Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1903-07-21
BREAK A LookINe-eLAss
And You Will Have Extraordinar.
Good Luck, So They SAY.

BREAK A LOOkiNG-GLASS
And You viii Have Extraordinary
Good Luck, So They SAY.
If you seek good luck, break look
ing-glass. If you wish extraordinary
good fortune, smash a lot of them
Such at least would likely be the ad-
vice of Miss Henrietta Crosman and
the members of her company, and they
would speak from an experience found
ed on fact.
For Miss Crosman has thoroughly
disproved the old wives fable that
seven years bad luck follows the
breaking Of looking-g glass. In the
three years that Miss Crosman has
been starring. thirteen mirrors have
been broken in her company, but In
stead of misfortune and calamity at
tending these mishaps, they seem each
time to bring a run Of good luck.
Strangely enough, the first and the
thirteenth mirror were broken in Bos-
ton. Miss Crosman was about to be
gin an engagement at the fremont
Theater, Boston, three years ago,
when one of the city's street cleaning
cars smashed a large looking glass
which was part fthe stage equipment,
and which had just been taken from a
transfer wagon and placed near the
stage door. When 1t became known
throughout the company that a looking
glass had been broken all manner of
dire predictions were made. Theatrical
folk are superstitious above most hui
man kind, and this looking-glass Incl
dent was sufficient to I'LL all with dis
may. The first notable event after the
breaking Of the glass was the appear
ance Of representative from the Bos-
ton street-cleaning department, who
paid the full value Of the damaged
property, which was $40. This did not
exactly look like bad luck, and was
viewed in the light Of a marvel, for
such promptness and dispatch upon the
part of municipality had never be-
fore been heard of.
Some time thereafter the company
was playing in a New England city
when gust Of wind caught looking
glass that had been leaned against the
wall Of the theater in readiness to be
carried inside, and smashed it into
bits. Again great fear assailed Miss
Crosman's company, but, as before the
consequences were good instead Of
evil, for the engagement in this par
ticular town proved to be the largest
In the history Of the local theater.
Soon the third mirror was broken, and
as before some good luck befen. Then
the members Of Miss Crosman's COM
pany took heart and began to assure
themselves that 1t was lucky for them
to smash looking-glass. 1t is con-
spicuous fact that every looking glass
which has been broken in Miss Cros-
mans company has been followed by
some uncommon good fortune. Thus.
just before the recent engagement In
Philadelphia. which in point Of receipts
was the biggest ever played by dra-
matte company In this country at SIM
liar prices, large pier glass was bro
ken as it was being taken into the
theater. In Albany also, last winter,
looking-glass was smashed in the
theater, and the engagement in that
city is a part Of dramatic history, as
the business was the biggest ON record
and established Albany as a great
theatrical city.
Then, again, just before Miss Cros-
man and her company began their run
in Boston not long ago, another mir
ror met the fate of it's predecessors,
making the thirteenth that had been
broken in the company in three years.
The Boston engagement was brilliant
success, and it was followed by New
England tour which has become cele-
brated as the most profitable ever play
ed by any dramatic star in that Sec
ton of the country. Not once has any
thing that in any way could be regard
ed as bad luck come on the heels of a
mirror-smashing, while in every in
stance there has been a series of lucky
happenings, until now there is
strong suspicion that some of the mir
rors in Miss Crosman's company have
been broken DurD0Selv