Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-13
SUPEHSTITiOFS SLAVES.
PEOPLE OF ALL TIMES HAVE CLUNG TO
GOOD AND EVIL OMENs.
Mary Anderson Thinks that a Broken
Mirror is the Forerunner
of Good Luck.


Mirror is the Forerunner
of Good Luck.
1t is more than astonishing how super
stition of one kind or another takes its
hold on the mind of even the strongest
men and women, and the seed once planted
soon produces fruit, for the soil seems es-
pecially adapted for the nutrition of a
plentiful crop. Superstition grows by
what it feeds on, and though it may be
escaped for time, as man may, by pre-
cautions, shun the measles or scarlet fever,
the chances that he will be free from an
attack of this insidious disease are infn-
itely smaller than that he can go through
his life without suffering from those infan-
tile illnesses.
No age has been absolutely free from su-
perstition. If documentary evidence could
be produced, or had an Edison lived then
and taken down the conversation on pho
nographic cylinder, Adam and Eve would,
no doubt, be found to have had their be-
liefs in good and bad luck, and we should
probably discover that on the morning of
the day on which the apple looked too
juicy and ripe to be withstood, Mrs. Eve
looked over her left shoulder, or put her
left shoe-if she had one-on her dexter
pedal extremity"
To be once superstitious is to be super
stitious for all time, and with increasing
reasons for apprehension. Though ignor-
ance is undoubtedly the parent of supersti-
ton, yet so firmly has this offspring i'm
pressed itself on the world at large that
scarcely one can be found who, if he would
really speak truth, would deny that on
some one point he believes that this or
that will show promise of good or evil,
and in most cases it is for evil that people
look, and have in consequence made signs
to warn them against it. As Addison
says:
"As if the natural calamities of life
were not sufficient for it, we turn the most
Indifferent circumstances into misfortunes,
and suffer as much from trifing accidents
as from real evils. | have known the
shooting of star spoil nights rest, and
| have seen man in love grow pale and
lose his appetite upon the plucking of a
merry thought. A screech-owl at night
has alarmed family more than band
of robbers; nay, the voice of a cricket
hath struck more terror than the roaring
of lion. There is nothing so inconsider-
able which may not appear dreadful to an
Imagination that is filled with omens and
prognostications. A rusty nail or a
crooked pin shoots up into prodigies."
Every element has contributed its share
to the sum of the portents. Every day of
the week, month and year, every season, is
regarded by different nations as lucky or
the reverse. Tribal superstitions are as
marked as other customs, and portents OBJ
tain in one place which are not known in
another. The animal and vegetable world
furnish omens, and, in fine, it is difficult to
say what may not be impressed into the
service of the seeker after warnings and
against i'll or harbingers of good fortune.
Birds have always been used as portents.
and, if they could appreciate the estima-
tion in which they are held by mortals,
the "Jonahs" must have anything but a
happy time-eyen though they console
themselves with the reflection that their
'evil reputation has been got without
merit" or their good 'lost without de-
serving"
The raven has always been regarded as
unlucky-the idea starting probably be-
cause of its color; but even he may not be
SO black in his representations as he is
painted. A story is told that on one occa-
sion croaking raven peIched on a house,
and, in spite of the efforts of the inmates
to dislodge it, refused to move A neighbor
assured them that it was foreboding of
death, and advised that the date and time
be noted. This was done, and some weeks
after letter arrived from Australia. con-
veying the intelligence that on the very
day and at the hour the raven appeared a
near relative Of the family had died.
The evil reputation Of the owl, too, is
almost universal. The American Indian
regards it with i'll favor, and in Siam its
perching on roof is regarded as prophetic
of death in the house. In some parts of
England its cry is said to fortell hail and
rain with lightning. Abhorred in life,
it is nailed to the barn door after death in
order to avert mischief or ill-luck, because
of a belief, no doubt, that other things
evil would be afraid to come into its neigh
borhood.
But the same unanimity of belief does
not prevail in all cases, and the magpie
furnishes an example of this. Mr.. Bourne
says that three magpies augur successful
journey. Sir Walter Scott, on the other
hand, relates that his friend, William
Clark, in journey to London by mail
coach, found himself in company with a
seafaring man of middle age and respec-
table appearance, who announced himself
as master of a vessel in the Baltic trade
In the course of the conversation, the sea-
man, looking up, said:
Il wish We may have good luck there
is magpie."
"And why should that be unlucky ?"
asked Mr.. Clark
81 can't tell that" replied the other,
''but all the world agrees that one magpie
bodies ill-luck, two are not so bad, but
three are the evil one himself ! never
saw three magpies but twice. The first
time | nearly lost my vessel, and the Sec
ond time | fell from horse and was very
much hurt"
Some birds, on the other hand, are sup
posed to bring good luck, and people going
hunting used to fasten bittern's claw TO a
buttonhole by ribbon in order to insure
good sport, forgetting, of course, that good
sport to them meant the reverse to the
hunted, as in the case of the boys and the
frogs. But probably all the animals that
were chased looked on the bittern's claw
as Of ill-omen, so that the matter was bal
anced in that way.
The superstition that if one breaks a
mirror he will be attended by ill-luck for
seven years, is well known. But it is not
universally accepted. Miss Mary Ander-
son, for instance, does not believe in it.
but rather likes to smash glass. She had
a very handsome hand-mirror for some
time, bat one evening during her last tour
she broke it. Some one standing near
mentioned the superstition, and the actress
replied "Oh, don't believe in that:
never had so much luck in my life as the
season during which broke seven mirrers;
that was my first engagement at the Ly-
ceum."
Yet in spite of this expression many
people will, no doubt, seen an omen of dis
aster-Miss Anderson's illness, and the
subsequent abandonment of her tour-in
this very broken mirror.
Reasons for some superstitions are quite
apparent, but it is difficult in most cases
to understand how the belief originated