GREAT GOD, JUNK

Evening Star, Issue 19651, 2 September 1927, Page 1

GREAT GOD, JUNK

INHERITED SUPERSTITION i’JSXSLONKKS FOR LIFE. One hull' of the world is eager t« acquire possessions. The other half is wishing that it conld get rid of a fetv. The household gods have a way of taking charge, and every bit of furniture wc domesticate becomes a pensioner for life. It does not matter what it is. There is a certain sold in inanimate objects, and the shop windows arc full of them, millions of them, all seeking a home. And once you get them they have got you!

For years and years our magazines, and even our plays, have been full of stories which more or less betray the general sense of tin's soul in inanimate things. And these stories must appeal to their readers. Otherwise the public would long ago have turned down the Rajah’s opal, and the Sultana’s emerald, and the little green box, and all the rest of it.

We associate good luck or bad luck with various of our household gods, the survival of some inherited superstition from ancestors who had nothing much to leave us but a stone axe and a worship of inanimate things, (says a writer in an English magazine).

It was our over-so-great grandfather who walked about stained blue, and who bung round the doors of the Homan Legionary canteens on winter nights, who left us this dim distant feeling which gives us an interest in the Bajah’s opal, and the feeling that since the old green, lacquer tea-caddy came into the house the luck has gone up the chimney. And it is this inherited superstition which forbids us to throw into the dustbin hundreds of objects, which get into our houses almost uninvited, and which settle down and stay with us and expect to bo washed and dusted till death do us part, or the brokers come in.

Wc have not the courage to pitch away the little clay model of a fisherman that came home from Brittany on a holiday which is almost forgotten, nor the carved wooden bear which, came from Switzerland, or the spoon that came from the Norwegian fiords, or the tin ciikc-hox, which came in as •a present from the grocer’s at Christmas time, in the dear old dead days w lion grocers chased ’ customers, as Diana chased the. deer.

The cake-tin has a picture of Windsor Castle on one side and Balmoral Castle on the other. There is also a panoramic view' of Edinburgh and .a picture of the. Crystal Palace. Wc hate it. But we can’t throw it out, foi it is a box of memories now, ns well as a cake-hox. It has become a household god. Getting hungry in the night we can never find a cake-box which comes so easily to hand in the darkness. The infernal thing will almost come when it is called hire, a pet dog. Pauline, the ilappcr of the family, collects China eats ami worships them, horrid pink and green cats, with glas's eyes, cats with hunches of flowers’all over them.

Cousin llouoria, is collected herself liy sofa < nsiiions. Can’t pass a cushion shop without gelling hit in the oyo hy a padded alroeily in black and dull gold. llouoria also has Moorish leather cushions which look like balloons. She stuffs thorn with old news-

papor.s. Aunt KHen loves the early Victorian lioriml. and is surrounded by samplers and horsehair sofas which have come homo to roost with her as all ill-deeds will.

And Cousin Dolores is well named “ Sorrows,’’ for she suffers from silver tables, or triuketitis. Cousin Dolores pulls silver rubbish as a magnet pulls stt-el.

Perhaps the must tiresome posses-sion-worshipper in the house is Erica, who is “arty”; she suffers from the artistic temperament, collects, “lovely little hits of color” and cannot bear her own particular little corner to ho touched; iho mirror with the bright frame of diminutive fruit and flowers, the wonderful old chair, and the choice picture which nobody else in the house i - artistic enough to appreciate; if this sanctum is violated—what a, fuss!

So we are all taken possession of by (he lesser gods which we call rritr household gods. lint, all the time, we know- (hat. in our secret hearts, we are falling down and worshipping the great, god dunk.