Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-11-15
ARE THEY HARBINGERs OF DEATH9
strange A ctions of Animals Believed
10 be Fatal Forecasts.

| W OC
Do animals have some mysterious psyche
logical intuition OF the approach OF death to
the family in which they are domicledl 1t
would seem so from the many cases on record
IN which domestic animals have acted in &
strange and excited manner just previous
10 the decease OF some member OF the house,
hold. Sir Walter Scott frequently alluded 10
this feature OF the dumb creation. Edgar
Allen Poe wrote a frishtful tale Of a black
cat. Truth and superstition have been both
called uron to help contribute these remsrha-
bic stories to the literature OF the past
There are people to- day who believe the cat
Is invested with the power OF the evil eye:
that the purring tabby of the Preside will
suck the breath Of the sleeping infant. A
well known professional nurse OF this city,
who has an Investigating mind. gave her ex-
perence to reporter:
~ am not superstitious." she said, "but
am never called out TO nurse In new place
without feeling glad when learn that there
| Is no cat about the house. find 10 impossi.
BILE to divest myself OF feeling Of fear that
was grounded in inc when child An infant
member OF my family was dying. These was
a great scratching and mewing at the door,
and strange cat walked in when the door
was opened. 1t was a great, Withholding
creature, and 1t crept stealthily TO the side OF
the sick child, which 1t regarded with the
most serious attention. Then 1t went slowly
| out and my mother said In awe struck tones:
! The child will not live"
| THE little one died the next morning"
"What became ofthe catf"
at remained with us aud we could not get
! rid OF IT. for a long time 1t was a con-
! slant source of annoyance. At last we put
! II into bag and took 1t away. / suppose we
we're afraid OF another superstition-that II
we killed a cat We would always have bad
tuck"
us that the only instance you know Of
! eat forerunning deathP'
"No knew a family where the youngest
| child boy OF thirteen. had a pet cat which
! he raised himself. He was out one day
playing, when the cat walked into the parlor,
and, standing before the sofa. mewed pite-
0usly. It was impossible TO drive the animal
from that particular spot or stop Its cries.
A little later the child was brought in dead
he had been drowned-and was laid on the
sofa at that very spot where the cat had
cried"
~ have had great trouble with my sick
people," remarked the same nurse, "from
! logs bowling under their window"
Cannot that be prevented by claiming up
the dogl"
at is not always the family dog. have
known dogs to go a long distance to sit aud
howl under a window where some one was
! lying ill.n
elbow do you account for thstW
! II have heard IL said by people who had
ooked into the matter that IL is the unusual
light and noises that disturb the dogs. Then
! there is another theory that the powerful
sense OF smell in these animals enables them
to detect In the atmosphere odors nOxious to
J them.n
'Have you ever noticed any peculiar re-
suit from the bowling OF a dogp
! "Nothing but the nervousness and depres-
sion OF the patient / must say that II is an
appalling sound TO hear at the dead OF night.
/ have known the patient TO recover In sev-
eral cases. In Que death had already set in
and 1t was favorite house dog that howled
all night Even IL one has no superstition 1t
causes thrill OF fear TO hear such melan-
choly aud unusual souud.--Hmi telegram