The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1916-03-10
STORY
OF Jonah Known By All The
Sailors
(London Times)

dulull hlIy transport piSnuSu IL va
cuse that he was known to seamen
generally as Jonah, and that the sail
ors on the transport had threatened
to throw him overheard if he did join.
Certainly if superstition ever could
be rational, they had some reason for
theirs. This sailor had served on the
Titanic and the Empress Of Ireland,
both of which were wrecked, and on
the Lusitania and Florizan, both of
which were torpedoed.
1t seems a pity that sailors should
know the story of the prophet Jonah,
since they get only one moral from
it. The book was certainly not writ
ten to instruct seamen how to deal
with Jonahs. There are several NOR
ais to be drawn from 1t, some OF
them subtle, but that is not one OF
them. Yet 1t is unfortunately the on
ly one which sailors seem to draw.
Jonah is probably the character best
known to them in the Old Testament,
and what they know about him Is that
he caused bad weather through his
own fault, and was very properly
dealt with by his fellow voyagers.
They forgot, If they ever knew, that
the sailors cast lots to discover who
was the cause of the bad weather and
that the lot fell upon Jonah; also,
that Jonah himself confessed to them
his disobedience and told them to
throw him overheard.
The Jonahs Of modern times are
not discovered by such means, nor do
they ask to be thrown overheard.
They are assumed to be Jonahs be-
cause they have been uncommonly
unfortunate. Perhaps they are pitied
as we'll as Stunned for their misfor-
tunes, but often enough it is assumed
that they have done something to de-
serve them, and then the supersti'
tious fear OF their fellows becomes
cruel.
IC WOIbL vi IL 10 Nlub u JOhhh haAsNJ
himself share the superstition and
may be unnerved by the thought that
he is marked out for misfortune. He
may even come to believe that he has
committed some crime which marks
him out, in which case he is on the
way to madness. But even landsmen
who believe themselves free OF super
stltion are apt to be intimidated by
a run of i'll luck. 1t unnerves them,
and the wlsest of us, il unnerved, are
prone to superstition. Even IL we re-
sist 1t we can see that superstition Is
n natural growth Of the human mind,
that superstitious explanations lie in
walt for us all, and are but the eN'
preston in thought of our animal
fears, the invasion which those fears
make upon the reason.
Hence the great value of psyche
logical curiosity. II enables 'us TO
explain ourselves to ouresves, to de-
tect the irrational when it disguises
itself as the rational We are natur-
ally myth-maklng creatures, and the
story of the prophet Jonah Is only an
excuse and pattern for myths which
we instinctively make about our
selves to others. If there were no
such tale in the Bible, sailors would
believe in Jonahs under another name
or under no name at all. They would
think that there was some reason for
n run of Ill luck and that 1t must con-
tinue unless by some means the
curse, whatever IT. may be, Is remoV'
ed. And they have, of course, count
less tales to support their belief In
Jonahs, tales which cannot be refut-
ed. however false they may be.
The worst of superstitious tales is
that they are often true, that men do
have extraordinary runs of Ill luck
in life as at cards. The superstition
lies ln the conclusions that are drawn
from them For in life, ms In cards, a
run of M uck Is against the average
4
and sooner or later the average will
right itself. Therefore, sailors, il they
are to consider luck at all, should
welcome a Jonah on board; for the
onger his run Of i'll luck has been the
more he may expect good luck to ad.
lust the average. IL we have tossed
up heads 10 times running, We eX-
pect, whatever mathematician say,
to have run on tails, unless, OF
course. there Is something wrong
with the coin But, in the case Of "A
run of m luck superstition always
suggests that there IS something
wrong. That Is the deyilish summing
of our animal fears, and the only way
TO Illustrate II Is to be against super
sliton altogether, in small things, as
IN grcat--in fact, TO cultivate an al
most irrational unbelief in all super,
stltious tales Even If they are true
they do not mean what they are talk
en- TO mean