WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL?

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11848, 22 July 1893, Page 3

WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL?

" I can't make one of a party of thirteen," he exclaimed ; " some of us will be sure to die within a week." Thus spoke barber Jacob Gross, of Batavia, on the 12tb 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 his superstition, but he insisted that he would not a&t as one of the company of thirteen. A fourteenth guest was therefore added to the number. " Now we're safe," said Goss, and the festivities proceeded. Grosa boarded at a hotel in Bitavia Ten days later the hotel was burned to the ground. The next mcruing 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 Oelieve 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 the seven. No, no, it's all humbug and nonsense. B-iibsr Gross's superstition had nothing under the sun to do with his death. Betides, he dined as one of fourteen personu, not thirteen. Don't be silly. Understand this: Nature indulgeß in no senseless tricks. fr he kills men without hesitation for violating the laws of life, but not for assembling in groups of thirteen at dinner. Here wo 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 luck ? Not .a lut He'd been glad enough lo havu o^teu in a thirteen party on Friday if uhe dinner would oaly have stayod on his stomach and digested after he got it down But it wouldn't, and his fear grew out of that. Ho says, " I had a fullness and tightness at the chest after meals, and such «. dizziness would seiz'j mo that I could ■ scarcely see. This was in the s-piing of 1887, 1 felt tired, dull, and heavy, witb a sinking aensation at the stomach. My appetite was variable, and I didn't Know what to eat. In fact nothing seomed 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 continuad for twelvemonths, during which tira9 I saw a doctor, and took various medicines; but none of them did me any gjod, aud I grew worse. In June, 1888, I road ia the Darlington Times about a person who had been handled just as 1 was, and had been cured by a medicine called Mother SeigeVs Curative Syrup. On the strength of this I got a bottle from my brother, William l'easdale, grocer, Copley Lane, and began taking it. In a short time all pain lett 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 ton years. If you think the publication of this letter might he of use to others, you are at liberty to maki tbat use of it. "Yours truly, (Signed) ■' Joseph Teasdale. '■ Cjpley, Butferknowle, Durham, " November sth, 1891." Now that Mr Tresdale' is cared of his ailment, indigestion and dyspepsia, he would probably not re-fuse 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 dose of Seigel's Syrup immediately on rising from the table.