The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-15
fNIilwaukee sentinelD

Oh Il drive through OIL OF SOulHtIu
country. He pulled up the horse and
looked worried. why turn back ]
asked. The road seemed good and 1
saw no reason for delay when impor-
tant business awaited me in the town
beyond. wy, didn' you see dat rab-
bit? He cross de road TO de let an
he ain never gone back Wit. Hltll
sho' bring bad luck to go on. I gwine
git out an make a cross mark in de
road, an tu'n 'roun to de crossroads
an go the yether road" 1t took much
persuasion 10 convince my aged Jehu
that my business was more important
than the observance Of his supersti-
ton.
When I told the incident to my host
that night he smiled and said: Did you
pump him on the superstition question:
If you had you would have found
mixture of modernism and African fe-
tiChism that is queer and ineXplicable.
That old negro would get up at any
hour of the night TO put a shovel in
the fire. OF throw salt on the Goals, or
turn :he pockets OF his trousers, If
he CHANGED to hear the shiveTinE cry
of a SCreech owl in the trees near his
cabin. If he heard a dog howl three
nights in succession on his front porch
nothing would convince him that some
member of his family was not doomed
TO die, and if he should find a DIT of
hair. chicken feathers. bones and herbs
rolled in a tiny bundle and put under
his doorstep, he would likely move on
account Of this 'hoodoo' put there by
some enemy
Ny host smiled as he pushed another
cigar over the table To- me and said: 4
suspect most Of us have a vein of Su-
peTstitiOu running through our make
uD." Then rather sheepishly, he drew
a rabbits foot. silver mounted and
fastened to chain. from his pocket
and held it up 10 me- This is a pretty
good mascot, 1 find. One of the ne
groes got it for me. / am not sure that
il is the left hind foot of a graveyard
rabbit. killed at midnight in the dark of
the moon on the grave of a murderer
by red-headed. cross-eyed negro. as
the recipe calls fer. but / do know that
1 am not going 10 leave this house
without IT.
1.-THE only day l left il at home since
I got it my horse threw me and I was
laid up with a broken cOllarbone for
two weeks. Why. they say it's super
stitiOn that makes me always have my
meat killed in the light of the moon.
but I honestly believe that meat killed
any other time shrinks away in the
cooking. Same way with soap. My
wife never has soap made in the dark
of the moon, and she has old Mary
watch carefully TO see that il isn't stir
red the wrong way. Our family has
always adhered TO the custom of plant
ing beans on Good Friday, a custom
that came over with our fOrefatheTs
from England. ] believe. l don't know
its origin, but we always plant that
day"
We drifted into a long discussion Of
present-day superstitions, concluding
that, after all, we hadn't come far
from the old-time traditions and be-
liefs of our less enlightened ancestors
who dreaded black cats because they
might be witches, who saw winding
sheets in candle drippings and journeys
in coffee grounds. As a nation we
doubtless cling to our supeTstitions be.
cause they are a sort of luxury, and
not because We really haven't the
strength to shake them off. Some one
has said that We like cold. picturesque
beliefs and customs quite as much as
we do old china, old books, old pictures
and old carvings.
1t hasn't been q century ago since ru-
raj jewellers in North Carolina were
suTreptitiOusly placing Bibles under the
heads of their sleeping children to
charm away the same witches that
jewellers in old Salem and Boston had
tried and burned 100 years before when
caught in human shape. Il am not
superstitious at all. I am really too
enlightened" some charming house
wife will tell YOU. and then will add
with a smile, but l do hate to cross
a funeral procession on the street or
begin a journey on Friday" Many
women will never start the making of
a dress on Friday, and if a spark from
the fire should burn hole in the gar
ment while it it being made. ii is con-
sidered sure sign that the wearer will
die before the garment wears out. To
turn back for a forgotten article after
one starts out of the house is 4 bad
sign unless one sits down minute in
the parlOr to avert evil. To turn back
twice is good luck.
Sing before breakfast and you will
weep before dark, runs another old
saying. and some country folk believe
that he who cuts his nails on Sunday
will suffer much shame and mortifica-
ton before the day is over. To put a
stocking on wrong side out when
dressing i'm the morning is bad luck.
unless the wearer will sit down at the
exact noon hour and turn the uncon-
sciOus tool of destiny. True, this per-
Torrance might be embarrassing, but
il must be done TO change the luck. In
some communities a custom brought
from the Old World requires member
of a house where death has come TO
go out and whisper the news to the
bees in the hive and beg them to stay,
else they viii depart.
Thirteen viii always be a hoodOo
number. Il has survived centuries of
reform and progress. dating back. it is
said, TO the Lords supper. where Judas
betrayed his master. Men are even
more uneasy over this number
than women, often refusing TO sit at Il
table where there at thirteen, and de-
clining point blank to occupy rooms in
a hotel that bear the cabalistic sing.
The superstition is so general that up
to-date hotels and steamers have no
rooms numbered thirteen. The divining
rod is still to be found in this country,
though people have laughed time and
again over the superstition of the day
of the father of Prophet Joseph Smith,
when that worthy went seeking for bu-
ried treasure or for good locations for
wells. with his hazel wand
Whatever you do. if you are taking a
sea voyage. don't dare TO whistle unless
there is a great calm at sea. Whisiling
will bring c wind, so the seamen say.
They may gTaciously permit you 10
whistle bit if the boat is becalmed.