The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-07
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDETIO j. HAsKN, DireCtOr.
Washington, D. c.
SUPERSTTTIOUS IN SPITE OF
OURSELVES.

strange thrill of apprehension when
you spill salt, or when a black cat
crosses your path. or when Friday, the
thirteenth, comes around in the calen-
1dar? Do you carry a rabbits foot
in your pocket or wear charm on
your watch fob? If so, you can con-
sole yourself with the thought that
your secret weakness is shared by at
! least 95 per cent? of mankind, ana
probably more, including the greatest
modern scientists and intellectuals. In
| fact, according to the recent an
nouncement of a prominent Psy-
chologist, there are only two kinds OF
people; Those who will admit they're
/ superstitious, and those who won't.
| Not long ago a large New York de-
partment store, finding that new
line of Oriental jewelry had failed to
make itself popular with the femin-
inc public, changed it's advertisements
to read: New lot of Chinese lucky
pieces that will charm away i'll for
tune" AS a result the next day, the
aisles around the jeWelry counter were
! blocked with a mob of enthusiastic
| shoppers, eager to obtain the magic
/ baubies. Furthermore, the mob was
not entirely feminine, but contained
many men.
| other stores, witnessing the success
/ 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 dis
plays of lucky charms" The fash
| ionable 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 soldiers
adopted the habit of carrying lucky
| token-usually- trinkets given them by
their best girls-as protection
against the enemy's gas and bullets.
Well, many of them who woRe the
/ charms came safely home, and you
can't persuade them to discard them.
| 4 Superstitious AgnOstic.
Ct know a man who has one Of the
brightest minds I've ever met. He's
big engineer with a big reputation,
! and he also has a well-developed taste
for books and pictures. He's an ag-
nostic and he swears he doesn't even
, believe in Fate, but he carries in his
pocket a little good hand that was pre-
scented to him by an old woman near
the front lines in France. He never
! goes anywhere without it, altho he
says he doesn't exactly believe in 1T.
1.-The old lady gave it to him Just
| before he took detail of engineers
up to bridge a stream. The enemy
was warning for them on the other
] side, and every man felt sure that the
building of that bridge would be the
last work ne would ever do. But just
bfore they cached the stream, 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 treas
ured his little gold hand
| The fact that superstition often has
/ a strong hold upon men of high de-
gree of education and intelligence was
definitely proved some years ago by
II: Addington Bruce, who conducted
an investigation of the prevalence of
superstition among the teaching staff
| of Harvard university. He himself
was astonished by the results which
showed, he says. that 1914 per cent of
the faculty were either consciously or
unconsciously under superstitious in
fiuepce.
Said one Harvard professor: 'I
must say that l don't think 1 should
feel very comfortable if seated 8 at
a meal, or living in house numbered
49,"
Another confessed that he always
picked up pins when he found them
| lying on the floor or on the sidewalk.
| TT seems to me-" he said, that
do this automatically, but there may
be a superstitious remnant in it,
! MY one superstitious practice, If
you can call it such,'' wrote still an
other. sis to knock on wood after
boasting of my health or good for
! tune"
| one instructor admitted that he had
a certain amount 81 faith in the truth
| of the old saying, Sing before break
fast, and you will cry before night"
| Another said: II have an instructive
| dislike of seeing the new moon over
my left shoulder"
Early Impressions Responsible.
! Bruce thinks that the influence OF
popular superstitions upon the edu-
Gated adult mimi may be explained
/ largely by the fact that they are ac-
uuired in childhood-"that plastic
period when the mind is most recep-
tive and the critical faculty most in
allegiance. The folk tales of the
nursery and Kitchen" he says, "the
superstitious saying of the older mem
bers of the family circle make a tre-
mendous impression on the mind of
the child. This would not matter so
much were it not for the fact that i'm
pressions of childhood, especially
when they appeal strongly to the emo
tional in man, are apt to persist thru
out life.'
He also points out that superstition
has played an important part in the
development of all religions and gov
ernHlentS anu queues britlsH an
thropologist, DR.. J. G. Frazer, who
declares that the salutary principle
of respect for government can be
traced. in part, at all events, to the
superstitious reverence with which
primitive peoples have always regard
ed their chiefs, holding them in awe
las persons possessed of supernatural
powers. This attitude, still much iE
evidence among savage tribes, seems
to have been shared by the ancestors
of all Aryan peoples; while in England
a lingering relic of it remained until
as late as the eighteenth century III
the notion that scrofula could be
healed by a touch of the kings hand.
Similarly. respect for property was
vastly strengthened by that form OF
/. superstition known as taboo by
which the supernatural power sup
posed to reside in the person of the
chieftain was transmitted to his mov-