If you have been following my blog, you know that Daisy Gordon Low was superstitious. All her life she looked for signs from the universe to give her clues for action. She searched for cast off horseshoes, took part in many different courtship rituals (the sort that would predict her husband-to-be), and consulted horoscope readers. How strongly she believed these superstitions is debatable, because she was also a woman of deep faith and life-long devotion to the Episcopal Church. When superstition and Christianity came together, it was a potent mix for Daisy.
Modern-day chain letters were born during Juliette Low’s lifetime, probably in the last few decades of the nineteenth century. Since she was so superstitious, it is not surprising that Daisy received and then passed along a chain letter popular in 1912. From her home in England in July of that year, Daisy wrote to her mother with this text:
“An ancient Prayer:–
‘Lord Jesus I implore Thee to bless all mankind. Keep us from all evil and bring us to dwell with Thee.’
This prayer is to be sent to all parts of the world. It was said in Jesus’s home that all who copied (or perhaps used?) it would be saved misfortune and those who passed it by would meet some Great Calamity.
Those who copy and send this Prayer to nine friends within two days will on the ninth day receive some great joy.
Do not break the chain.”
Nellie Gordon was emphatically not superstitious and if she copied and sent on this chain letter it would have been only out of an amused love for her middle daughter.
If you are interested in chain letters, here’s a neat on-line site from a collector of chain letters. If you’d like to see a variation of Daisy Low’s 1912 chain letter, click here. It might make an interesting topic of study for Girl Scouts today.
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Juliette Gordon Low to Eleanor Kinzie Gordon, 20 July 1912, Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace and Historic Site, Savannah, Georgia.
Photo from: http://www.secondpicture.com/tutorials/3d/3d_modeling_of_a_chain_in_3ds_max_01.html