The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-02-04

superstitious? Do you experience
a strange. thrill of apprehension
when you spill salt, or when black
cat crosses your path, or when
Friday, the 18th comes around in
the calendar? Do you carry a rab-
bits foot in your pocket, or wear
charm on your watch fob? If so,
you can console yourself with the
; thought that your secret weakness
is shared by at least 50 per cent of
mankind, and probably more, in
Guiding the greatest modern scien-
lists and intellectuals. In fact,
according to the recent announce
ment of q prominent psychologist,
there are only two kinds Of people:
Those who will admit they're sup
erstitious, and those who won't.
Not long ago, a large New York
department store, finding that q
new line Of Oriental iewelry had
failed to make itself popular with
, the feminine public, changed its ad-
vertisements to read: New lot of
Chinese lucky pieces that will
charm away i'll fortune" AS a re-
suit the next day, the aisles around
| the iewelry counter were blocked
with a mob of enthusiastic shop
pers, eager to obtain the magic
baubles. F'urtherfore, the mob was
not entirely feminine, but contain
ed many men.
Other stores, witnessing the sue
cess of the lucky line" have now
taken it up, and in a single block
/ on Fifth avenue you can find half
| a dozen shops with conspicuous
window displays of lucky
charms" The fashionable leather
and gift shops have them in ivory
and amber and jade at very high
prices; while the drug stores have
| the near jade and composition
amber kind which lie on the same
! counter and blend very nicely with
| the toilet articles.
The wearing OF charms" one
dealer says, has become especially
popular since the war when many
| ing lucky Enthusiastically trinkets
given them by their best girls-as
a protection against the enemy
gas and bullets. Well, many Of
| them who wore the charms came
| safely home, and you can't persuade
them to discard them.
A SuperstitiOus Agn0stic.
81 know a man who has one of
the brightest minds I've ever met.
He's big engineer with a big repu-
| tation, and~he also has a welI-de-
veloped taste for books and pic
| lures. He's an agnostic and he
swears he doesn't even believe in
fate, but he carries in his pocket a
little gold hand that was presented
| to him by an old woman near the
front lines in France. He never
goes anywhere without it, al
| though, he says, he doesn't exacLly
believe in it
1.-The old lady gave it to him just
before he took a detail of engineers
up to bridge a stream The enemy
was waiting for them on the other
side, and every man felt sure that
the building of that bridge would
be the last work he would ever do.
But just before they rea ched the
stream, a thick fog descended upon
the place and completely hid them
from the enemy until the work was
finished. Every man returned safe
and sound After that, the chief
engineer carefully treasured his
little gold hand
The fact that superstition often
has a strong hold upon men of high
degree of education and intelligence
was definitely proved some years
ago by H. Arlington Bruce, who
conducted an investigation Of the
prevalence OF superstition among
the teaching staff of Harvard uni
yersity. He himself was astonish-
ed by the results which showed. he
says, that 1874 per cent of the fac
ulty were either consciously or I'M
consciously under superstitious in
fiuence.
Said one Harvard professor: ''T
must say that l don't think / should
feel very comfortable if seated 10
at meal, or living in a house
numbered -"
Another confessed that he al
ways picked up pins when he
found them lying on the floor or on
the sidewalk. 1T seems to me-" he
said, that I do this automatically,