Was Jacob Gross a Fool ?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4704, 24 July 1893, Page 1

Was Jacob Gross a Fool ?

"I can't make one of a party of thhv teen," he exclaimed; "some of ub "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. The others tried to laugh him out of hia superstition, but he insisted that he would not eat as one of the company of thirteen. A fourteenth guest was therefore added to the number. " Now we're safe," said Gross, and the festivities proceeded. Großß boarded at a hotel in Batavia. Ten days later the hotel was burned to the ground. The next morning the body of a man was found in the ruins. It was the body of barber Gross. Now, this ia a curious thing to happen, certainly j but is it more than that ? Do you believe there ia 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 refuee 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 the seven. No, no, its all humbug and nonsense. Barber Gross' Buperstition had nothing under the sun to do with his 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 heaitation for violating the 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 aboub bad luck ? 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 his stomach and digested after he got it down. But it wouldn't, and his fear grew out of that. He Bays, " I had a fulness and tightness at the chest after meals, and such a dizziness would seize me that I could scarcely see. This waa in the spring of 1887. I felt tired, dull and heavy, with a sinking sensation at the stomach. My appetite was variable, and I didn't know what to eat. In fact, nothing seemed to suit me. There was a feeling of weight and pain over the eyes and ac 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 a doctor, and took varioaa medicinea j but none of them did me any good, and I grew worse. In June, 1888, 1 read in the Darlington Times about a person who had been handled just as I was, and had been cured by a medicine called Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. On the strength of this I got a bottle from my brother, William Teasdale, grocer, Copley lane, and began taking it. In a short time all pain left me, and I was able to eat and digest my food, andhave since been well and strong. I still take the Syrup occasionally, and if I feel any signs of my old complaint a dose or two sets me right. lam a collier, and have worked at Woodland Colliery for over ten years. If you think the publication of this letter might be of use to others, you are at liberty to make that use of it. "Tour 3 truly, (Signed) " Joseph Teasdale. " Copley, Butterknowle, Durham, "November stb, 1891." Now that Mr Teasdale is cured of hia 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 ready to guarantee that none of the party will die within a week, especially if they all take a doae of Seigel's Syrup immediately on riaing from the table.