Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1889 — Red Underwear Healthy. [ARTICLE]

Red Underwear Healthy.

Red was considered very potent in warding off the evil eye. In a time of trouble, when the evil eye was especially triumphant, all the red tape in a certain county of England was bought? to ward off its baleful influence. The remains of this superstition still prevail, for many people believe that a red string around the neck is an excellent remedy for asthma, measles a®d mumps. —— The preservation of faith in red still; exists, says a writer in the Chicago Herald, as is shown in the great confidence which obtains in the medical virtues of red flannel and the belief that the milk of a red cow is better than that of a cow of another color. The German peasant, if he cuts himself, thinks he stanches the blood better with a red ribbon. This -may be accounted for not only because of tradition, but the fact that biood would not form so startling a contrast when wetting a red ribbon as when wetting a white on©. A Southern friend tells me that the negroes make a doll of red flannel, with five needles stuck in it crosswise, and place it inside of a child’s bed or mattress to keep off all the diseases to which children are subject