The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-07-04
WITCH WAY Is NORTHf
Different Methods of Fighting Person
Who Get Turned Around"

Different Methods of Fighting Persona
| Who Get Turned Around"
Nothing is better known than that
some people have keen sense of di-
rection, while others do not. and vet
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 a 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 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-
tion2
| One may easily make a 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 d.
rections seem right?
! 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 it
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 a 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 fields
and woods they seldom err, while the
person who easily adapts himself to
the information of others is likely, in
| 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 man
in the street does not know star in
the sky"
But it is a mistake to suppose that
| the Indian is never turned around. +"
In cities he often is, and sometimes
even in the woods. 1t is his confidence
in himself which has led many persons
to suppose that the Indian never errs
in his direction. The story of the lost
Indian who said, Indian no lost; wig
wan lost" may well have been true,
for even the savage, though he trusts
his own judgment, may lose his sense
Of direction.
But the Chinese, although the first
people to use the artificial means of
fixing the direction-the compassion
the most part have the gift of Judging
the direction instinctive1y. They never
say, turn to the right, turn to the
left, In showing the way, but always
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 the
practice, very common with them, OF
studying the heayens.-Youth's Com
/ panlOn.