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70 228 . the miracles of antichrist
why she pricks her fingers, every time he approaches
the sewing-table. She will never feel afraid to kiss
him. Although she constantly has sickness in the
house, and the servants leave, and friends withdraw,
she will never notice anything.
But after the jettatore has come out into the
world he is often badly off. First and foremost one
must of course think of oneself; one cannot ruin
one’s whole life by being kind to a jettatore.
There are many jettatores who are priests. That
is not strange ; the wolf is pleased if he can tear many
sheep. They cannot do more harm than if they
become priests. One ought only to know how those
children fare that they baptize, and the people they
marry.
The jettatore here in question became an engineer,
and wanted to build railroads. He was employed
by the state to aid in the construction of one of its
railroads. How could the state know that he was a
jettatore? Ah, what misery, what misery ! As soon
as he began his service on the line, there was nothing
but accidents. Earth-slip upon earth-slip in cutting
through a hillock, break upon break in laying abridge.
In firing a dynamite cartridge, the workingmen were
killed by chips of stone flying about.
The only one who never got hurt was the
engineer, the jettatore.
But the wretches who worked under him ! They
counted their fingers and limbs every evening.
" Maybe to-morrow we have lost you," they would say.
One informed the general superintendent, one
notified the minister of state. None of them would
listen to any complaints. They were too wise and
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