The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-04-23
THE HORSESHOE
In History and in Fiction--Some Anec-
dotes About 1t as Charm.

! IL IS PROBABLY not TOO much 10 hHlfm
that the houses and cottages where
horeshoes are displayed on threshold or
wall may be numbered By tens Of thou
sands; with the exception OF the cross,
and, possibly, OF the heart, no form is
more familiar IN miniature as personal
ornament; among the accounts Of fash
ionable weddings which every weeks
society papers give IN extenso there Is
generally at least one which describes
the happy pair sitting or standing under
an Hexquisitely designed floral horse
shoe" And the explanation Of each
and All Of these customs IL that, 1T is
for good luck.' But the question that
Immediately suggests itself-like Miss
Rosa Dartle's, fJust for information, you
knows whyi Why should a horse.
shoe, any more than stirrup or bit,
be considered ''luekyp II is to be feared
that our laudabe craving for knowledge
must remain unsatished a. 10 this as 70
many other queer observances Not, OF
course, that theories and explanations
have not been hazaried. It has been
suggested, for instance, that the horse
shoe with the open up upward Is a clum-
AZ and convention representation Of the
horned moon, the symbol OF the goddess
Ahstaroth which again may or may not
be identical with the peculiarly shaped
horns associated with Che Egyptian Isis
According TO this view. the horseshoe
s one Of those nature emblems about
which 90 much has been written and 80
much learning expended.
But the reason Of the Tuck" attribute
still eludes "a and we are fain to fall
back on one or two medieval legends,
which do not seem altogether free from
the suspicion Of haviHg been manuiac.
tured, or at least emhellished, for the
purpose. In cur own land, Sc Dunstan.
who, ~ an know, was an adept at black
smiths work, was one day working at
his forge, when he was visited By the
prince Of evil. who, either doubling the
saints prowess or Impressed by q fatu-
ous simplicity he Il not usually credited
with. requested Dunstant to shoe his
eleven foot This the saint did, purpose
" making the process as painful ~ pos
sible. until the evil one reared in an
gnish. Dunstant thereupon let him 40,
making him promise that be would never
enter any house where horseshoe was
displayed IN France St. Efoy--
who doth stoutly stand
Ane new horseshoe In bis hand
was the patron Of farriers, as st. Mar
tin was Of travellers, and horseshoes
were frequently offered to their shrines
as proprieiatory gifts to insure safe
journeys.
II seems strange that, II We except
44F
10 st. El0y which, as has been said,
were probably eommemorated by horse
shoes that he their horse may well
convoy we find In our literature no dis
tinctiye mention of the @luck Of horse
shoes until the seventeenth century,
when we find them referred to as potent
against withcraft. Gays "0ld Woman"
complains that her cats have caused her
to be taken for a witch, and that every
where She meets "the horseshoe nailed.
each thresholds guard Aubrey ana
Butler refer To them in the same con-
neetion, the former adding the proviso
that the shoe must have been found. |
But this user, it viii be seen, il mega
tive rather than positive--to avert Ill /
fortune, not to insure good. From
reference made By writer on the sub |
iect, It would seem that the positive |
virtues of the horseshoe were recognized
in Holland in the earlier part Of the |
century, but in England the transition
from merely protective to actively heneh. |
cent was probably gradual, and the tra-
dition that Nelson had a horseshoe at
tached to the mainmast Of the Victory I
may be taken to mark the then recogni- I
ton Of it as a luck bringer.
But apart from its mystic virtues, the
horseshoe has good deal of antiquarian /
and anecdotaI interest centering about I
It. There seems, for instance, a delight
ful uncertainty az to the precise period 1
Of its introduction or to what nation we
owe it Ancient records and statuary
alike seem to prove that 1t was unknown /
IN the heroic classical age; some author
tiles assert that 1t had its origin in the
far East, where the Chinese were ae-
quainted with It centuries before our era
However this may be, our genealogical
annals tell Of more than one family
whose cognizanee is a horseshoe, derived
from feudal service to the p0tentate
whom Christopher Sly referred to as
Richard Conquerorp; and tenure by
rendering Of hofseshoes, with well known
examples, il a favorite subject for mag
izine articles Many Of us have doubt
ess lingering and unreasonable preiu
lice against them from painful memo
,ies Of schoolbov anguish, caused by
nalevolcnt arithmetical puzzles, in which
some obieetionably astute blacksmith
stipulated for payment By the number
il nails in geometrical progression to
he derision and eventual conformation
If his customer In history and fiction
suit BY reversing their horses shoes
Robert Bruce among others. who,
when lie fled from the English court
rad three horses thus treated and two
CENTURIES or SO before the predecessor
Ind namesake Of the present king ct !