Many Powers of Intuition in Life

1910

By Lyne S. Metcalfe

A surface motorman awakened a train of thought not long ago when he stopped his ear shortly at a crossing. There was apparently no one there waiting to get on; a woman was standing on the curb not even looking toward the moving car, yet when the car came to this corner the motorman brought it to a standstill and sure enough the women hurried out of the crowd and clambered aboard.

"How'd you know that woman wanted to get on?" he was asked as the controller was thrown on again and the car started with a jerk.

"Just felt it," he laughed, "didn't know it. A fellow's affected that way in this business. How many people nowadays signal the motorman when they want him to stop? It's some sort of power, I guess, that tells me. I can't explain just what it is."

The patient knight of the motor voiced one of the most bewildering psychological truths found in the entire downtown propaganda, where about every nip and tuck of the human habit, custom or peculiarity finds a shining place. Taking metropolitan humanity as a whole, there are few who do not use intuition in the course of the average workday.

A certain teller in a large Chicago bank recognizes intuition so a faithful and valuable ally, one that can be put to good uses, though one that is not infallible. A "J. Rufus Wallingford" may stroll into this man's bank, toss a thousand dollar check over the counter in a blasé manner and something may "tell" the teller that the check isn't any good.

"I just feel it," he explains this strange power at intuition.

And the check may be turned down or, on the other hand, something may "tell" the cashier that the man is good — he just feels it.

Scoffers are referred to the average policeman.

Does the city detective always know a crook when he plucks him out of a downtown crowd, when the man's back perhaps is turned to the officer of the law?

He feels that the shoulders and neck ahead of him — the head crowned with a battered derby — is wanted. Often he does not know the crook's name and could not tell why he arrests him until the man is hauled back to the station and his photo is found gracing the limelight in the rogues' gallery some months or years back, the intuition in a case of this sort being extremely strong, as records prove amply.

Puss Sailed Away

1900

Went Aboard a Steamship and Made Herself Quite at Home

If there is anything in the popular superstition among sailors that "a cat brings good luck," the voyage of the British steamship Thalia will be a pleasant one, says the Savannah News.

A fine, large Maltese cat went aboard the day before she sailed, and composedly curled herself up on the heavily upholstered crimson sofa in the officers' saloon, and when the vessel sailed she was a contented passenger. "She is an old traveler," said the steward, as he stroked her soft fur "and this is not her first voyage. Cats like a change, and they will visit one vessel and then another in port until they find one that suits them; and they are knowing animals, and seem to have some intuition when a vessel is going to sail.

"Do I think a cat brings luck? Oh, yes. It's good luck to have a cat come to you. Why, that's not a superstition of sailors alone. Did you ever see a landlubber that didn't believe it? That cat will have the best treatment on board; besides, there's no end to the rats on board, and the cat will be useful as well as lucky for us."


Friends Are Discovered

Friends are discovered rather than made; there are people who are in their own nature friends, only they do not know each other; but certain things, like poetry, music and painting, are like the Freemasons' signs — they reveal the initiated to each other. — Mrs. Stowe.

Pointed Paragraphs — Carpenters Are Counterfitters

1900

The telescope lens enchantment to the distant view.

An egg in hand is worth more than a hen in the bush.

When a woman is in love it is very apt to increase her sighs.

Woman is the only tyrant that some men are not inclined to resist.

You can always bank on finding a well-filled pocketbook interesting.

Some people evidently go to the opera just to hear themselves talk.

When a man becomes a chronic loafer he begins to prey upon his neighbors.

Every time you avoid doing wrong you increase your inclination to do right.

The police should keep an eye on carpenters; many of them are counterfitters.

It's safer to be ignorant of a secret that's dangerous to keep than it is to know it.

Age is venerable in man — and it would be in woman were she to become old.

Sometimes a man has no confidence in other men because he has none in himself.

Medicine and advice are two things that it is always more pleasant to give than to receive.

Joseph's brethren probably cast him into the pit because they thought it was a good opening for a young man.

Ice cream and bon-bons may be the food of love, but bread and meat occupy important positions on the matrimonial bill of fare.

Intuition is something that tells a woman her husband is lying when he comes home at 2 a.m. and begins to explain the whys and wherefores. — Chicago News.