Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-02-22

the train window, furthermore, ont
could fall from the top Of the Singer
building in six seconds, whereas one
could hold ones breath for many timel
that number.
The old tradition that a drowning
person rises three times before he goe!
down sounds we'll in Carnegie media
stories, but is not true. A person rises
as many times as he can get to the
surface, which may be once or a hun
dred times, and he browns when he I!
so full of water that he cannot
breathe.
Dickens, in, ''David Copperfield," en-.
couraged the fallacy that at the sea.
side, deaths always occur when the
tide is going out. The analogy between
ebbing life and ebbing tide is a pretty
one; but that Is about all there Is to
| 1t.
Wart lore is voluminous. It is said
that a wart will leave a person IL q
lock of his hair Is cut from the nape
of his neck without his knowing It;
that wart will result IL frog spit on
one; that warts may be cured by rub
bing them over with a black snail,
which must afterward be impaled on
a hawthorn; that II a bag containing
as many pebbles as one has warts be
tossed over the left shoulder, 1t will
transfer the warts to the person who
picks up the bag; that IL one takes a
piece of twine, make as many knots
on It as there are warts, touch each
wart with the corresponding knot and
bury the twine in a moist place, say
ing: There Is none to redeem 1t be-
side thee" the warts will disappear;
and so on, ad infinitum.
Lord Bacon seriously wrote in one
Of his works how an intelligent and
non-superstitious woman, the wife OF
an English ambassador, had cured his
warts by rubbing them with a piece
Of meat, and mailing the meat up on
a window post in the sun.
These ideas are all absurd, OF
course, and not very common now; but
another health fallacy is extremely
common though equally baseless.
namely, that it is desirable for baby
to be fat because 1t will then be more
healthy. Children grow fat on starchy
foods, and these are not the ones that
make strong people. The Lancet de-
oIo.ad N. lono ooo oo 1870 that fof
children were less able to resist dis
ease. That is why reputable doctors
nowadays discourage the use Of the
patent baby foods, whose speciously
plump products smile from so many
advertisements.
There Is no such thing as a death
agony. People sometimes die in agony
but the agony Is a cause or a coinci-
dence, not result.
1t is with tears that we discard the
fine old notion that cats see better In
the dark. They see better than we do.
no doubt; but that is not saying much.
There used to be belief that rats
never went on ship that was destined
to founder at sea. This has fine su-
pernatural ring; but, as a matter OF
fact, has a good deal of truth at the
bottom. Unseaworthy ships in the OIL
den days were likely to be leaky and
contain much bilge-water. The rats
would naturally abandon such damp
quarters for drier berth.
To freeze a living thing means to
most minds to kill it. Yet all hardy
plants can be frozen without being in
jured. So can many insects, IL they
are not broken while in that brittle
state. Punch once suggested even that
human beings could be frozen without
harm, and said that this would be a
convenient way Of disposing Of chill
dren during a railway trip.
In South Africa, and also in parts of
England and Wales, 1t is believed that
a snake will not die till sunset, no mat
ter how religiously you hack at 1t.
Diamonds will wear out, though to
most people they are the symbol of
indestructibility. They cut glass, to be
sure, but they are worn down them
selves in the process. An engagement
ring, by the time the wearer is bride.
will be nicked around the edges.
Catgut is not made from cats at all,
but from sheep and horses. And,
speaking of music, 1t Is not true that
playing discords on piano will put 1t
out of tune. A person capable Of play
ing discords habitually would un-
doubtedly be the sort to injure a piano
by hammering it indiscreetly. Playing
harmonies on a piano or an instru-
ment of any kind does improve its
tone.
Among popular quotations which are
falsely attributed to the Bible are
these: God tempers the wind to the
shorn ambs."-Sternes Sentimental
Journey to Italy"
I'm the midst of life we are in
death."-Burial service originally
from Luther.
Cleanliness akin to godliness."
Little children, love ye one anoth-
er."
Bibles still carry the date 1904 b.
C. opposite the first chapter Of Gene
sis, but not many people longer believe
that the world was only 1000 years
old when Christ was born.
Some other fallacies are these:
That the sun and moon are larger
near the horizon than overhead.
That sea water never freezes.
That fog hinders sound.
That ice is never colder than two
degrees.
That a green Christmas makes fat
churchyard.
That If you toss coin ten times and
1t comes heads" every time 1t will be
more likely to come tails" the elev-
enth time.
Ravenous Eaters.
Touching the matter of eating. the
stories told by the old chroniclers and
historians Of the abnormal appetites OF
certain Roman and oriental men OF
note. fairly stagger belief.