The National tribune., 1894-04-12
BY the twitching Of my thumbs
Something wicked this way comes"

a%s
We are inclined to consider this an age en-
tirely without superstition. 1t may be there
are some few of our children who believe in
fairies and look for elves in the blossoms, for
brownies under the leaves, and expect to find
gnomes hiding behind the rocks; but it is be-
lief soon given up when school days begin with
diluted scientific information to take the place
of imaginngs. 1t surprises US to hear that
there are people in northern Europe and out
of-the-way corners of Britain who still are cer-
tain that the white wave.caps are pieces of
linen tossed out by the mermaids TO whiten on
the waves in the sunshine; who explain the
morning mists rs being the vapors from potions
that the trolls busily brew during the night
season, and who never doubt that the grassy
rings are made by fairies for their moonlight
dances We, without superstition, like Shaks-
pere's pretty fancy in The Tempest:
You dcm-puppets that
BY moonshine do the green sour ringlets make
Whereof the eve not bites''
and can easily fancy Titania and her fairy troop
dancing around them in the Midsummer
Nights Dream, but we know that the rings are
the result of peculiar but explainable bo-
tdh!C'tis lO5iCSI, natural law, anu can uuNSI-
stand there being any other serious belief
RE
But for superstition, where is the girl who
will plan her wedding without a thought for
the warning,
Monday for health,
Tuesday for wealth,
Wednesday the best day of ALL
Thursday for losses.
Friday for crosses.
Saturday 10 luck mt all.
60
And the darkies have innumerable supersti-
tions. Witches and spells continually do them
harm. They seem somehow to have retained
more belief in omens of misfortune than ones to
bring them joy.
i. One Susan complaias continually that the
witches "ride" her so during the night that
her rest is painful. Her Aunt Maria suggested
that she hang a sieve on her bedpost at night.
According to some unearthly law the witch
would have to crawl through every hole before
she could bother the sleeper; and, Furthermore.
by sticking a fork through the sieve some
holes could be closed up. Then the witch
would spend the night in useless trials to pass
peace.
There is another known to every one:
The gruesome shver along my back
Starts troopng thoughts in woeful black,
OF heavy footed, loItsl knave,
In careless tramp upon my future grave.
Many people will earnestly try to prove that
he he
broken, peculiarly powerful to bring about
misfortune, even DEATH
For girl to stir anything with silver knife,
for her to sit the table, or to take the last
piece of bread from the plate, diminishes her
chances for matrimony. Splitting salt, seeing
the moon over the wrong shoulder, or dropping
a dish cloth, are all significant of coming
events.
Chauncey Depew is quoted as saying that
Mrs. Ballngton Booth is one of the best after
dinner speakers he has ever heard. Such
praise from the most famous of all after-dinner
speakers seems praise indeed, but Mrs. Booth
claims that she only spoke from full heart
about the work needed to be done by Christi
anity, and no other subject would become
eloquent from her lips, because this is her one
great interest.
An attempt has been made to pose women
as characters in well-known paintings. As
actresses are considered able to pose more
for "a photograph than any other
perhaps it was wise to select the models
from them. But in cases where exquisite deli !,
cacy and spirituality are needed, as in Boden- |
hausen's "Nydia," or "Fabiola," or the other |
favorite, " Listening to the Fairies" the real |
women are very disappointing in face, figure, |
and expression. On the other hand, one or |
two were more ideal than the painters fancy, |
aud the excessively modern expressions did |
not mar the effect in the least
Part the hair, curl it, brush the frizz