Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1899-03-16
THE LUCK OF A HOUSE
A SUPERSTITION WHICH SEEMS TO
BE BUILT ON FACT.

siOns For Thelr OWN Use Ever Live
to Occupy Them-If Not Death Then
Disaster Bars the Doors.
An instance has recently occurred of
a well known man refusing for super
stitious reasons Do live in a beautiful
house he had built until some one else,
a perfect stranger. had occupied it for
some little time
If ever there has been superstition
that appears justified by solid fact and
precedent, it is that which prevails
about the building of 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
abodes 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
he has had erected for himself at Beau
lieu, on the Riviera, before he will con-
sent to occupy it 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 coincided 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-
ment to the futility of human hopes and
ambition.
Mr. 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
pelling 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.
Astor.
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 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 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 edifces no longer new.
Even then the owners endeavor to
safeguard themselves from the possibil-
ity of danger by letting their residences
for the express purpose, as they say in
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
ly 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 perished 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, overwhelm-
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 a 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
subsequently pulled down.
Another equally unlucky house is
that now owned by the widow of the
late Baron Uirsch. Situated at the cor
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 daring burglary