Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-04-26

| That Fight for One in Daily Life
 Are Order, Promptness, Obedience, Courage and Love. | BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
 Superstition is almost as old as the
 human race, and even schoolgirls do
 not entirely escape its fascination. No
 matter how strong most of us may be I in our resistance to foolish fears and
 fancies, we have somewhere in the
 back of our minds little feelings about certain signs and we begin very early
 in life to shape our conduct by them. l For instance, very few of us care to
 make a present to a friend or an
 edged tool. I know several otherwise sensible people who tell me that some
 of their most prlzed friendships have
 been cut in two because they gave or
 received knife. I myself would not i object to receiving knife as gift,
 whether it were intended for carving a
 roast, or dividing the leaves of book. \ All sorts of knives from those of finely tempered steel, intended for the table. \ to dainty little pearl-handled affairs j that may be carried in the pocketbook,
 appeal to me as particularly desirable
 possessions. Yet know very few
 persons who do not like to add a bit of \ silver or copper to such an exchange,
 that 1t may seem to be matter of
 barter and sale, rather than Of gift
 making.
 Don't give Mabel knife on her
 birthday" I heard Priscilla's mother
 gravely say, to her daughter, flor as
 surely as you do you and Mabel will quarrel" A.
 The same superstition about spoii-
 ing friendship clings to the spilling
 of salt on the tablecloth. It is held to
 be most unlucky to do this, and it is
 supposed that it forebodes friction be-
 tween those who gre sitting nearest
 the spilled salt. Os course, this super
 stition and the other date long way
 back to those primitive times when
 men settled everything speedily by
 knife thrust or blow, so that knives
 were dreaded weapons instead of use
 full tools. This superstition harks back
 to the period when man pulled off
 his glove in greeting friend or neigh
 bor in token that he had nothing con-
 cealed, and so gave the naked hand.
 The other about the salt has an orien-
 tai origin. In the tent of the Arab,
 though he might be Iobber, there was hospitality for the wayfaring
 guest, and If the latter shared bread
 and salt with his host, his life and property were sacred. So you may easily read between the lines that salt is an emblem of friendship, and that its spilling signifies a breach of friend
 ship. -' --'- -''''s |" '''''a''' '''''' '' ' should be sorry to think that the girls of to-day, who will be the women of tomorrow, were in the least under the bondage of silly traditions in which there is very little common
 sense.
 Why should anyone dread to pass
 under a ladder except for the reason that the ladder may fall? Why should the bowling of a dog give one uneasi- ness or there be any meaning attached
 to the dropping of spoons and forks? Why do some people hesitate to sit down at the table when the company numbers 13? If the family should hap pen to consist of father and mother and Il children, would there always be one who had to wait for the second table? This latter superstition is sup posed to recall the last supper of Je-
 sus with His disciples, when one of the group proved to be a traitor.
 Nearly everything we do, say or think, strikes deep roots into the past,
 If we can find and trace them out.
 In my school days girls put them- 1. selves to an immense amount of trou- ble when walking on the street that they might avoid stepping on crack in the pavement. It was sure to cause , trouble in the schoolroom in the way . of imperfect recitations and badly , drawn maps if one unfortunately [ touched crack with the toe of her boot. Older persons were sometimes } surprised at the cratic progress of children who were bending their en- } ergies to this carrful sort of walking. A school friend of mine had theory
 that nothing would prosper with
 Helen if she did not put her shoes at
 night in a particular spot, and set them precisely side by side. It took her a long time to get settled in bed, as she had to jump out a number of , times in order to he sure that her |. shoes were standing exactly as they
 should to a hairs breadth.
 There used to be. too, proverb re- garding Indian gIvers. These were
 generous in making presents. but they
 regretted them afterwards and wanted |, them back, a sorry thing in itself and
 rather mean. Bargains cnce conclud-
 ed should stand fast, as we all know.
 Some of us had delicious fears that
 we greatly enjoyed about passing a . certain place in a forest not far from the school. Here there was tumble : down cottage falling into ruins, the haunt of bats. rats and spiders We scurried past 1t with frantic haste, lest something we knew not what
 should spring forth and seize us. You
 -..-.h,- I,r.as Whf.eor,h Rflerse