Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-03-08
WHICH WAY Is NORTH
Different Methods of Righting Persons
who Get Turned Around"

Nothing is better known than that
some people have keen sense of di-
rection. while others do not, and yet
every one is apt to 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 special term for this;
one who establishes his direction is
said to s'orienter, which means liter
ally to east ones self and the sense of
direction is called "orientation," a
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
to ask, when turned around, ""Which
way is north2"
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 sense of the direc-
tionl
One may easily make mistake,
especially in city or within house,
and even become turned clear
around" making north seem south,
and east west. When he is corrected
is it within his power to make the di-
rections seem rightl
There is 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 moment that one way
is north and another south.
Others seldom give the directions in
strange place thought until they
are informed, and such persons find il
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 are 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 mistake, find the impression
SO deep that it cannot be shaken off.
Such persons errors are apt to be
few, and to be made in towns and the
interiors of houses. In the open field.
and woods they seldom err, while the
person who easily adapts himself tC
the information of others is likely, II
the woods, to move about in a circle
and become lost.
The savage has better sense of di
rection that the civilized man. because
he has had more occasion to cultivate
it. 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 MAJ
in the street does not know a star il
the sky"
But it is a mistake to suppose tina
lllc lHOldll Is LcNcT IuTIlcu dTOuIlu.
In cities he often is, and sometime
even in the woods. 1t is his confidenc
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, a." may well have been true
for even the savage though he trust
t 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 compass-fo
the most part have the gift of judging
the direction instinctively. They neve
say, turn to the right, turn to tn
left, in showing the way, but Away
turn to the north, " or to the south
and so on. Their sense of direction
probably does not, however, com
from particular gift, but from tn
practice, very common with them, O
studying the heavens.-Youth's Com
ranion