WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL!

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 17, 1 September 1893, Page 29

WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL!

" I can't make one of a party of thirteen," he exclaimed ; " some of as will be sure to die within a week."

Thntf spoke barber Jacob Grow, of Batavi*, on the 12th of November last. The occasion was a dinner party. When the guest* were all seated Gross noticed that there were thirteen at table.

The others tried to laugh him oat of bis 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," Mid Gross, and the festivities proceeded.

Gross boarded at a hotel in Batavia, Ten days later the hotel w« 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 is a curious thing to happen, certainly ; but. is it more than that 7 Do you believe there is anything in the common notion that thirteen is an unlucky number 1 or that Friday is an unlucky day of the weekt 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. Tou wouldn't refuse to take thirteen eggs for a dozen if ypur 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. Barber Gross's superstition bad 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 hesitation for violating tbe l»ws of life, but not for assembling in groups of thirteen at dinner. Here we have a man who says be was afraid to eat. Why, in Mercy's n»me, was he afraid to eat ? Had he, too, some idle and foolish stuff in bis head about bad luck T Not a bit. He'd been glad enough to have eaten in a thirteen party on Friday if tb« dinner would only have stayed on his stomach and digested after he got it down. But it wouldu'c, and his fear grew out of that.

He saye, " I bad a fnloezs and tightness at the chest after meals, and such a dizziness would seize me that 1 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 wae a feeling of weight and pain over the eyes and at the back of my bead. 1 became very weak, and it was with diffioulty that I kept on witb my work. In this way I continued for twelve month?, during which time I saw a doctor, and took various medicines ; but none of them did mo any good, and I grow worse. In June, 1888, I 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 digesc my food, and have since been well and strong. I still taks the Syrup occasionally, and if 1 feel any signs of my old complaint, a dose or two seta me right, lam a collier, and have worked at the 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 use of it.— Yours truly, (Signed) Joseph Teasdale. Copley, Butterknowle, Durban, November 5, 1801. Now that Mr Teaadale is cured of bis ailment, indigestion and dyspepsia, be 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 tbe party will die within a week, especially if they all take a dose of Seigel'a Syrup immediately ou rising from the table.