The San Francisco call., 1910-08-23
SUPERSTITIONS OFTEN
STICK TO A PERSON
Southern Educator Gives Out
Information on Subject

Reversing the usual order of things a
southern educator went north the Other
day and told a Washington audience
some things to convince them that men
south of Mason and Dixon's line occa-
sionally have ideas, and good ones, at
that. The educator in question talked
about Suggestions on the Psychology
of Superstitions," but his speech was
not nearly as heavy as its title would
indicate.
He was talking in plain terms, about
the curious superstitions that stick in
the craw of every people, and asked
his audience why it was that even edu-
Gated people believe in things which are
utterly absurd on their face, says the
Richmond Times-Dispatch. To prove
that his question was a fair one, he
told OF experiments recently tried by
him in one of the southern universi-
ties. The name Of this institution, we
may remark, in passing. we shall re-
serve for the present, lest some may
teachers and its superstitious students.
The experiments in question con-
cerned popular signs" the stu
dents wrote out all the supersti-
tions they remembered, and wrote
under them whether Or not they
believed in them. The reports handed
in by the college boys were a revela-
II.
handed down for generations were re-
called, and superstitions that are prob
ably a. old as the world itself were re-
mc1nbered by these educated sons of the
twentieth century. One boy, for eA-
ample, expressed his firm belief that If
he picked his teeth with o splinter
taken from a tree that had been struck
by lightning he would never have the
toothache A number believed that hair
cut at the time OF the new moon would
grow better than at any other time,
while many expressed their opinion that
if they dropped the kitchen dishra 4
they would soon have company. 9th
ers held that the man who carried a
potato In his pocket would never have
rheumatism, while a large number be-
lieved that when a dog howled death
in the family was impending. There
were others as grotesque and as absurd
as these.
The amazing thing about the whole
affair was that so many of the stu
dents believed in these superstitions.
Some S75 students were examined, and
of this number 40 per cent believed in
superstitions which numbered some
1000. Perhaps even a larger percentage
of the students believed in some super
stitions, or at least partly believed in
them Not half the men were free from
some belief in signs and omens.
These are the facts that admit of no
dispute. Men believe where they should
not believe, and that is all there is to
it. Their fathers believed before them,
and their fathers before them, as far
as history is recorded. as far as ira
dition runs. Some of these same le-
gehds were believed when Aryan an
cestors watched the heavens in the
steppes of Central Asia, others were be-
Heved when the German tribes came
into Europe; the Catholic saints be-
lieved them and the Greek heroes OBJ
served them, the Anglo -SaXons followed
them and the Africans in the center of
the Dark Continent watched them day
by day.
Civilization may move on, and men
may be wiser than their sires, but
there is something in the mind OF man
that makes him believe where his rea-
son doubts and his sane mind SCOTS