Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-14
DEFIANCE OF l3

- star 20 the subject or rooms
- numbered IS in hotels had no
pertinence so far as this house Is con-
cerned," observed the manager of q
Was hington hotel There isn't anything
numbered 10 in the shop, not even a bell
boy.
What do 1, myself. think of the 10
superstition? Well, while it's not ma
terial what think, I'll say this: You've
addressed that question to a non-supersti-
tious individual who. nevertheless, is a
victim of prejudice. through experience,
against the number 13.
The experiences were various. For
nearly ten years I was head clerk OF
leading hotel In another city. One of
the finest rooms in the house-perhaps
the fnest-was room IL. And. apparently,
room Il in that house was there to stay.
For the proprietor was a violent man.
who was dead against any and all forms
of superstition. His particular detesta-
ton In the line of superstition was the
one attaching to the number 10. 1t was
to indicate his hostility toward the IL
superstition that he saw to it. person.
ally, that the room numbered Is was one
of the most desirable in the big house.
when I went to work at the hotel the
head clerk whom / displaced told me
about this.
81 don't want you ever to mention this
to the old man-it would only get him
unnecessarily excited my predecessor
said to me, but don't you give that ID
room to anybody you know and like.
heartedly didn't take much stock in
the 10 thing myself On the day that
took my new billet the room was va
cant. But that evening a bridal couple.
man of the new sketch. as matter Of
course. wanted the best in the house
and room 12 happened to be the best
available. So I put the pair into that
room.
"On the following afternoon. while the
bridegroom was out for an airing. the
bride was curling her hair. using a gas
jet by the dresser to heat the curling
tongs. She was waving her back hair
when the curling tongs slipped out of her
hand and fell under the collar of her
room jacket.
''The entire floor was aroused by the
unfortunate young woman's terrible
screams. The chambermaids found her
rolling on the floor in agony. The hot
curling irons were still soaring the flesh
of her back. Most direfully burned. she
had to he removed to hospital She
was sadly disigured. and she didn't re-
cover from the shock to her system for
years.
road official-a man with a national repu-
tation. in fact-came along when the
house was pretty well filled up. and the
night clerk. not being able to give the
official his usual accommodations. put
him in that room 13. The noted rail-
road man was found with bullet in his
head on the following morning. There
was it is true. a pistol with one cham
Der fired lying alongside Of him in the
morning. But nobody at the time could
figure out whether that railroad man had
committed suicide or had been murdered.
There was no conceivable reason why he
should have taken his life. Nobody
knows, yet, whether he did or not.
by that time. of course. that 13 room
was pretty we'll on my nerves. But there
knowing. as I did, the crusty proprietor's
violent antipathy to the Is superstition
We'll, not long after the last room 13
catastrophe a wealthy young woman from
under the knife in a hospital. rea ched
town, ostensibly to attend to some bust
ness connected with Investments. The
Is room was the only one I had at the
moment that would answer her require
ments. I wasn't familiar with any of
the details of her history at the time
and as she seemed a self-contained
young woman, 1 couldn't figure out how
anything could happen to her in that
room-though. as 1 said, 1 was begin
ming to dislike to put anybody at all in
that room.
THE young woman spent most of the
night writing letters. and then she lay
down on the bed. all in her neatly ar
ranged burial finery. and to. : enough
poison to kill a dozen women.
THAT year the summer business was
light. and for quite a stretch I was able
to keep that IL room vacant. But when
the fall rush began had to stick young
Chicago couple into the room On the
his room trifie intoxicated, and his wife
upbraided him. When he entered the
room she was doing some fancy work
and she had small pair of scissors in
by her for overwhelming. the husband
made menac.ng move toward her. To
protect herself she put out the hand that
held the scissors. A point Of the scis-
sors blade penetrated her husbands eye
the right one. and ruined it. A few
through sympathy as they call it, with
the destroyed one. went bad and
eventually he was totally blind. His wife
died Of broken heart over what she had
done, and the man Is now alone, sightless,
and figure of misery.
"All of this time the stubborn old pro-
prietor of the house was storming at any,
body who even dared to hint that the
Is room was and must be a hoodso, and
every time anything happened In that
dence we'll calculated to impress the
minds of imheciles but only a coincl-
dence for all that. He declared that he
would tear the house down before he
would yield to a beggarly superstition
by taking the number 13 off the door
of that room.
We'll, 1 couldn't begin to tell about
all of the wretched occurrences that
happened In room 10 of that hotel dur
ing the next four years. I can go on
record as saying that only about one
out of five occupants Of that room es-
capped without having something more
or less serious happen to them. Three
different cases of smallpox, at different
times, occurred In the room. All three
OF the victims died in the pest house.
Each time. of course. the room mad to
be thoroughly fumgated and completely
refurnished. but still the stubborn old
proprietor would go up in the air and all
but foam at the mouth at the very sug-
gestion that lie number l3 had any
thing whatever to do with the room 8
bad luck. The dismal things were still
occurring to occupants of that room
every little while. when left the employ
Of the house.
Maybe all of this doesn't prove any.
thing. Probably it doesn't. And I am
not superstitious-or strive not to be-
But-well. I'm glad. all the same. that
there's no room or suite numbered 10 in
this house: I'm heap more comforta-
BILE about it,