The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-11-03
THE WISDOM OF OLD OBSERVERS.


We are apt to regard various old
saws that have been preserved to us as
the epitome of the wisdom of old OBJ
servers, and possibly of some value for
that reason, as the old observer had so
little to distract attention and thought
that his or her observation was likely
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 saws AID
dicta are painfully absurd on theirface,
almost cruel to recall, when we remem-
Der 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 Mclanchthon
had belief in the existence and horrors
of the wehr wolf.
Among these legends are huge
mass of instructions rs 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 OBJ
served by people of more or less incl
lect and good breeding to-day, not,
they will tell you, that they really be-
lieve in them, but that in case the in
structions might bo true they prefer to
be on the safe side and escape the
penalties. Instructions also abound as
to the fit day for engaging servants,
for starting on journeys, for buying
According to these old dicta, if one
puts out of bed in the morning the left
foot first, nothing could go right for
the rest of the day, says Hdrper's Ba-
gar. 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 off. In the same
room with newborn child fire must
be kept burning to ward off the evil
spirits that might make changeling of
| it; the child must never be taken down.
stairs 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 3 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 TX or scissors
on the day of its christening, it will
meet its death by some sharp instru-
ment; if the sign of the cross be not
made over the baby's mouth when it
yawns, the devil will enter in at it.
To whip n child on Sunday is to ruin
it, but to whip it on Good Friday is to
make it wcll-behaved all the rest of its
life Nor, according to these words of
wisdom, can 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
willing to ruin its memory. Other
matters, too, come under the jurisdic-
ton of these ancient prohibitions. The
weddingring should not be too small,
unless one wishes for misfortune. OF
the bridal pair the one who first kneels
in prayer, or first rises from prayer, is
the one who first dies. These and a
thousand others like them are the rem
nants of former days, and we can we'll
congratulate ourselves that we have
escaped from the prison walls of reli-
ance on such notions and can afford to
laugh at our fallen fetters.