The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1906-10-05
PLEA TO THE MOON
REAL MEANING OF THE PLACING
OF A HORSESHOE.
Origin Of Superstition Can Be Traced
to That Source-For Protection
Against Troublesome
Evils.

There is right way and a wrong
In the picking up of a horseshoe.
was walking along with a country
saw one lying in the cruInbling sum-
mer rut. There is a horseshoe" said
l.. The lad sprang forward, but
stopped suddenly before his fingers
touched the iron. But / won't pick
1t up" said he, "or l shall spoil your
luck" 1t may perhaps have been
only a point of etiquette, but he as
finding could bring luck neither to
him nor to me If he touched 1t before
me.
The origin of this superstition, now
lingering chiefly as a saying and a
jest, is perhaps earlier than the
horseshoe. and has nothing whatever
to do with 1t. 1t was from the infiu-
ence of the new moon that good was
to be expected. and still there are
some who turn the money in their
pockets when they first see her in the
sky. The early horseshoe was
simple crescent, and the superstition
has fingered around an object that
at first was only a convenient sym
Dol.
1t was to the protection OF some
moon goddess, therefore. that the
householder first trusted when he
kept the witch out of his dwelling by
hanging a horseshoe on the door.
Neither spell nor malignant wish, nor
the power of the evil eye could cross
the threshold in the presence of her
symbol. Even the pixies, who brought
certain whimsical merriment into
their practical joking. were no good
in the face of that. Cheated out of
their nocturnal rides they might as
well retire underground at once If
a horseshoe barred their entry to the
stable.
For these troublesome elves, in days
gone bv had a way of working the
cattle by night for their own amuse-
ment, and when the good man came
in the morning he found the poor
beasts "all terrified like. an out in
lather o. sweat" And they had
even a worse trick than this. They
would get at the good wife's vat and
wantonly spoil the brew. To pre-
vent this she drew with her finger
two hearts, and a crisscross upon the
mash. and thus the beer was saved.
Whether crescent or cross, no mat
ter. The pixies would stink away
abashed by the sign of it.
To this day there are horseshoes
on the doors of many cottages in
quiet villages. Doubtless the cot
tagers do but put them up for
within, or in the same half-jocular,
half-serious spirit, yet with a secret
satisfaction, too. in which so many
of us perform obsolete practices Just
for luck" And why not |, who find
a secret delight in its forgotten sig
nificance?
IL was rusty, with crooked
horse nail still hanging in one
of the holes. There are some who
think there is virtue in the rust.
But that is nonsense. | polished
mine until it was bright as the sill
yer moon, and indeed, might almost
be mistaken for the medal sacred
to Diana. There is a right way and
wrong in putting up the horse
shoe on your door. One thing is
thoroughly established; if you turn
it upside down, it cannot hold your
luck.
And where ought it to be placed?
The old world folk often nailed it
on the threshold. The growing moon
has her horns always toward the left,
and only on the wane does he point
them to the right. l would have this
a true crescent, waxing every day
London Standard.