The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-03-04

/ Dy KNIFE thrust OF DiOW, so IndL
knives were dreaded weapons instead
of useful tools. This superstition
/ harks back to the period when a man
pulled off his glove in greeting a friend
/ or neighbor in token that he had
nothing concealed, and so gave the
naked hand. The other about the salt
has an Oriental origin. In the tent of
the Arab, though he might be a rob-
| Der, there was hospitality for the way
| faring 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 splitting signifies a breach of
| friendship.
1 should be sorry to think that the
I girls of today, 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 a 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 a table when the company
numbers thirteen. If the family should
happen to consist of father and mother
and eleven children, would there al
ways be one who had to wait for the
second table? This latter superstition
is supposed to recall the last supper
of Jesus with his disciples, when one
Of the group proved to be 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
CO 70 on Of
BILE when walking on the street that
they might avoid stepping on a 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 a 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 careful sort of walking.
A school friend Of mine had a 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. 1t took
her a long time to get settled in bed,
as she had to jump out a number of
times in order TO be sure that her
shoes were standing exactly as they
should to a hairs breadth.
There used to be. too, q 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 once 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 a tumble
down cottage falling into ruins, the
haunt Of bats, rats and spiders. We
scurried past it with frantic haste, lest
something we knew not what should
spring forth and seize US. You re-
member James Whitcomb Riley's po-
EN- with the line,
1.-THE COLLINS will catch you If you
don't watch out"
That was what we dreaded, and yet
we had great fun in running races
past the enchanted corner and elud-
ing the witches and elves who were
hidden behind those broken window
panes.
Superstition of every kind is a sort
Of poetry This is why unletteTed
races deal so much in beautiful folk
lore. AS we become learned in mathe-
mates and science we cease to believe
in fairies and elves. For my part,
am glad that a great throng of
drama of Peter Pan" There are
some Illusions that never ought to be
destroyed. Whether you agree with
me or not, I must tell you that it does
you no harm to believe in the fairies
Perhaps you may never have the good
fortune that befell a dear little Irish
maid who used to work in my kitch-
en-. She told me in good faith that
she had often seen the good people.
as she called the fairies, dancing in
the moonlight on a green knoll behin6
her fathers house in the land across
the sea.
We so soon leave the morning mists
and the poetry behind us that we re-
fuse to see the beauty that is tucked
away in myths and dreams Study
folk lore and you will be studying
poetry, and a little poetry sweetens
HfA'~ prose and is like honey on ones
bread
Your. fairies, when you descend tr
the practical, will be named Order
System, Promptness, Application, ODE
dience. Hope. Courage and Love. Thes
are forever the good fairies who figh
and conquer in the battles of life, an.
drive away the baIefuI influences tina
menace our peace and usefulness a.
we study, work and play.
! Copyright. 1906. by Joseph B. Bowles.