Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-03-13
WHICH WAY IS r
Diferent Methods Of Fighting Persons
Who GET ssrurned Around"

VINO ect AuIhca 64ooha
Nothing is better known than that
some people have q keen sense Of di-
rection, while others do not, and yet
every one is aptto get turned around
sometimes, losing the correct judg-
ment Of direction. When such an
error is made, the person who has be-
come turned around" is under the
necessity of being set right. The
French have q special term for this;
one who establishes his direction is
said TO ~s'orienter, which meal liter
ally TO east ones self; and the n of
direction is called ''orientation," q
word which the English language has
borrowed.
The tendency of the English speak
ing people, however, is to use the
north as the starting point of direc-
ton, rather than the east. A people
whose ancestors have lived chiefly in
land, like the Romans and the French,
think naturally of the rising of the
sun as giving the central point of di-
rection.
A sea faring race, on the contrary,
looks to the North Star as the one
fixed, Interchangeable point, sure to
guide a ship accurately. So a person
Of the Anglo-Saxon race is almost sure
toask, when turned around, ""Which
way is northf"
When one has found the North
Star, or seen the sun rise or set, after
being turned around" is he really
set right in his own ems of the direc-
toni
One may easily make a mistake,
especially in a city OF within a house,
and even become turned clear
around" making north seem south,
and east west. When he IN corrected
is it within his power to make the di-
rections seem right
There is a great difference between
individuals in this respect. Some are
instantly conscious Of the points of
the compass wherever they may be;
they may err, but they cannot avoid
the sense for q moment that one way
is north and another south.
Others seldom give the directions in
O strange place a thought until they
are informed, and such persons find II
hard to understand the case of others
who, though living for years in a
place where they have once been
turned around" can never make the
point seem right" and r often
much distressed by the fact.
There is reason to believe that the
people who find it hard to escape from
an error Of this sort are really the ones
who have the keenest natural sense OF
direction. They are acutely conscious
of direction, and when they have
made q mistake, find the impression
SO deep that il cannot be shaken of.
Such persons errors are apt TO be
few, and TO be made in towns and the
interiors of houses. In the open fields
and woods they seldom err, while the
person who easily adapts himself tc
the information OF others is likely, in
the woods, to move about in a circle
and become lost
The savage has q better sense of di
rection that the civilized man, becaus,
he has had more occasion to cultivat'
il. 1.-The civilized man." says Emer
son, ''has a Greenwich nautical al
manac, and so, being sure of the in
formation when he wants it, the mar
in the street does not know a star il
the sky"
But il is a mistake to suppose thai
the Indian is never turned around
In cities he often is, and sometime.
even in the woods. II is his confidence
in himself which has led many person,
TO suppose that the Indian never err.
in his direction. The story Of the los
Indian who said, 'Indian no lost; wig
wan lost, may well have been true
for even the savage, though he trust,
his own Judgment, may lose his sens
Of direction.
But the Chinese, although the frs
people TO use the artificial means o.
fixing the direction-the compax-fol
the most part have the gift Of judging
the direction instinctively. They nevel
say, turn to the right, "''turn to tn,
left" in showing the way, but alwayl
turn to the NORTH" or to the south
and so on. Their sense OF direction
probably does not, however, come
from a particular gift, but from tn,
practice, very common with them, Of
- a.