The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-30
TRIPLE TRAGEDIES.
Some Proofs That Three Is Yer,
 Unlucky Number.

From Answers.
 Misfortunes, they say, never come sing ly, and certainly there is more than germ of truth in this old saying Over and over again it has been noticed that when one, great disaster occurs. 1t is quickly followed by a second, and then a third of similar description.
 Twice in the present year we have seen this occur. First, San Francisco was wrecked by earthquake and fire; then in the same month Vesuvius erupted and de. stroyed many villages and hundreds of lives; thirdly, Valparaiso was almost wiped out by q series of earth quivers.
 In the matter of railway accidents, there had been very few of any impor- tance for a year previous to the disaster at Salisbury but that was followed in rapid succession by the shocking acei- dent to the Scotch express, and by the bridge disaster in Oklahoma.
 When great man dies his death is very often followed by those of two otil~ CTS in high positions. There was q strilf- Ing instance of this six years ago. Tn July. 1900. King Humbert of Italy fell by the bullet of an assassin. On the 31lh of the same month the Duke of Saxe- Coburg died of a disease the existence of which was unknown to any but his iIu- mediate family. The third of the sequence was Lord Russell. and as was the case with the other two, his death was quite unexpected.
 The sudden ending of the famous Ger man Reed entertainment affords another instance of similar kind. MT. Reed died on Sunday, March 10. 1895. and only few days later MT. Corney Grain was at tackled by Inflammation of the ears, ar on the Saturday, six days after Mr. Reeds death, he, too, passed away. On the fo1lovNfup Man64u Mrc died.
 Italians are proverblaly suporstitious. No wonder, then. that almost every pa per in that country commented upon the following strange treble coincidence. Sig nor Giolitti. who is popularly credited in his own country with possessing the "evll eye,' first became premier in 1892. No fewer than six of his colleagues in tie cabinet died during his administrations three in one session. three in the next.
 Later Signor Giolitti gave up the pre- miership, and entered the home office. Almost at once his predecessor. Signor Nicotera. was taken i'll and died. In 1893 Signor Giolitti again took up the rein5 of government. He formed his cabinet on November ?. the date known in Italy ds the Day of the Iiaad. A few days later his minister of finance, Slgnor Rosano, committed suicide.
 Two yearspreviously. in 1901, strange coincidence Of a similar description caused a stir in the United States. MT. Otey, a congressman. died suddenly. Three days later MT. Cummings. New York representative, expired. and on the fourth day the life of Mr. Salmon, con gressman from New Jersey. came to sudden end. The coincidence goes fur ther. MT Salmon had been designated to attend the funeral of MT. Cummings. an1 Mir. Cummings to attend that of MT. Otey. Never before In the history of the Amer ican House of Representatives had three desks been draped in mourning at one and the same time.
 About the same date London was star tied by three tragedies In one day anG more curious still, all on the North Lon don railway. There was a child mur- dered fin waiting room at Dslston Juno ton; a stock broker was run over hy train at Mildmay Park station. while a young billiard marker attempted to coGi- init suicide by exploding a canister O. gunpowder in a first-class carriage nea- Highbury station. To add to the pecu- liarity of these triple tragedies, the day upon which they all occurred was Fri day
 One more case. which Is peculiar enough to be recorded. In October, l912 the Vienna Jockey club held their annual meeting on their race course. During tle previous meeting. which was the nrsi held upon the course. no fewer than five jockeys had been killed, and the super sttious wondered what would happen They had not long to wait. On the third day. of the meeting three riders. all gem tlemen jockeys, were killed in three su:- cessiye races.