The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1916-01-28
Edgar Tiff Scorns Superstition
CriticiSeS Some Modern Fiction
BY EDGAR ILIFF.

BY EDGAR ILIFF.
A man held baby before the mir
ror and all the women screamed, pro
testing that this would cause the
child's death. This Is only one of the
hundreds OF superstitions about look
Eyeglasses. Thousands of persons. ig
norant and intelligent, are today
shocked II the household mirror is
broken. It is unlucky and portends
death. Thousands turn the looking
glass to the wall or cover it with a
towel when one of the family dies
They also stop the clock. Nobody
knows why.
German nurse girl who raised me
filled my youthful mind with many
such superstitions. / used to, shivel
in bed when l heard a dog bowling
outside in the night. It was notice
that some of us would soon die. Per
haps it meant me!
My German nurse said it was un
lucky to kill cricket, because it was
the patron saint of hospitality. 1t was
unlucky to kill swallows that made
their nests under the caves, or any
birds like wrens or robins that lived
near houses. 1t violated the supreme
law Of hospitality.
Judge Unseated.
You will recall in Greek history
that the court was sitting when spar
row, pursued by hawk, took, refuge
within the robes of one of the judges
He angrily seized it and killed it. This
outrage upon 1.-The sanctuary" or upon
the rights and sanctity of the refugee
so incensed the other judges that they
unseated their colleague and fined
him heavily.
This German girl filled my mind
with simple stories of her peasant life
in the "faderland." There were fair
les, COLLINS, elves, dwarfs, devils and
witches, who could do all kinds of i'm
possible things. There were birds and
animals who could talk learnedly. The
trees could bend low and whisper tc
the laughing stream. There were flow
ers that could slip from their places
on the bush or vine and dance all
night in the moonlit grass. When
the sun peeped over the mountain in
the morning they slipped back to their
homes. This was why the flowers
dropped so in the dawn. They were
as tired as Cinderella, who danced all
night in glass slippers.
Stories Were Severe.
Her stories were severe in their
simplicity She pictured bleak noun
tains, great snowstorms long winters
stubblefields, black forests, cleaners
taggot-gatherers, bird-houses. matched
roofs, and grain left out for the birds.
There were poor folks, good and sim
pie and patient, and rich men mean
and cruel. There were fools, simple
tons, beggars, hunch-backs and vaga-
bond singers; greedy landlords,
princes princesses, enchantresses, Ora
CONS and tie evil eye. There was al
ways something about poor Unlucky
Hans. How he made the tears come.
But with all his blunders and hard
ships he always came out right. 1t Is
a very old belief that God looks after
fools just as the Indians hold dis
ordered mind to be sacred to the Great
Spirit.
All of her stories ended in triumph
for the poor the outcast, the simple
and the oppressed. And here lies the
fundamental beauty, and the perennial
freshness of all folk lore, of all the old
romances and tales, Of all the fairy
stories and nursery rhymes-that this
universe is built upon the rock bottom
of absolute justice, and there is no pos
sible escape for any man or woman
Those tales l.eld up the ideal OF Ill
innate justice for the wronged and
the final overthrow Of the cruel and
wicked, the sure and inevitable re-
ward for the simple folk who trusted
This is not only the religion of the
meek who shall inherit the earth,
but the basis of the Emersonion phil
osophy, transcendentalsm. When you
read in one of these old tales. There
was once very wicked king. you
see his finish When you read There
was once poor girl who tended the
swine" you know she is princess In
disguise, and will marry prince and
live in palace.
Justice Wins Out.
There have always been stories
about Cinderella and the glass slip
rers. 1t is the elemental story OF the
fina! triumph of justice. The germs
of this tale are found in all ancient
literature and folk lore. There is a
myth about Cinderella in the very old
est Egyptian records. On the 25th of
December each year. when the Nile