A young Bengali student came to me to ask for an explanation of difficult passages in a book he was reading. He said his name was "Sat Kori," which means "seven cowry-shells," and explained the reason for his curious name. His mother had borne several children before him, but all had died; so, like many other Hindu mothers, she thought God or the Evil One had a grudge against her, and if he could, he would take this last little one also. So she called the nurse who attended her in her illness, and made pretense to sell the baby to her for seven cowry-shells, and gave the boy the name of Seven Cowries to deceive the God into thinking he was of little worth. I asked the student if he thought the ruse had made any difference, and he replied, "Perhaps—at any rate, I did not die as the others had done." So, a university student more than half believes that one can cheat God by a trick like that!
(700)
DECEPTION
John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers, talking about unfair methods in use at the mines for weighing coal, said:
This method is most unfair. The fist-and-pound
method, in fact, was scarcely
worse. The fist-and-pound method originated,
they say, in Scranton. A simple-minded
old lady ran a grocery store there.
A man came in one day and asked for a
pound of bacon. The old lady cut off a
generous chunk of bacon, and then, going to
weigh it, found that she had mislaid her
pound weight. "Dear me," she said, "I can't
find my pound-weight anywhere." The man,
seeing that there was about two pounds in
the chunk cut off, said hastily: "Never
mind. My fist weighs a pound." And he
put the bacon on one side of the scales and
his fist on the other. The two, of course,
just balanced. "It looks kind o' large for a
pound, don't it?" asked the old lady as she
wrapt the bacon up. "It does look large,"
said the man, as he tucked the meat under
his arm. "Still—" But just then the old
lady found her pound-weight. "Ah," she
said in a relieved voice, "now we can prove
this business. Put it on here again." But
the man wisely refrained from putting the
bacon on the scales to be tested. He put
on his fist again instead. And his fist, you
may be sure, just balanced the pound-weight.
The old lady was much pleased. "Well
done," she said, "and here's a couple o' red
herrin' for yer skill and honesty." (Text.)—New
York Sun.
(701)
One evening, as Vincent de Paul, the distinguished French priest, was returning from a mission, he found a beggar lying against the wall. The wretch was engaged in maiming an infant, in order to excite more compassion from the public when he went to beg. Vincent, horror-struck at the sight, cried, "Ah, you savage! you have deceived me. At a distance I mistook you for a man." Then he took the little victim in his arms and carried him to the crèche, where foundlings were kept.—Edward Gilliat, "Heroes of Modern Crusades."
(702)
See Sampling.
DECEPTION EXPOSED
"Don't try to make musicians out of all
children indiscriminately and thus you will
avoid such household conversations as one
I overheard the other day," said Baron
Kaneko of Japan, who has been spending
the summer in the Maine woods.
"I was on a train and a father and his young son sat near me. The father said: 'John, do you practise regularly on the piano while I am away at business?'—'Yes, father,' replied the boy. 'Every day?' 'Yes, sir.' 'How long did you practise to-day?' 'Three hours.' 'And how long yesterday?' 'Two hours and a half.' 'Well, I'm glad to hear that you are so regular.' 'Yes, father.' And the next time you practise be sure to unlock the piano. Here is the key. I locked the instrument last week and I have been carrying the key in my pocket ever since.'" (Text.)—Buffalo Enquirer.
(703)
DECEPTION JUSTIFIED
Truth in the abstract is perhaps made too
much of as compared to certain other laws
established by as high authority. If the
Creator made the tree-toad so like the moss-covered
bark to which it clings, and the larva
of a sphinx so like the elm-leaf on which it
lives, and that other larva so exquisitely like
a broken twig, not only in color, but in the
angle at which it stands from the branch to
which it holds, with the obvious end of deceiving
their natural enemies, are not these
examples which man may follow? The
Tibbu, when he sees his enemy in the distance,
shrinks into a motionless heap, trusting
that he may be taken for a lump of black
basalt, such as is frequently met with in his
native desert. The Australian, following the
