The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-07-29
AN UNLUCKY NUMBER.
nondon snare Moments.l


One of the most curious and widespread
Of the superstitions Of France is the be-
lief in the efficacy of numbers lucky and
lucky. There is scarcely a Partisan who
has not his number, and the recurrence Of
this number in dates, either in the week
or month, marks his day of fate. When
the date contains his lucky number he
bets on horse races. plays ecarte at the
cercle, and makes heavy speculation on
| the bOurse; when the date comedies with
his unlucky number he avoids business
ventures and gaming as he would a
plague.
Some men have their lucky number
combined with their monogram in A seal
ring French sailors sometimes have
their lucky number tattooed on their
right arm and their unlucky number on
the left.
The rarity of the number 1S in the
streets and in hotels and offices shows 10
what extent this oldest of superstitions is
| believed and regarded in Paris-so care
less and apparently caring so little and
believing so little in what cannot be felt
with the hands. Very few Parisians
would care to live in d house of the i'll
Omened number, but be ii only omitted
or let its place be filled by twelve bis. -
as the French put ii, and the evil charm
! is broken
The number is sought for by only one
claSs-the sage femmes '-the wise wOm-
en- or that particular sort who deal in
! love philters and charms, who sell 10
| bonnes and 10 young girls of the bour-
| geois powders TO bring back their erring
or recreant lovers. These women aug
ment their power and their earnings by
living at the fateful number.
Most of the fashionable clubs of Paris
| have stories, which are their peculiar
/ property, Of disasters which have fol-
/ lowed disregard to the superstition with
regard to thirteen people sitting at table.
/ The following is one often told 1t be-
| longs TO the best known literary dining
cup Oh Paris, the famous monthly Diner
! Dentu. The ancient law of the club fixed
/ the number of its members at twelve,
/ ana the limit was never passed until Ar
thur de Boissieu OF the Gazette de
number to thirteen This was voted
unanimously, and q banquet was ar
ranged TO welcome him
! On the evening set the members gath
| cred TO meet their brilliant addition, and
w&ile awaiting his arrival news was
/ brought them that he had been thrown
| from his faVorite horse and almost in
stantly KILLED. The skeleton had at length
/ ootruded into the feast. This fatality
stands solemnly recorded in the club S
/ records-the death of a member who had
never entered the secret rooms of the
| club, never sat at its board or wore its
| ribbon-One who was first toasted around
a taole whose banquet lamps were extin-
! gulshed and pledged only after he had
touched glass to glass with death.
J
woman, widow, moved TO Paris and
! took apartments IN a hotel in the Rue
/ GouJon, IN the quarter Occur la Refine.
She was wealthy and very beautiful, and
1 before long fell in love with and becamg
! engaged to an attache, a young Hanover
| ian baron, who had been aide-de-camp Il
! King George of Hanover when Prussia
/ made the latter province indeDpndeut
! Early IN the autumn the young baron was
! summoned hurriedly back TO Hanover
/ and on the evening before his departure
| from Paris his English fiancee gave an
/ imDromptu dinner in his honor. Amone
others invited were the Comte and Com
/ teSSe de W of Poland. Dinner was
| served at 10 o'clock and all was proceed
| ing merrily, when the comteSSe suddenly
made an exclamation which drew all ewes
| TO her There were just thirteen at the
table.
Some laughed incredulously, some fear
| fully and all counted.
But there is something more strange
| still, said she. 4 think we are of ex-
actly as many nationalities as We are
/ persons"
Strangely enough. it was true. There
! were present a Hungarian friend of the
| barOn's, a Scotch cousin of the hostess
| an Italian painter. an attache OF the Rus
| sian legation, a Hayden, a. Mexican, mar
| RED in Paris and Partisan councillor OF
| state. The hostess herself was English
| the Comtesse de W was a Pole and
his wife by birth an American.
| This discovery was hailed as little short
| VI udINclOuSs anu the UlSEuSSlOu WHICH
| followed served TO make the company in
a measure forget the fatal number.
| . > .
| The next morning the hostess accom-
panied her fancee TO the station, and or
| her return, as the weather was intensely
| hot, sat al her garden window clothed on
| ~ in a light wrapper. The same night she
1 was stricken with pneumonia and in tive
days she died. before the baron could
| reach her.
| A strange fatality seemed To rursue tht
| guests of that curious and unpleasantly
| cosmopolitan dinner. On her return e
| her home in Scotland, the cousin of The
hostess was in a railway accident in
/ Wales, and was made a cripple for life
| The same year saw a quarrel between thI
baron and his friend, who had been en-
| tertained at the repast, and a duel, in
| which the Hungarian was fatally wound.
ed. The countess was divorced from hel
/ Polish husband: the Russian attache died
| in Siena of fever, and the French deputy
| was depOSed, arrested on charges of bFib-
Eery and conspiracy and committed sui
| eide
Only four of that dinner party are still
alive. Three OF them have been question,