Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-12-04
Traditions of Elders.

Of ours swung to the music of the re-
ioicing Morning Stars, We have been
slaves to the traditions of the elders.
Naturally | except our father Adam.
who. among numerous disadvantages,
commercial and domestic, such as lack
of convenient markets and dearth of
mothers-in-lsw, WAS never accused of
inherited vices nor of stupidity pacing
the worn path of his forefathers-
What are traditions? Sayings hand
ed down from father TO son, or literally
handed across the centuries As 1t
would be absurd to call them truth, SO
1t would be unjust to call them pure and
unadulterated lies. For many of our
traditions have an honest origin, and
most of them had a grain of truth.
You have all heard the story of the
Three Crows" And we all known,
sometimes to our amusement and some
times 10 our bitter sorrow that the
same story Is told to-day IN every vii
lage in the land. A group of ominous
birds with sablewing and dismal croak,
spring often from some very harmless
foible or weakness, and swoopIng down
through the centuries, become wor-
shipped traditions.
While writing, 1t occurs to me that
the crow tradition teaches US two les
SUNS hbt oh'N TIC Ol tue
human ears to err in hearing, but our
care that no backward trace of the
story shall oblige us to confess 1t origi-
mated in something "As black sir, as a
crow"
Yes, tGs are slaves TO the traditions of
our elders; and some OF them are quite
absurd. Intelligent people have been
known to grow pale at the sudden
breaking of mirror, the bowling of
dog at night, the blossoming of the
harmless hUuse-leek or even the
cracking open of loaf of bread while
baking. 1t Is not SIX months since
1 heard a person argue for the infalli-
bihty Of the sign of dropped dishcloth,
and during a summer Iaunt among
the CstskIll mountains, l found the
most intelligent mouutaineers as
slavish wOrshippers of the moon as the
idolatrous Assyrians; planting sowing
and even the slaughtering of the domes-
tic animals must take place at certain
phases of the moon, or dire would be
the results
This Is all preposterous of cOur. e,
but the trmness of the faith of those
lunatics-l do not mean crazy people
10 something approaching the sublime.
Some of our traditions are very beau
nful, and one of the keenest delights of
hs human intellect Is to find under the
gorgeous coverings of the Imagination,
lighted by the nitching moonlight of
fancy, the rich nugget of truth. Wit
ness the lovely traditions of the life of
Buddha, the miraculous birth, the
strange contrasts of princely pomp and
pressing poverty, to the glorious ascen-
non 10 an absorption in the great ocean
of Love and Light.
How many fascinating hours have We
spent over the splendid traditions of
the Greeks in their singing robes" of
the Romans with their heroic trumpet /
calls; of the ScandInavians with their |
gloomy Hell and scarcely less terrible
Valhalla, but with a certain |
lurid magniicence.
am slowly but surely coming TO the /
traditions of the elders to which we are 4
slaves. Sayings accepted to-day as re-
hgious truths, although they originated /
IN the midst of environments utterly /
alien to the present time.
Let us look at some of these tradI-
6ons Of our elders. One of the sayings
handed down from father to son is the
depravity of the children of ministers.
Most of us have learned the entire fall
sity of this by experience We have
not the shadow Of n doubt that If a
moral census OF the Juvenile world
could be taken we should find far
higher standard than elsewhere pre-
vaIing in the homes of ministers.
Indeed, as a teacher of long and
large experience. the writer of this can
testify that many of her manifest boys
and lovehest girls came from minister's
families Yet this old saying is calmly
quoted by those who know its absurd
Ity.
Another tradition is the utter ini-
guilty of mothers-in-law; a thief or even
. murderer Is white innocence in COM
parison. She is the ruthless destroyer
OF the happiness of families and peace
Of homes. The hopeless imbecility OF
this saying Is manifest in the fact that
mothers, with their wide, loving hearts,
aud sweet, sacrificing souls, are used as
the type of everything highest and
hohest, and every mother-in-law must
frst be mother. How can an angel
30 suddenly become n demon? The
fault must surely lie with the son-in-
law; and the saying needs remodeling.
The undue severity of parents and
teachers, partial truth of the 10th and
18th centuries, Is greatly commented
upon by some of our leading papers to-
day. None see the rIdiculousness of .
this more than the much abused chill
writer cannot vouch for the rest of the
world. but having traversed this coun-
try from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
where children are almost universally .
first and elders last, she feels like pray
ing these all powerful ones to be less
severe upon their helpless, If not inno-
cent elders
Another current belief is the scheu-
ing IN a matrimonial direction of vid- .
ows; when with few exceptions, widows
are the most satisfied of human beings.
At the time of the birth of this saying,
probably she was not so, but woman's ,
plane to-day Is much higher and broader
than II was seen twenty-five yenrs ago. .
On = par with this, Is the utter lone
hness, forlornness and can't-helpable- ]
ness Of women who live a single life,
when some of the most attractive, in
telhgent and successful workers IN the
worlds harvest field belong to this, in
many instances, favored class. The in
huence of this last tradition Is growing
fainter with the revolving years ON
thinking minds, but to this day many
man with the intellect, but not the vir-
tue Of his Ascidian ancestor, will say OF
= woman who stands queen on the social
and intellectual stage, IF L were not a
married man, rather than have so nice
. woman an old maid, L would marry
her myself" AHd he thinks ne could
GRACE BUM.
4 trGtoprOor whItewash is in use in
Germany. The powder from three
parts silicious rock (quartZ), three
parts broken marble and sandstone, |