, 1885-05-02
LUCK n E
VARIOUS STRANGE FANclEs AND HAL
QUOTATIONS OF PUBLIC MEN.
The w-him OF "a Noted Financier-Garneld
and the Number Ie-com,nodors
Nanderbilt's Luck-Biaine-
Ex-seoretary Chandler.



New YORK SUM-
The whims, superstitions, freak, or Want
ever they DO called. Of many men OF good.
hard. common sense, who have become con-
spicuous in public or business life, are more
potent forces than would be supposed. The
experiences OF such ~alienists as DR.. Ham
mond or the late DR.. G.. NJ. Beard would, il
published, make a most curious and inter
esting story. For these physicians there is
no surprise when a shrewd and wealthy
%financier or successful politician hesitatingly
confs ises that he Is controlled by some fancy
that seems childish, but is nons the less po-
tent They meet so many such cases that
they are inclined to think that IL almost all
men would make confession they would adj
init that soma kind of fancy or belief had
possession Of them.
DIR. Beard once said 10 the writer that one
OF the most successful ~dnanciers of Wall
street had confessed TO him he was con-
vincsd that II he walked on the right hand
OF Broadway block between Houston and
Prince strosts he would meet some terrible
calamity, either in business or personally.
This banker was accustomed to walk down
Broadway for exercise on the right hand
side, and when be reached Houston street he
crossed over, walking the block to Prince on
the left hand Then he would cross back
again perfectly content Satisfied that the
seeming conviction was a mere within, lie
once. by forco of will. went on a few steps
on the block, but he suffered such an agony
Of fear that he gave it up, and crossed the
street
Another Of DR.. Boards patients, & we'll
known lawyer, who lived in Brooklyn.
would never cross the ferry unless he coul |
got to n certain spot on the rear dock, so that
he could stand with one foot on the big iron
clamp, He believed that IL he failed 10 do
s. h. would meet with misfortune Of some
kinl
That mel susceptible to sentiment should
be dominated by these hallucinations, as DIR.
Beard called them, is more easily explain
able than the cases of men of practical hard
sense with no nonsense about them. Yet DIR.
Beard assorted that in his practice he did
not see that one class was less liable TO no.
tions than the other. President Garfield,
for instance, who was OF "A keenly suscep
tible temperament, had n profound con vic
ton that the figure 10 would DO as
scented strikingly with the events OF his
career. Ho was born on the 10Th Of the
month, and died on the 18th. 1t was known
by Garfleld's friends that he was firmly con
WINGED thath e.would one day become presi-
dent. Some incident that happened while
be was in the army fixed the conviction in
his mind that he would become president,
provided he never strayed from the path
the omen pointed out His friends, not
knowing just what the omen was, were sat
isfied that in obeying its dictates Garaeld's
otherwise inexplicable course in some things
Of comparatively petty consequences found
explanation.
Speaker Carlisle is as practical aud un-
sentimental in temperament as CARTEL was
the opposite; yet Mr.. Carlisle is dominated
by one notion, il not by more. He will be-
gin no new thing on Friday.
IL is believed in Wall street that the cool,
imperturbabie Jim Keene suffers torture
from the fear that poison somehow or other
has got into anything of a liquid form that
he drinks, not Intentionally put there, but
there by accident, and he would not dare
drink a glass Of water. wine, or coffee with
out going through some secret performances
hat wards off the danger.
Commodore Vanderbilt was "A firm be-
lever in luck and lucky men, but the old
commodore was shrewd enough TO see that
lucky men generally did their best TO mako
themselves lucky. Senator Miller, of Cali
~fornia, is a firm believer in his own luck,
and has perfect faith that any bushes he
goes into will be successful because hs ia
lucky. He has had fifteen years of confirm
atory experience.
Mr.. Blaine, with all his common sense, will
never turn back to enter his house after hs
has quilted il, in case he has forgotten some
thing, not, at least, until he has walked a
few PAGES on the sidewalk, and he Is not free
from a few other Authorizations, IL that is
the name for these mental phenomena
Who would think that ex-Secretary
Chandler would permit himself to be both
cred by such visionary influences as counting
white horses for lucki He counts every one
that he sees until he reaches thirty mine, and
then he begins over again Speaking Of this
once, he said he had often wondered why he
did so, for his reason told him that it was
nonsense; yet he felt uncomfortable unless
he did When President Arthur went
to Florida with Mr.. Chandler the party
arrived at Jacksonville in the even
ing The president entered a carriage drawn
by four horses, and in a moment the BOOM
ing Of cannon frightened them and started
them on a run. Mr.. Chandler stood up In
the carriage, we'll frightened, He saw that
one of the horses attached to the presidents
carriage was white, and counted it, making
tho ~thirty-ninth, all by an instantaneous
process Of the mind In a moment the
horses were quoted down. Mr.. Chandler
said that his Judgment told him that there
couli be no possible connection between his
counting VI the uOrsoi WHICH ne nhu lalol 10
do when he first saw 1t, and the prevention
Of a runaway with the president and yet
somehow he trembled when he thought what
might have happened.
Such n hard headed old statesman as
Thaddeus Stevens cherished the hallucina-
ton that there was luck in picking up pins.
He never passed one, if he saw it, without
picking it up, getting the point before him.
1t has been said of Mr.. W. W. Corcoran
that he will not sit down upon a chair until
he has first raised it up.
The a~lienists say there is no special cure
for these mental phenomena, and as a gem
eral thing there is NO need for any, as they
are harmless, and by no means indicate men
tai disease. The work of the alienists liei in
the recognition of the tendency Of the halln-
citations 10 increase, or become predomin
ant, as is the case in some forms Of incipient
insanity.
A Race of Black Hebrews.