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Belief in Signs

  • Author: Unknown
  • Editor: B-2331
  • Newspaper: The Umpire volume 2
  • Page Number:
  • Date: 3 26 1913
  • Tags:
  • joke
  • racist
  • opinion

Belief in Signs A subscriber recently wrote asking the "Ladies Home Journal" if, in this enlightened day, it was sensible to "believe in signs." The reply of the editorial oracle was to the effect, that only the most ignorant of people nowadays placed any credence in "signs" being the forerunners of certain events. Perhaps this is correct. Yet it causes a certain twinge to us of the old school, brought up in the country, where, time after time, as boys, we witnessed the certain prophecy of various signs a.nd omens that apparently never failed. For instance, the writer, when a country lad, grew into a firm belief, which has not yet been lost, in the following signs. To meet a skunk is a sign that you are going to get a new suit of clothes. To be bit on the head with a brick is a sign of bad luck. 'l'o find yourself in the field with a bull, who is rushing towards you with his head lowered, is a sign that you are going to travel. To hear a negro tramp singing himself to sleep in your barn, is a sign that yon are going to meet a dark man with a club. To feel the limb of a cherry tree breaking beneath your weight, when about 40 feet from the ground, is a sign that yon will see stars. To be called quietly to the woodshed by your father-but what's the use? Nobody believea in signs nowadays, and we don't have any woodsheds now!