The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-21
SOME PET sUPERsTITIONs.
And Some Stories Which Go Along
with Them.
From the Chlcago lTmes-Herald.

From the Chicago iTlmes-Herald.
Nobody is superstitious nowadays, of
course; nobody, that is, excepting the aunt
or grandmother of somebody else, and yet,
despite the declaration of the rationalists
that superstition is as dead as a belief
in witchcraft, and that Intellectual, not
to say intelligent, people no longer even
recognize its unlaid ghostlby even so much
as derisive or plying smile, feurious bits
of superstition crop up frequently among
those people in whom they would least
be expected. The zone touch of nature"
which SO generally makes the whole
world kim is quite apt to present itself
under the guise of a superstition or SUI
perstitious fancy; there are comparatively
few people in Chicago, perhaps who do
not possess, tucked away in some tender
ly Swallowed corner of the heart or mind,
a fragment of superstitious lore, or some
trif1ing whim or fancy which has no basis
in fact. Nor are the people who are
most frank and outspoken in regard to
those WITNESSES by any means of low
order of intellectually as a rule.
Not long ago, for instance, the writer,
calling upon a physician whose skin with
the scalpel and operating knife is at once
the admiration and envy of his brother
doctors, whose professional work extends
over a period of thirty years or there
abouts, and whose nerve in all that time
has never been questioned, crushed the
rose ait her belt in STOPPING to recover a
dropped paper, and scattered a small
shower of rose leaves over the good doc
tors floor. As She with smiling apology,
would have recovered the odorous and
delicately tinted petals, the physian re-
strained her
Don't pick them up, please" he begged
her, depTecatingly, whether you want
them for rose jars or not. You have
brought me good luck 1 feel certain"
he continued, with laugh of mingled de-
light and amusement at his own super
stition, now l shall walk on rose leaves
for a week or more"
And this man, whose scientific books and
papers are the wonder and pride of his
entire school, was still happy over those
scattered rose leaves when the interview
terminated half an hour later.
Anent the odd fancies of distinguished
men, there is a certain cultured gentle
man of Kenwood hitherto famed for the
quaint purity and correctness of the Eng
lish words which he has always delight
ed to honor'-and use-who is reported
~ nave utterly IOISWOIIl ms OLD man.
ner of speech And this is the story
which his friends are telling as the rea-
son for this change in him:
who was a Mrs. Blanks party last
night2" he is reported to have said when
INTERCEPTED by a number of club ladies
whom he found in his sisters parlor one
afternoon "Oh, almost everybody. | sup
pose. The pretty girls? Well, there were
So-and-So." mentioning a number of love
ly Kenwood buds and a few strane.
ers. Oh. yes, and Mrs. B. was there
with that pretty little maid of hers"
well! 1 always knew that Mrs. B. was
very democratic in her tastes, and I've
even heard her say she believed in social
ism" said one of his listeners to another
as they walked home together 'but real
~ shouldn't have expected her to take her
servant girl to party, should your"
Which remark, coming to Mrs. BIS
cans necessitated explanations all around.
particularly on the part of the unfortunate
man who had been the primary cause of
its utterance. And this Individual after
explaining that by Mrs BIS pretty If
tie maid he meant her small daughter
changed his mode Of expression Immediate