WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL?

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7268, 22 July 1893, Page 4

WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL?

“ I can’t make one of the party oi thirteen," he exclaimed j “ some of ua will be sure to die within a week.” Thus spoke barber Jacob Gross, of Batavia, on the 12th of November last. The occasion was a dinner party. When the guests were all seated Gross noticed that there were thirteen at table. Tbe others tried to laugh him out of his superstition, but he insisted that he would not eat as one of the company of thirteen. A f ju' teenth guests was therefore added to the number. “ Now we’re safe," said Gross, and the festivities proceeded. Gross boarded at a hotel in Batavia, Ten day later the hotel was burned to the ground. Tbe next morning the body of a man was found in the ruins. It was the body of barber Gross. Now, this is a curious thing to happen, certainly ; but is it more than that ? Do you believe there is anything in the common notion that thirteen is an unlucky number ? or that Friday is an unlucky day of the week ? As much business is done on the 13th of the month as on any other date, and on Friday as on any other week day. You wouldn’t refuse to take thirteen eggs for a dozen if your grocer insisted on it, neither do you have more bad luck on Fridays than on any other day of tbe seven. No, no, it’s all humbng and nonsense. Barber Gross’s superstition had nothing under the sun to do with bis death. Besides, he dined as one of fourteen persons, not thirteen. Don’t be silly. Understand this : Nature indulges in no senseless tricks. She kills men without hesitation for violating tbe laws of life, but not for assembling in groups of thirteen at dinner. Here we have a man who says he was afraid to eat. Why, in Mercy’s name, was he afraid to eat ? Had he, too, some idle and foolish stuff in his head about bad lack P Not a bit He’d been glad enough to have eaten in a thirteen party on Friday if the dinner would only have stayed on bis stomach and digested after he got it down. But it wouldn’t, and his fear grew oat of that. He says, “ I had a fullness and tightness at the chest after meals, and such a dizziness would seize me that I oould scarcely see. This was in the spring of 1887. I felt tired, dull, and heavy, with a sinking sensation at the stomach. My appetite was variable, and 1 didn’t know what to eat. In fact nothing seemed to me. There was a feeling of weight and pain over my eyes and at the back of my head. I became very weak, and it was with difficulty that I kept on with my work. In this way I continued for twelve months, during which time I saw s doctor, and took various medicines | bat none of them did me any goed, end I (grew worse. In June 1888, I read in the Darlington Times about a person who had been handled just as 1 was, and had been cured by a medicine called Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup. On tbe strength of this 1 got a bottle from my brother, William Teasdale, grocer, Copley Lane, and began taking it. In a short time all tbe pain left me, and I was able to eat and digest my food, and have since been well and strong. I still take the Syrup occasionally and if I feel any signs of my old oomplait a dose or two sets me right. I am a collier, and have worked at Woodland Colliery for over ten years. If you think the publication of this letter might be of nee to others, you are at liberty to make that use of it. “ Tours truly, (< Joseph Tbabdalb. “ Copley, Butterknowle, Durham, “ November 6th, 1891. Now that Mr Teasdale is cured of his ailment, indigestion and dyspepsia, he would probably not refuse an invitation to dine with twelve other nice people any day. And in such case we stand to guarantee that none of the party will die within a week, especially if they all take a dose of Seigel’s Syrup immediately on rising from the table.