The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1898-03-08
BILL ARP ON LUNA.
The Moons Influence on the Mind and
on Garden Truck,

warden truck.
1t is a beautiful new moon-not ex-
aclly new, but since Tuesday night,
when we first saw it, never saw a larry.
er one nor q brighter one nor one that
balanced Itself so proudly in the W ST.
ern heavens. Not u drop of water
woald /: spill and some saw that means
we will have u dry month ard some SAY
we Will have q wet one. 10 my un.
learned mind the moon is the most
complicated and wonderful piece OF
machinery In the realms Of space. 1t
makes my mead swim to study It's clip
tic orbit, It's lunar time and sidereat
time, it's Vibrations of latitude and
longitude and diurnal Iteration: It's
ascending and descending nodes and
thelr rettograde motion which takes
eighteen years and PIG lays to com
plete; It's apogee and perigce, the |
two points of which are movable and
move along the circumference of the
eillpse from west to east complete the
circuit In eight years and 800 days.
sometimes 1T comes along q circle In
the heavens hat is near the z NTH and
sometimes its course is low down III
the southern sky. Its speed is not uni
form as Its moves around the earth,
Tor sometimes 1T gets ahead and some
times lags behind. Its axis is inclined
Y ~ L Suu ScculS W uOu DaCR WhrQS
and forwards for three degrees. Then
there are the eclipscs, which add to
the wonderful complications, and yet
every phase and every motion obey Il
law and are Ineligible to men Of
science. 1T Is the regularity Of ircegu-
larltles. But men of science like O,ls
Ashmore understand it all and can
make an almanac and foretell eclipscs
Tor q Thousand years. | have unbound
Ell respect for these mentor Greer
and AshmOre and Dr.. Means, all OF our
W state, and for the lamented Pro.
lessor Mitchell, who was the greatest
oil modern astronomers.
But this beautiful new moon provok-
ed another line of thought. / saw Ii
over my right shoulder and in u clear
sky and was satisfied, and yet | am not
superstitiOus about it. | q Just u lit
tie rather see it that way and so hau
the majority OF %civiliz. d people. Luna
means the moon, and most people are
~lunatics. Even Blackstone, the great
jurlst, defines q lunatic to be one who
Is insane at times but has lucid inter
vais during certain changes of the
moon. Aud although the medica
world has long since exp,oded The
superstitious theory Of the moons In
nucnce ON tho mind, the name of luna
tic still obtains and Is applied 10 all in
sane persons. After South Carolina
had seeded, a man asked Mr.. Petit.
grew which was the road to the lunatiC
asylum. Amy road-all the roads
he said, the whole state is one vast
lunatic asylum Almost everyb body
bas some superstition about the moons
influence on vegetation. NV good
neighbour, Mrs. Fields, told me las,
week that she had been right busy al
day planting her potatoes, for" saio
she, you know it is the dark of tho
MOON She is the best gardener
III the town and always succeeds, blu,
she does herself injustice when she
gives the moons any credit for her sue
cess. Many years ago | made IL fail
test OF the mon theory, Tor | planted
lour rows In my garden In the dark O
the moon and then four more right be
| q them two weeks later and gave al
ence in the yield. The best time Il
plant potatoes Is when the ground i,
ready, and it may be very uuready /
we walt Tor the dark Of the moon. Blu
L have found that good armer dltTel
ABOUT how many days are included Ii
tie dark OF the moon. Some say one
some say two or three, aid others SAY
all the days OF the moons wane, which
would be about thirteen.
But If there is anything in the moor
theory, why confne it to irish potatoe,
and peas and beans? Way not apply i
to sweet potatoes and grouud peas ant
corn and wheaip
But there are other superstition
that even the most sensible and wei
educated people cannot shake off. Tn,
roasted chicken on our table to-day wa.
gdrnished with parsley and we hav,
none In our garden. L asked my wifi,
where IL came from. From Mrs
Postell's," she said. Il will get som,
from her." said and plant it. | SOW
ed the seed last spring, but it did no,
come up" No" said my wife, "yo,
won't get it from Mrs. Postell, unless
you go in the night and steal it. She
believes that it is a gift that carrie,
death with the giving, arc she would
ent give you a plant for the world.
causes a death in the family, and m,
three years ago d neighbor pulled VI
some by the roots against her protest
and o it home n planted it, and
the woman died within q week."
Well, now Mrs. Postell is a YER;
smart, cultured and we'll balanced
woman, but she is a lunatic on that sub
ject, ana | fear that my wife is show.
ing symptoms OF the same malady.
certain IL Is she Will not hear to my
getting parsley plants from any body a.
a gift, and certain it is that | am no.
going out at night to steal any. Well,
maybe that If a person has faith In suci
things what they believe will happen,
Tor faith will remove mountains, and II
there is a faith ure there may be 4
faith kill. These superstitions are
deep-rocted, for they come down to us
through the ages. There Ia a plat
called Ut and another called rosemary,
and both were used in the days oi
witchcraft to drive away evil spirits.
They were called "herbs OF grace" and
were imbued with saying qualities.
while parsley 10 Of evil omen and
dangerous, unless it IL stolen by night.
But my wife insists that a little rea
scnabie superstition Is a good thing t.
nave, for 1T proves hat we are not
0ver-confiden n In our own merits and
feel the need of fortifying our welfare
She says that 1t indicates a belief in
the supernatural and that IL we wer,
all like 1ngersoll and dident believe H.
anything, we would have no supersti. |
ttonG. But how about these charms
these amulets and opals and these RAJ
bit feet? | have known men who car.
ried them to have very bad luck, and
ne who dident, come out aboad.
BILL ARP.
- Examples OF longevity are more
DumerOua amOnU plorUumnn tbop |