WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL?

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue XXV, 9 August 1893, Page 6

WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL?

" I can't make one of a party of thirteen," he exclaimed ; some of us will bo sure to die within a week." Thus Bpoko barber Jacob Gross, of Batavia, on the 12th November last. The occasion was a dinner parly. When the guests were all seated Gross noticed that there were thirteen at table. The others tried to laugh him out of his superstition, but he insisted that he would not eat as one of the company ot thirteen. A fourteenth guest was therefore added to the number. " Now we're safe," said Gross and the festivities proceeded. Gross boarded ata hotel m Batavia. Ten days later the hotel was burned to the groand. The next morning the body of a man was found in the ruins. It was the body of barber Gross. Now, this is a curious thin? to happen certainly ; but is it more than that ? Do you beiieve 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 day 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 aoy other day of the seven. No, no, its all humbug and nonsense. Barber Gross's superstition had nothing under the sun to with his death. Besides, ho dined as one of fourteen persons, not; thirteen. Don't be silly. TJnderstaud this : nature indulges in no sensational tricks. She kills men without hesitation 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 e&t ? Had he, too, some idle and foolish stuff in his head about bad luck? Not a bit. He'd been glad enough to have eaten in a thirteen party on Friday if the dinner would have only stayed on bis stomach and digested after he got it down But it woudn't, and his fear grew out of that. He says, t: I had a fullness and tightness at the chest after meals, and such a dizziness would seize me that I could scarcely see. This was in the spring of 1887.^ I fell 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 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 a doctor, and took various medicines ; but none of them did me any good, and I grew worse. In June, 18bS, I read in the "Darlington Times" about a person who had been handled just as I was, and bad been cured by a medicine called Mother Seigels 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, and have 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. " Tours truly, (Signed) "Joseph Teasdale. " Copley, Butterknowle, Durham, " November sth, 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 cases we stand ready to guarantee that none of the party will die within a week, especially if they all take a dose of Seigel's Syrup immediately ou rising from the table.