Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-01-05

DedGeu, aDle DuSllitSS man. III tht
private room of a Latin American mer-
chant of Baltimore is a carved ebony
desk of great beauty. 1t has descend
ed to its present owner who is carry
ing on the business of his father and
grandfather and is the desk they both
sat at In it lies the luck of the
house"
The millionaire and active man of
affairs who possesses 1t to-day regards
it as a talisman, precisely as his for
bears did The fine old desk brought
fortune with it when it's warnings
were needed. II, any morning, it's
drawers open with difficulty, as this
gray -moustached. stately gentleman
sits at it to begin his days work. the
desk has spoken. The day is to be I'M
lucky.
Nothing new is to be started, not a
contract signed if it can be avoided
no fresh obligations assumed. The
custom that has been handed down
almost as sacred prevails, and the
generation now in power sees it's
wealth continuing to increase.
That elevators could be even indi-
rectly concerned with business super
stitions would seem unbelievable. AMI
yet one very successful Wall street
Spectator will never enter one wnen
he has big operation in hand. At or
binary times he is willing to take
chances. Once embarked in a deal
where many thousands are at stake he
has been known TO climb 10 or dozen
flights of stairs several times in the
course of a day rather than run what
l. fnAl tn hs fsicly " ~
caution his own offices are never more
than two flights up.
Then there are the business men who
cannot be persuaded from believing
that certain days of the month are
especially fortunate for them. a noted
American lawyer carries with him a
tiny bust of distinguished American
statesman. Often in the midst of an
argument where extreme skill and
concentration are needed his fingers
can be seen stealing automatically over
TO his waistcoat, merely to touch the
accustomed object.
One morning he sat calmly at his
desk, debating his mail. He was soon
to go into court. The next moment
his face changed A few words to his
stenographer, snatch at bundle of
papers, and he was off, to speed to his
house as quickly as the subway and
a taXicab would take him. The little
bust had been left behind while he
was dressing. He feared he would lose
his case without it,
That he may have good luck during
the year well-known insurance man
makes a practice of having meal of
beans each New Years Day Where
he acquired the superstitution he will
not tell, but he firmly believes in its
Even stranger is the superstition of
an otherwise perfectly normal Western
man who. as buyer for "a very large
store of the country mas
had marvellous success. His talent
seems TO lie in reading the hidden
thoughts of men, and in that way Sc
curing bargains few others can ever
seem to get.
TO few Of his intimates. not his
trade friends he gives d weird explain
alton of this power. Wherever he can,
he says. he drinks water from the
same glass as the person with whom
he is about to do business, taking care
to drink after him. There as not a
doubt in his mind that there is truth
in the old belief, that, if two drink wa
ter out of one glass. the last to drink
will know the others secrets. At all
events, this man says the test never
fails
Two energetic brokers joined forces
not long ago, and decided that the Of
fees of one, with a room or two added,
would suit them nicely. Up to that
time the younger of the men had nev-
err happened to go carefully through
the offices of the elder, those that were
to be retained.
He stopped short as soon as he en-
tered the handsomely decorated and
customers room.p Some
thing unpleasant seemed to have at
fected him; despite the protests of his
new partner he turned the subject
Later he asked if, as special favor
and at his own expense, he might do
the customers room over, it was in
green.
Green is a disastrous color for me-"
he said. THAT is the one superstition
l have. l should never get over the
feeling that l would fail in what we
are undertaking to do if that room
stayed as it is
Are the heavens propitious?" 1t
would not seem as if any business man
of the first rank nowadays would ever
have horoscope cast on starting
new enterprise. But there are many
trnsters in the skies and the crystal
globes left, substantial men who
(astrologers will tell you in secreO are
excellent customers
Such business men would not in
deed, reveal it in public, but they think
as much of ''portents'' as did the ex-
Sultan of Turkey, and an omen that
has nothing to do with the course of
trade influences them nightly.
A young woman who is an assistant
secretary of the editor of we'll
known trade paper laughingly says
that her position is largely due to the
superstition of her chief. This editor
is very busy man, and much of his
work is done at night in the quiet of
his study at his suburban home.
He is brilliant and unmethodicaI.
and when wrapped in creative techni-
cal articles forgets. Many morning
he leaves his home minus papers that
he must use in his office that day.
Should he have gone only a block
pt,N., 1,