WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL !

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 19, 8 September 1893, Page 29

WAS JACOB GROSS A FOOL !

" 1 can't make one of a party of thirteen," be exclaimed ; " some ot as will be sure to die within a week." Thus spoke barber Jacob Gross, of BatavU, on the 12th of November last. The occasion was a dinner party. When tbe gueata were all seated Gross noticed that there were thirteen at table. The others tried to laugh him gut of his superstition* but[ he insisted tbat he would not eat as one ot the company of thirteen. ▲ fourteenth guest was therefore added to the number. " Now we're safe," said Gross, and the festivities proceeded. Gross boarded at a hotel in Batavia. Ten daja later tbe hotel vu burned to the ground. The next morning tbe 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 ia an unlucky number T or that Friday is »n onluckf day of ths week f As much business is done on tbe 13th of tbe month as on any other date, and on Friday as on any other week day. Ton wouldn't refuse to take thirteen egge for a doaea if your grocer insisted on it, neither do you have more bad luck on Fridays than on any other day of the seven. No, do, it's all humbug and nonsense. Barber Groes'tf 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 vioUtiog the Ihws of life, but not for assembling iv groups of thirteen at dinner. Here we have a man who says be was afraid to eat, Why, in Mercy's name, was he afraid to eat ? Had he, too, some idle and foolish stuff in his bead about bad luck i Not a bit. He'd been glad enough to have eaten in A thirteen party on Friday if tbe dinner would only have S'ayed on bit stomach and digested after he got it down. But it wouldn't, and his fear grew out of that. He says, " I bad a fulnezs and tightness »t the chest after meals, and Buch a dizziness would seize me that 1 could scaroely see. Tail waa in tbe spring of 1887. I felt tired, dull, and heavy, with a sinking cessation at tbe 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 weigbt and pain over the eyes and at the back of my bead. I became very weak, and it was witb difficulty that I kept on witb my work. Io 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, 1888, I read in the Darlington Times about a person who had been handled jaat as I was, aod bad been cured by a medicine called Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. On tbe 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 beeo well and strong. I still take tbe Syrup occasionally, and if I feel any signs of my old complaint, a doae or two sets 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, (Signei) Joseph Tkabdalb. Copley, Butterknowle, Durhan, November 5, 1801. Now tbat Mr Teasdale is cured of his ailment, indigestion Md dyspepsia, he would probably not refuse an invitation to dine with twelve other nice people any daj. And in sucb case we stand ready to guarantee tbat none of tbe party will die within a week, especially if they all take a dose of Seigel'a Syrup immediately on rising from the table.