PROVING THE RULE 



crops after the full, — pointing out, and 

 with much reason, that things growing 

 darkly below ground must profit most in 

 the dark of the moon. Sailors and Indians 

 are divided in opinion as to whether the 

 horns of the crescent should be pointing 

 upwards or downwards at the beginning 

 of a dry month, and they give such con- 

 vincing reasons for this view and the other 

 that one is constrained to leave the question 

 open. 



In truth, the deity whose awful dictates 

 imperilled Marathon, and were the undo- 

 ing of the Athenians before Syracuse, has 

 fallen upon evil days, and cuts a small 

 figure as arbiter of our destinies. It is 

 much if we nod to her new face over the 

 left shoulder, or turn the silver in our poc- 

 kets; the beliefs that her phases control the 

 weather, or dictate the times to sow and to 

 fish, are the last sorry relics of the esteem 

 in which she was anciently held by the 

 credulous sons of men. 



Credulous! Perhaps we do but change 

 our fetiches. In the fourth year of the 

 Great War, it was my privilege to hear a 

 New York drummer expound his views 

 upon a cognate matter in the Pullman 

 smoker. If he were not up to date, I miss 

 137 



