BELIEF IN SUPERSTITION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3890, 3 January 1929, Page 3

BELIEF IN SUPERSTITION.

♦ EFFECT UPON RAILWAYMEN. NOT COMMON IN DOMINION. r>f . 'The existence of superstition among railwaymen is dealt with in the latest number of the Railways Magazine, which.recently offered a prize for the best essay on the subj ject by a railway employee. The winning (essay was by Mr. J. €. Batt, a Wanganui enginedriver. “Fear of the unknown would cause no end of inconvenience jn railway work, and it can be said of New Zealand railway-men that very few, if any, are superstitious,” states the winning essay. “Locomotive imen on our railways will smile at the superstitions of the hard-headed footplate staffs of Doncaster, 'Crewe, Swindon and other engine centres. The performances of engines and men in England prove they are the finest in the world and just how a hare crossing the track in front of a train in that country c-ould upset the engine crew is hard to understand. Evidently superstition dies harder-ill the older lands.

“There is ju'st the chance that a man Who is conscious of a weakness in his workmanship or is ab- _ _/Sentminded will be superstitious. He might have had some narrow escapes at times, and would fear that something similar might happen again, with disastrous results. Obviously t'he cure for superstition of this kind is concentration on details and close attention to signals on .approaching stations, and the samp close attention to signals, tablet and brakes before starting out from stations. Of course, accidents happen from causes over which the victim's have no control, and it would be -interesting to have the op- . inion of . engine-men Avho have had the misfortune to be derailed by slips-on the line or other Pauses where the consequences have been serious. It is fairly safe to state that the first warning they had was when the cowcatcher encountered the obstruction. “There .is belief among some locomotive men that if one has trouble of any kind at his work it will be followed by two or more minor accidents,” continues the essay. “It is quite noticeable how often this works out (correctly, but it is due probably to nothing more than coincidence. In most cases it ■ will not be clue to carelessness or indifferent handling of the engine or train, but just what is commonly known -as a run ,of hard luck. This belief is' not peculiar to railwaymen, but is general among most people.”