The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-05-15

shoulder, or carefully depositing a
little of it in the first accessible fire.
why, 1 had no idea you were SO very
superstitious."
Probably the speaker may some
day go carefully around a ladder in
the street to avoid walking under it,
and so incur the bad luck thought
certain to follow. In fact, everyone is
more or less superstitious.
Almost everybody has his own pc
culiar pet superstition. Some women
will feel uneasy for hours if they hap
pen to break a piece of china, but par
ticularly a cup on a Sunday morning,
for they have often noticed that every
thing went wrong with them for days
afterward. What woman is there
that has not had some frock, the wear
ing of which always seemed to cause
pleasant things to happen to her, so
that she would wear it in preference to
some handsomer n that she thought
was full of bad luck.
Napoleon's pet fad was a belief in
threes. Many have perfect faith in
this confusing idea.
"He has been married twice, he is
sure to do it again, !" and so on about
everything.
There are careless and unfortunate
people who keep themselves in bad
luck all their lives by breaking IN oc-
casional looking glass, and just to
break one settles them for seven years.
Not many suffer from sitting down
thirteen at the table, because they
take precious good care not to do it,
excepting the few that 40 it out OF
braggadocio, and because they belong
to the club. And we are told that at
one of their ill-omened feasts the thire
teenth candle suddenly fared up and
then died out. This was too much
for the youngest member, whose plate
was opposite to it, and he rose and
fed.
Then every one has had a dream, or
knows some one that had one, that
was very extraordinary. Things
turned out exactly as they did in the
dream, or precisely the reverse, which
amounts to the same thing. People
are m~ortally afraid of dreaming about
a wedding; they are not even partial
to dreaming about snakes, for these
are signs of enemies. 1t is a sure sign
of money to dream of eggs. 1t means
trouble to dream of rushing water,
| and to dream of fire means a letter.
There is another quite infallible
sign:-If you apparently mistrust
some one in your dreams, you might
as we'll consider them settled; they are
unworthy If regard. Then, the min
ute you get up, there are more little
matters that require attention. You
must not sing before breakfast unless
you want to cry before supper. Then,
women have to be careful to learn how
to make up q handsome bed, or else
their husbands will have homely
noses. Then, when once started for
the day, you may know if you stub
your right toe you are going where
you are wanted; your left, where you
are not wanted.
How many people are there in the
world who care to undertake much on
a Friday. The majority will not even
put on a new suit of clothes on that
married, the Friday weddings
WOuiNlIl U II Nt ~ AIhCJ
try to make out that Friday was an
important day to America, and that
there We're more Fridays than usual in
this year because it was a Centennial
year, but that doesn't stop the pre-
iudice. Governor Hill has gone SO far
as to say that it is bad luck to be
hanged on Friday. But it's a great
day in our history. 1t was on Friday,
June 13. 1892, that Columbus discov-
cred the continent of America. The
Pilgrims made the final landing at
Plymouth Rock on Friday, December
%, 1920. Friday. September %, 1880,
Arnold's treason was laid bare, and
the country was saved; and on Friday,
| October 10, 1871, the surrender of
| Yorktown, the browning glory of the
American army, occurred. The mean
ing of all this is simply that if Friday
doesn't ruin you, nothing can, and
you're bound to get ahead.
There are only three real lucky days
in May to undertake anything and
these have passed for this year. They
are the 9th, 9th and 18th. June's lucky
days are the 9TH and 18th.
One of the most sentimental super
s~titions eXtant is that it is highly I'M
lucky for a rose when worn on the
| pSASOI w oSttUSI Ato iSdNSo Oit 1iO
ground. A story as told about this in
''The Life and Correspondence of M.
G. Lewis is related in an old number
of AU the Year Round. The lady to
whom this portent happened was
Miss Ray, who was murdered at the
piazza entrance of the Covent Gar
den Theatre by a man named Hack
man.
When the carriage was announced,
and she was adjusting her dress, Mrs.
Lewis remarked on a beautiful rose
which Miss Ray wore in her bosom.
Just as the words were uttered the
flower fell to the ground, and when
Miss Ray stopped down to pick it up,
the red leaves scattered themselves on
the ground, the stalk only remaining
in the hand. The poor girl, evidently
affected by this incident, said in a
slightly f~altering voice:-'I trust / am
not to consider this an evil omen.n
But soon recovering her presence of
mind, she expressed a hope that they