Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1873 — Superstitions. [ARTICLE]

Superstitions.

It is to be noted that the coincidences on which superstitions are commonly based are, in many instances, not even remarkable. Misfortunes are not so uncommon, for instance, that the occurrence oi a disaster of some sort after the spilling of salt at table can he regarded as-surprising.—ls three or four persons who are discussing tlie peculiar superstition relating to salt cellars can cite instances of the apparent connection between a misfortune and the contact of salt with the table cloth, the circumstance is in no sense to be wondered at; it would he much more remarkable if the contrary were the case. There is scarcely a superstition of the commoner sort which is not in like manner based, not on some re markable coincidence, but on the occasional quite common coincidences. It may be said, indeed, of the facts on which nearly all the regular superstitious have been based, that it would have amounted to little less than a miracle if such facts were not common in the experience of every person. Any other superstitions could be just as readily started, and be very quickly supported by as convincing evidence. If the present writer were to announce to-morrow, in all the papcr'3 and on every wall, that misfortune is sure to follow when any person is ill-advised enough to pare a linger nail between ten and eleven o’clock on any Friday morning, that annojinccnießt • would" he supported within a week by evidence of the most striking kind. In less than a month it would be an established superstition. If this appears absurd and incredible, let the reader merely consider the absurdity of ordinary superstitions. Take, for instance, fortune telling by means of cards. If mir police reports did-not assure us that such vaticination is believed in by many, would it be credible that reasoning beings could hope to learn anything of the future from the order in which a few pieces of paper happened to fall when shuffled? Yet it. is easy to see why this or any way of telling fortunes is believed in. Persons believe'in the predictions of fortune tellers for the seemingly excellent reason that such predictions are repeatedly fulfilled. They do not nolieo that (setting apart happy .guesses based on known facts) there would be as many fulfillments if every prediction had been precisely reversed. It is the same with other common superstitions. Reverse them, and they are as trustworthy as before. Ret the superstitions be that to every one spilling salt at dinner some great piece of good luck will occur before the day is over; let seven years of good fortune be promised to the person who breaks a mirror, and so on. These new superstitious would be before long sup Jported by asgoodcvidenceas those now in existence; and they would be worth as much, since both orders of superstition arc worth nothing. —Uomhill Magazine.