Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-04-25
FHE LUCK OF A HOUSE
4 SUPERSTITION WHICH SEEMS TO
BE BUILT ON FACT.

to Occupy Them-If Not Death Then
Disaster Bars the Doors.
an instance has recently occurred of
well known man refusing for super
stitiOus reasons to live in beautiful
house he had built until some one else.
! a perfect stranger. had occupied 1T for
some little time.
If ever there has been a superstition
that appears justified by solid fact and
precedent. II is that which prevails
about the building of a house. Few
who erect costly mansions for their
own use ever live to occupy them. An
i'll fate seems to bar the doors of these
tabodes upon which has been lavished so
much thought and money and hope.
Sometimes it is death and sometimes it
is ruin that overtakes the owner.
So widespread and so powerful is this
strange superstition that one finds even
an intellectual man like Lord Salisbury
insisting on leasing TO strangers for sew
eral months the beautiful home which
ne has had erected for himself at Beau
lieu. on the Riviera. before he viii con-
sent TO occupy II himself or to permit
any member of his family TO cross its
threshold.
| Lord Salisbury. however, has only TO
| look round him in London TO find ample
grounds for the adoption of such ex-
! traordinary and at first sight unneces-
/ sary precautions. The completion of
/ Lord Revelstoke's palace in Charles
street conceded with the bankruptcy of
the great firm of Barring Bros. of
which he was the principal. and it has
remained ever since an exquisite monu-
-. Ir.
ambition.
Nr. Sanford had hardly finished re
/ building the exterior of his magnificent
mansion in Carlton House terrace when
the collapse of Argentine securities oc-
CURED. involving him in ruin and COM
Polling him TO dispose of it to Mrs
Mackay, of ''Bonanza" fame.
The Marquis de Santurce. having
purchased the neighboring house from
Lady Granville. spent a fortune upon
the reconstruction and adornment of
the interior. But before the work was
completed he in turn was overtaken by
the terrible disaster which befell the
well known Anglo-Spanish banking
house OF Murrieta. of which he was the
chief director, and he had no alterna-
tive but to sell the house to Mr.. w. W.
Astc-.
The downfall of Hudson. the railway
king. occurred at the same time as the
completion of the great house he was
having built for himself at the Albert
gate entrance TO Hyde park while in
the same manner Baron Albert Grant
witnessed the piecemeal sale OF the gor
geous palace he had erected at Kensing-
ton, but was never destined TO occupy.
This is why there are, comparatively,
so few new mansions of u palatial char
acter either in London or the country.
Persons possessed of adequate means
and in need of either town or country
residence prefer as n rule to purchase
homes that have been lived in to build
ing new ones. If they do any building
at all they, in general, cause it to take
the form of additions to or alterations
of edifices no longer new.
Even then the owners endeavor to
safeguard themselves from the POSSIBLE
ity Of danger by letting their residences
for the express purpose, as they say in i
France. of "wiping the dust from off
the plastered walls.
Nowhere is this superstition more
powerful than in Bavaria, where many
of the most picturesque spots. especial
" in the mountainous districts. are
adorned with fairylike palaces. None of
them has been entirely completed. for
insanity and violent death overlook the
brilliant and accomplished King Lud-
wig. who conceived their design, but
unfortunately persisted before their
completion.
Nor even have the builders of many
of the splendid structures that adorn
the French metropolis been more fortu-
nate. Thus NJ. Jules Grevy had. scarce |
" completed the construction of his
lordly mansion in the Avenue d'Iena
when the scandalous behavior of his |
son-in-law, Daniel Wilson, oyerwhelm- |
ed him with disgrace and compelled |
him to resign the presidency. of the re-
public amid perfect hurricane of pub |
lie Obloquy.
The Empress Eugenie's only sister.
the late Duchess of Alba, had not occu- |
pied the lovely palace erected for her |
in the Champs Elysees more than few |
months before she was seized with a
sudden illness and died there in man
ner SO mysterious as TO give rise to ru-
mors of foul play The building was
pulled down.
Another equally unlucky house is |
that now owned by the widow of the
late bdIOA blISCu- 'Situdteu at the COL
ner of the Rue de lElysee and of the
Avenue Gabriel. it was erected by the
Due de MOuchy. He had not occupied
the house more than few weeks before
it was the scene of a daring burglary
that covered its noble owner with ridi-
Guile Two months after. his daughter
died there so suddenly and under such
strange circumstances that the duchess
would not consent to remain longer in
such an il omened house
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Birds That Play.
Some birds ike all children, like to