The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-13
SCRAP BOOK FOR TO-DAY
The world is growing wiser.

h0 "OII0 4S SIONA4A6 "A9S@s
 The youngsters of to-day are less superstitious than the oldsters.
 In proof of these statements Elk hfbit A is offered in the form of a newspaper dispatch which states that a class of thirteen will graduate from a New Jersey High School to-day this being the thirteenth of the month, in the thirteenth year of the century and a Friday to boot.
 When the school officials set the graduating exercises for Friday the thirteenth, there arose immediate pro- test from the parents of the young hopefuIs who will receive their diplo- mas to-day. The dispatch says:
 ''The elders of the sanguine young graduates are shaking their heads. They tried to get the Board of Educa- ton to change the date of graduation. The board referred the matter to the pupils, and the pupils vigorously op- posed any change of date. The combination is something that cannot be beaten again in centuries, they say, and they are t1ck1ed nightly at the prospect"
 This spirit of defiance toward one of the worlds most ancient and respect ed 'hoodoos'' extends to the sweet girl graduates as well as to the boys. One, enthusiastic young lady is quoted as follows:
 ''It is such perfectly complete hoodoo that we couldn't think of let ting anything interfere with it. We have taken an oath to be at the grad uation, every one of us. if we are we'll enough to, stand. If the thirteen influences goes straight through, the charm will be twisted, and it will mean the best of good luck to all of us."
 The latter statement is hardly in accord with the promise that youth is Ho a t7n rashness of inexperfence, the young lady, while apparently admitting the existence of a, Friday the thirteenth hoodoo, has faith that the charm will be twisted, that the supposedly male vo1ent 'tjfI1K'' will be transformed into a benevolent one, assuring the 'best of good fuck'' to the thirteen grad uates-
 It is hardly to be believed that the confident young woman expresses the sentiment of the class. Thirteen people could hardly be found to run g. needless risk, if they considered the peril to be real and imminent.
 Not long ago transatlantic steam ship line made Friday a, regular sail ing day, and with no falling off of pa tronage. The Friday superstition is all but dead. The thirteen f'jinx'' is hardier, and still has a multitude of believers among otherwise sane and CIVll1ZeQ pSOpl0. OOuoI10SS, d1SO, there are many people who are suf- fcient1y emancipated to scout +the Friday ''hoodoo' and disregard the thirteen" jinx. when taken separate 1y, who yet. entertain a secret dread of the combination of Friday the thir- teentI, and who will carefully refrain to-day from transacting important business or undertaking anything at tended by risk to life or limb.
 The New Jersey high school grad uates may not be wise as they think. 1t is to be suspected that high school and. college graduates sell dom are At the same time, they have demonstrated. by their disregard of old wives fables, that the time and money expended fin the educational process they have undergone have not been entirely wasted.
 Belief in the Friday the thir- teenth'' superstition may be, in itself a harmless vagary. To the psychol- ogist, however, such a belief Is like 1y to be the parent of a great brood of dangerous and anti-socia1 vagaries, constituting what Herbert Casson calls ''the crime of credulity''