Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1903-10-17
AMuLETs WOMEN WEAR.
Variety Of Lucky Articles Deposited
With the Bath House Keeper.

kftS ~
New York Sun: That many women
habitually wear amulets to bring good
luck is well known to the bath house
keepers, to whom patrons turn over
their valuables before taking a dip. Ac-
cording to these authorities, the belief
in charms is widespread. Stones and
bits of metals stamped with quaint
markings, little strips Of sheepskin or
leather bearing a couplet or the symbol
of a heavenly body are deposited along
with money and keys and other val
tables, to say nothing of rabbits feet,
four-leafed clover, wishbones and other
witcheries i'm one guise or another. M
the wearing Of these averters of evil
is not confined to any one class or ma
~tionality. The well-to-do woman and
the well instructed is as apt to have
the quaint goods upon her as the un-
tutored.
More mascots in the form of orna-
mems, gems and precious metals are
being mounted by the jewelers. all the
time, and more symbols of occult mean
ing are ordered by customers to be set
in such shape and fashion hat they a
be worn handy. The summer girl
has her priced piece of jade or magic
moonstone locked or a bracelet that
cannot slip over her hand n be wash
w IA ~ IN v SS " NA1o
be. This sort Of bangle charm is worn
openly, wen boastfully, as betokening
a careful and cautious young person,
but dozens of charms are worn secret
ly safe within the waist front unsus-
pected until injury or accident betrays
their presence. The use of charms and
amulets has been stimulated lately by
the interest taken in psychological top
les and the fad for consulting fortune
tellprS and C~lairVOyantS.
I've got a mole directly on the back
of my neck, an omen Of successful
fortune. also threatening sudden acct
den of one sort or another said a
girl student the other day as she fing-
cred the charm that hung at her wrist.
This is an old Persian stone celebrated
SO potent in averting evil and impart-
ing security and self-possessions to the
wearer. The symbols upon 1t all nave
their meaning. I got it from the pro-
fessor who read my character through
three different mediums n observed
this menace of sudden disaster darken-
ing what was otherwise a most auspic-
ious fortune
1t is held that persons born under the
two extremes Of planetary influence are
most addicted to carrying mascots.
Those born under the gloomy spell of
Saturn wear charms to neutraliZe the
malignity hat ever threatens to en-
compass them and those born under the
]benefcent influences Of Jupiter and
Venus carry amulets to insure their
continued run of good fortune.
The Italians of both high and low
degree are inveterate believers in the
efficacy Of charms to ward off evil and
invite good. The old spell Of the ma
diaeval mysteries still holds them In
thrall. People of Spanish and Austrian
descent are likewise given to charm
wearing. Many Americans have Of late
caught the infection, purchasing birth
stones and ancient talismans with
avidity, and paying more and more at
tention to personal characteristics and
their meanings as demonstrated by
studens of the occult. Even the de-
lartment stores now sell charms.