The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-11-30
SIGN AND SUPERSTITION,
WE REGARD HAPPENINGsF JAS A
MATTER OF LUCK.


Live in Dreams When Asleep and
They Are True Only While They
Last.
From the Wdshinqiou Post
The world is lily considered wheel of
fortune, and we take our chances as it spins
around by the finger of God. We all stake
something, the pointer Of the days clinks
loudly, and surely as fate it registers the
revolutions. Sometimes it stops at "black -
when the day demands an overooat; some-
times at ''red," and life is a prolonged
smile. and occasionally at "star green"
which pays fi7e for one-and existence is a
holiday, sunshine and roses, "Wein, webb
und gesaug."
Because We cannot more than conjecture
as to what tomorrow will bring forth, we
nave come TO regard events as happenings;
our conditions as to the caprice of chance;
varying circumstances as a matter of luck.
We hear OF the good luck OF an indi-
vldusl; We speak of distressing accidents;
we refer to chance meetings-nOt that they
are such, but because the words have been
expanded to express verything we cannot
understand. To the ignorant nothing is
the result OF a cause, but everything comes
about by chance, and all that concerns man
is good luck. or i'll, according to whether it
Is desirable or otherwise.
As the light Of wisdom broadens, luck
and chance, sign and superstition, omen
and augury, charm and tslisman. so solid
seeming and real in the gloom, fade, and we
find them such stuff as dreams are made of.
Dreams are
TRUE ONLY WHILE THEY LAST,
and we live in dreams but while we sleep.
a a nj nuln Q1 Il. mi
dents never occur; "a fool for luck" is a
proverb-none beside will claim virtue for
1t. What we call luck Is reaction; accident
is the elimination of carelessness; chance,
the collision of blind men in the dark.
A great web is being woven, the design
OF which we shall not know until we see the
right side Of the tapestry.
But until we are called by the weaver to
see the print of the loom, we shall not be
rid OF superstition-the offspring of igno-
rance and fear. We laugh at the dread
mythology OF the ancients, but we still have
few myths Of our own.
When we sneeze nowadays it does not
presage disaster, as it did In Homer's time, uor
do we regard it as The victory Of our fiery
soul over the earthly body, as did the Per
slams; but many of us are quite sure that il
we sneeze before breakfast we shall have
company during the day.
We are not now IN awe of the arts of divin-
alton; we have even forgotten the meaning
Of antiqunted alectromancy, gyromancy,
lampadomancy, ornithomancy and char
tomancy; but we still shudder when we spill
the salt. We do not, as did the Greeks and
Romans, elect augurs to Office Tor life, but
we are not comfortable when we hear the
screeching OF an owl or the croaking of that
bird of evil token, the raven; and our or
ntthomancy is that the flight of a bird into
the house portends death.
We do not often have priests impose
magic on US this year, but we pay 81 so to
see Hermann break eggs in our silk hat and
hatch rabbits in the curly hair Of the man
In front. We do not ache to wear the ring
of Gyges, which rendered him invisible,
nor banker after the circlets which in the
fair hands of Helen, the much-talked.of
wife of Menelaus, produced prophetic in-
SEPARATION, but neither do we wear, except at
the price Of well defined trepidatlon,
A RING SET WITH oPALs.
Clearly the ancients were towards, and
just as surely are we yet in favor of an in
defuable something which is crystalllzed in
the names of our superstitIons. The in
heritance from the old-timers is not all
spent. The man who is wise enough to
know the baselessness of auRury and omen
carries rabbits foot in his pocket.
The men OF this age who are without a
touch of superstition are IN the cemetery.
The man who does not feel little uneasy
because be could not touch the bump Of the
passing hunchback is the man In the moon.
Astrology was important in augury.
though prominence was given, as the word
augury indicates, to omens taken from the
flight of birds. Much, too, depended on the
cardinal points Of the compass. Omens in
the east were generally lucky, in the west
the reverse.
The right hand became Synonymous with
good fortune. AS dexter was good, SO sin
lsCer was left for i'll luck, and thus the ac-
cepted definition of sinister is evil, or I'M
lucky. Little of the art of augury is left
u.s. The theosophy of old was akin to 1t,
though It would appear more like the
magic as practiced and believed in by the
priests and wise men.
And astrology now is but an ugly dream
Of the greasy. fat women of the third floor
back, she OF the soiied chart and the glazing
advertisement in the newspaper, eking out
q miserable life from the credulity of the
girl in search of a real fortune.teiling
gypsy queen, or what not to assure her a
blonde husband descended Of the vikings
But these arts still flourish in the east.
and were common In Europe throughout
classical antiquity and during the middle
ages. They appear in remotest time as init
mately connected with religion, redoent of
rules, mired in mysterious principles,
propped up by the pretenses of science, ex-
pounded as learned doctrine, and
FORTIFIED BY A POPULAR FAITH.
Many omens have survived. Sir Thomas
Browne has discussed the proverb that our
cheeks burn or ears tingle when others are
talking of us. A drop of blood from the
nose, according to Grose, foretells illness OF
DEATH and Burton, in his "Anatomy of
Melancholy" affirms that ito bleed three
drops Of the nose is an Ill omen"
or that organ, which, of course, is a hand
organ during a cold, it is also happily re-
marked that when it itches somebody wants
to see the itched. II the right eye itches,
prepare 30 weep; IL the left, to laugh.
Grose also says that to stumble upstairs is
good luck, but to stumble when going out
is, says Bishop Hail. most unlucky.
Never return for anything forgotten.
Leaving by window ia bad luck, unless
we are followed by a cat as counter-sign.
The nocturnal bowling of a dog means
dsath. 1t is bad luck to raise an umbrella
In the house. to spill wine on the clothes,
and to spin a chair is to cut birch for your
back.
Putting on the left shoe first is bad luck,
but finding 4-leaved clover will offset it.
Two walking together will be followed by
bad luck If third person passes between
them, OF a lamp post or other object inter
venes. The ill luck may be shunted,
though, if either exclaims: BREAD and but
teri"
A.