Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-15
oMENs AND PoRTENTs.
Superstitious Beliefs That Hold Their
Grip on the People.

OMI4No AXsO 0AsAA&s 40'
superstitious Beliefs That Hold Their
Grip on the People.
"Do you hear that howl? '' asks the
guide, in Pardoe's Turkish Travels )" at
is foreboding of sudden death if dog
makes that sort of noise under your
window"
"Yes; in America it is apt to forebode
the sudden death of the dog" replies the
Yankee tourist.
1t is, nevertheless, a curious fact that
the belief in omens retains its hold even
on nations that have outgrown all other
superstitions. | know an intelligent
American lady who "looks out for trouble"
whenever gust of wind makes her house
door rattle in peculiar way. More than
one fearless Western miner renounces the
hope of the days luck if rabbit crosses
his path in the morning.
In tra-rationalistic France many
gamblers will withdraw their bet from the
number of card that has happened to
fall on the floor, or look for change Of
luck if they drop piece of money. A
literary friend of mine gets nervous when
ever he hears the buzz of a muck-fy culgo,
"blue-bottle."
"Macaulay," he said, "might class me
with those AFFECT minds that are super
stitious without being religious but ! can
not help it. do not even pretend to ex-
plain the coincidence, but | have noticed
it too often to light the omen. Whenever
hear specimen of those miserable in
sects boom around my room, or catch sight
of them in the open air, | can make my
market on it that something or other is
going to make that blacklist day. On
days when | am specially anxious that
nothing should go amiss | confess some.
times try to avoid, as it were, putting my
self in the way of the omen, but / rarely
find it of much use. | may keep indoors
and close every window, but presently
somebody calls TO see me. Come quick,
please calls out my little boy our fence
is down and believe there's COW in our
orchard The collapse of few fence rails
seems to have been caused by last nights
storm, for / can find no COW, but lust be-
fore leaving the orchard / catch sight of a
big blue bottle buzzing about heap of
stale apples. No mortal can avoid his
fate,' says Euriphides, and l resign myself
to the inevitable. The critical event of
that day is going to turn against me-"
"The winters of our latitude must be
agreeably free from distressing events" /
ventured to remark.
"Why, no." he laughs; 81 wish they
were; but that's not the way the thing
works. Cold weather simply leaves me
without my familiar omen. Trouble still
comes, but it comes unannounced-no
special improvement of programme, since
forewarned is often forearmed. You may
suspect warm weather of affecting my
brain; but in most respects / am rather
anti-visionary. | learned to laugh at
spooks before | was ten years of age, and
shall die without the slightest dread of
Interior calamities"
1t is, indeed, remarkable how complete
ly superstitions can be localized, TO borrow
term from physical pathology. Sailors
who have hobnobbed with Turks and
Buddhists will kick cabin boy for
whistling on the windward side of dan
gerous reef, and Alpine guides who crack
jokes about the wild huntsman and the
mountain witch will lose good job rather
than start their excursion on Friday.
Zone day is as good as another, if you are
out all week." said Coroner's witness
after the catastrophe of the Bremen Pass,
'only you must not begin ON the wrong day.
1t don't pay, no matter what wages there
are offered. After forty years experience,
] would sooner agree to start on Thursday,
Just before midnight and in the teeth of
storm, rather than in sunshine on Friday
morning"
Not all adherents to that article of
faith are equally outspoken, but the sta
tistics of the French and Belgian railways
prove that on Friday the sale of tickets
falls 80 per cent. below the daily average.
The ancient Romans kept record of
"auspicious" and ''inauspicious" days of
the year, and disliked to commence an
important enterprise on the anniversary of
disastrous event. Lucky" days, on the
other hand, wereGonsidered fair guaran-
tee of success, an idea which the great
Napoleon had firmly impressed on his
veterans. December was his favorite
month, and the I'd Of each month his
lucky day, as the 18th encouraged the
troopers of Santa Ana, till that notion
was exploded by the battle of Cerro
Gordo
"Many citizens of st. Petersburg blame
the Car for not needing the misgivings
Ot his Wllc, Sdlu d w dI5dW paper, III re-
porting the browning triumph of the
dynamiters; "no WONDER" they whisper,
shat he came to grief by venturing out
on such twice-unlucky day as the 18th
of March"
The thirteen" superstition has never
been clearly explained, though Esquirol
plausibly traces it to the number of guests
at the Lords Supper but the dread Of
March Expressed in various proverbs of |
Old England and Continental Europe) is |
almost justified by the increase of mortal |
ity at time when the disease microbes of |
our stuffy winter quarters ripen their |
germs, and the storms of the vernal equi-
nox strew the coast with wrecks.
For long series of centuries the Gre |
clan councils of war were swayed by the |
belief that military campaigns, as well as
other enterprises involving distant jour-
neys, should begin at or soon after the time |
of the new moon-the notion which pre-
vented the Spartan auxiliaries from shar-
ing the great victory of Miltiades. The |
same belief still prevails in Southeastern |
Europe and Turkish Asia, and is probably |
due to the circumstances that during the |
two weeks following the first appearance
of the crescent the moon shines during the
earlier part of the night. and thus exempts |
hunters and travellers from the necessity of |
lucky days work at sunset.
Customer-'I suppose you folks will use
artificial ice this SUMMER Confection- |
er's boy-"I dunno. Shouldn't wonder if
we snail, though We used artificial cream |
all last summer and it worked all right
Inquirer.
No urnrcrxr in the world is in better |