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Show I SUPERSTITIONS OF AMERICANS By FREDERIC J. HASKIN.- j I "Boss, T reckon we bettor tu'n rqun tin' po bnck," said nn old white-haired liocro who was my chosen charioteer on a drive through a bit of southern country. Hp. pulled up tho horses and looked worried. "Why turn back?" I asked. Tho road stH'ined .Rood and 1 paw no reason for delay when important business awaited me in l.he (own beyond. be-yond. "W'y, didn' you sea dat rabbit? rab-bit? He cross' de road to do lef an ho ain' nevi-r cone back yit. Hit 11 Bho' brine bad nick to o on. T gwine pit out an' mek a cross mark in do road, an' tu'n 'roan to de cross-roads an' co tho ycthor road." It. took much persuasion 'to convince my aped Jehu that mv business was more important than the observance of his superstition. supersti-tion. 6 "When 1 (old the incident to i.Y, host that nipht lie smiled and said: "Did vou pump him on the superstition question ques-tion If you had you would have found a mixture of modernism and At-rican At-rican felichism that is queer and inexplicable. in-explicable. That old ncpro would get up nl. anv hour of Iho nipht to put a shov-pl shov-pl in tho lire, or throw salt on tho coals, or I urn the pockets of his trousers, it he chanced to hear tho shivering cry of a screech owl in the trees near his cabin. If ho heard a dpp howl three niphts in succession on his front porch, nothing would convince him that, some member of his family was not doomed to die. and if he should find a bit of hair, chicken feathers, bones and herns rolled in a tiny bundle and put. under his doorstep, he would likely move on account of this 'hoodoo' put there by some enemy." My host smiled "as he pushed another cigar over the table to me, and said: "I suspect inosr. of us have a vein of Hipor'stition running through our make up." Then rather shcopishly ho drew a rabbit "s foot, silver-mounted and fastened fas-tened to a chain, from his pocket and held it up to me. "This is a pretty pood mascot, I find. One of the negroes pot it for me, T am not. Hiiro that it is 'the left hind foot of a grave-yard |