The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-05-03
THEY FORETELL WAR


tor--He Says It's Truth Has Been Well
Established by Many Instances--An In
teresting Recital.
Successful speculators do not always
deserve the credit for the farreaching
foresight which they appear to possess,
and superstition sometimes dictates for
tunate investments which are supposed
to have been based upon broad grasp
of the worlds commercial movements.
A speculator who recently found him
self on the winning side Of both the
stock and the wheat markets made
confession to friend whose ventures
were less successful, revealing the fact
that his motives" were not so pro-
found as they seemed to be.
"You think" said the man whose
profits of few weeks have amounted
to several thousand dollars, "that
have been sitting up nights reading
foreign papers and dispatches, sitting
diplomatic opinions and getting the
meat out of all this war talk, until
was able to arrive at close approx
nation of the European situation as it
developed later. OF course / dom mind
being credited with any amount Of cru
dition and logic, but l know very well
that / don't deserve it. And il the mat
ter could be sub jected to proof it could
be shown that great many men who
have faculty for landing on their feet
in their speculative jumps are influenced
by considerations not whit more wise
or logical than those by which was
guided, but everybody regards these
men as examples Of wisdom and far
sightedness.
''Of course figured that there would
be war in dead earnest over in Europe,
but 1 didn't arrive at that conclusion
by reading the opinions Of experts upon
the movements of the powers. Some
time before the outbreak Of the German
Austrian war / was walking with my
father, who was Of philosophical turn
of mind, along the streets of the Eng
lish town in which we lived. We pass
ed several groups of small boys who
were armed with 'rickers'-I believe
they call them bones or 'clappers' over
here-and the air was filled with the
racket which the youngsters made with
their crude instruments. Pointing to
pair of the bones, my father inquired:
"'Do you know what those things
mean?'
81 replied that was not aware that
they signified any thing beyond fun for
the boys and noise for the whole COM
munity. Father shook his head and re-
sponded:
"'It seems foolish to say SO, but
you may depend upon it that they mean
war, and nothing else. I'm not much
of believer in signs and tokens, but
when you see the boys possessed Of q
general craze for the "rickers" it is
safe for you to make up your mind that
it will not be long before the cannons
will begin 70 talk about making
changes on the map and big war will
command the attention Of the nations.
"'Your great-grandfather, ny grand
father, pointed out that fact to me and
said that he had never seen it fail. He
had observed it before the Spanish pc
ninsular war, and it also preceded all
the Napoleonic wars. His confidence in
the sign was 80 serious that began to
observe for myself. There has not been
a big national conflict from that time
to this that has not been preceded by
general furor of the "rickers." But
also noticed that there We're long peri
DDS during which you could not find
pair of ckpping bones in boys hand;
consequently it could not be said that
the craze was perpetual and that any
war must therefore, by necessity, have
been preceded by a craze for the music
of the ''rickers. -
"Taking the specific instances which
my father named, together with those
which have come under my own per-
sonal observation, find that an almost
universal use of the clappers prevailed
among the youngsters before the follow
ing wars: The Abyssinian, the Asian
tee, the Egyptian, the Franco German,
the Turkish, the Crimean, the
German Austrian and the Danish. The
instance of the Franco Prussian conflict
probably made the most profound i'm
preston upon me, so far as the verifi
cation Of our family theory was con-
cerned.
II was then attending school in a
French town which was largely popu-
lated by students, most Of them young
boys, From morning until night you
could hear the incessant u,::. IA: Of c|pp,
pers. They simply made the welkin
ring, and the boy who did not operate q
pair Of bones was without standing
among his fellows. had never seen
quite 80 violent a craze Of the 'rickers,
and felt that il the sign failed that
time it would be wholly discredited
with me. Accordingly awaited de.
veloprsents with greater interest than
had ever before felt II was not long
before the French and Germans were at
It with all their might. Since then 1
have never had the courage to doubt the
superstition, especially as / have never
seen it controverted by the facts of his
tory.
"well, some three months ago as was
going to church out in Woodlawn l no
ticed several boys operating the bones.