
Of the fungi are excellent eating, such Is
the force Of custom that the mushroom
alone is ever publicly recognized, while
curiously enough 1t is said that In some
Olner WutrS lue VI Juliet
agarics are allowed the mushroom itself
is not used. Finally, l feel myself land
the gentle reader probably feels the same)
that l would rather die than subsist ON
insects, such is the deep seated disgust
we experience toward this class Of food.
Yet it is notorious that many races of
respectable people adopt a diet of this
sort, and only lately book has been pub
lished giving detail of excellent proven
der of the kind we habitually overlook
nasty morsels Of caterpillars and beetles.
and so forth.
And, indeed, when one comes to think
of it, what can it be but prejudice which
causes one to eat the periwinkle and re-
ject the land snail, or to prize the lively
prawn and prescribe the cheerful grass
hopperf Why do we sit on chairs instead
of on the floor, as the Japanese do, or on
cushions like the TurksH It is custom,
and perhaps 1t suits with our other Gus.
toms. The more we look into our life and
consider the immense variety Of habit In
every department of it,-even under oon-
dftions to all appearances exactly similar
the more are we impressed by the ab-
sence of any serious necessity In tho
forms we ourselves are accustomed to.
Each race, each class, each section of the
population, each unit even, vaunts its
own habits of life as superior to the rest,
as the only true and legitimate formsj
and peoples and classes will go to war
with each other In their assertion Of their
own special belief and practices, but the
question that rather presses upon the In
genuous and inquiring mind Is whether
any of US have got hold of much true Life
at an.-Home journal.