Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-14

sneezes you must say: God bless
you" Never stay in room with a
girl who wears big buttons. Never
attempt anything important on the
day you see man with a bandaged
head (this killed twenty-one theatre
cal first nights during the war; or a
bald-headed man sing or a cat NEW
in the house. If you have some spe
cfal worry. whisper it to a cab horse.
All of which is but the outer rim
of it,
This is not handbook.
If you ask what it means you will
he told that the thing dreaded is bad
luck and worse. In one sense it
means the boodoo. In another it may
he called the atmosphere or microbe
of bad luck. and it is catching. Yet
otherwise. it is viewed as a semi-in-
telligent entity that can be offended
or placated. Also, it may be fooled
or baffied.
So there are specialists to break it.
AleXandrine with her drum. And here
is an example. Frequently it attaches
10 places or objects. like a guitar a
muf or mantel ornament. Mile. Ar
Iette. the dancer, rented fiat. She
could not feel safe in it, Her dog
ran away. Her fur coat was stolen.
She quarreled with two best friends.
Her auto went lame. And she caught
a cold in the head. Finally. when
the pipes burst and the cook left. she
sought advice of a specialist Alex
andrino came with her drum.
Alexandrine beat around a while.
then said, very seriously, Il can do
nothing here. The fiat is soaked with
rad luck My drum seems useless
Beat it,
Arlette did So She forfeited her
lease and went into war work Which
ied 10 her present vogue with poilus
-Veritable star with money rolling
a IN CT,
airy IA. 1917,
Chlidren's toys, they say. make a
grand lightning rod against it. A
certain party whom we all knew in
arls had mania for buying me-
chanlcai toys. and as pretext he gave
them to his little son. SO Just before
the war he came to be known as 1.-The
father of the boy with 5000 toys" 1t
VIII give you an idea. And to show
now we were mistaken. the boy is
now grown up. and the father made.
by common repute. 100000 francs
in war contracts.
The guigne can attach to persons
lf one brings you bad luck. avoid
that person. Avoid those who suffer
from bad luck. You see where it
finally leads you? A practicing Chris
tian or plain honorable man would
ard and cold fish,
Brineers of Luck.
All right.
the Rue Camartin. to whom one girl.
aurora B, gave the reputation
of the evil eye. 1t drove him out of
the street. He has the evil eye."
she said. And every one repeated it.
The evil eye is the worst bad-luck
bringer. 1t is so deadly that a single
glance will start things.
The girls are not heartless. They
would risk one stab of bad luck for
a friend or for almost anybody, but
they dread the series.
There you are-the series.
These ideas become crystallized
around great operate event and it's
sequel. the last rehearsal of Car
men,"
AS usual. from the first rehearsal to
the last. every soul connected with
the new opera had been careful to do
nothing which might fructify the
subtle seeds of bad luck. There are
fifty such traps. All were avoided
Well. about this time the word
"guigne" had come into use again.
from old times. to, sum up the series.
In the dictionary it's root is that same
evil eye-the evil glance, to "guig-
ner" And the idea was abroad al
ready that abysmal bad luck could be
started by pronouncing the word it
self.
Bizet. as a historical fact, laughed
at the> superstition during the last
preparation of Carmen" and during
its last rehearsal he stepped impul-
sively before the prompter's box and
cried aloud: '-Zut for the guignew
Everybody knows the frost of crit
les and public which followed Car
men" from the START (The encyclo-
pedias explain it. The music was too
new. too free. too Arabic too per-
"CarmaD" took time to win
it's place as a chef d'oeuvre of dra-
matte music. powerful charming. pic
turesoUe. original. But Bizet was
not there to enjoy his triumph.
Three months after he had cried
"Zut" at rehearsal he died unexpect-
The French have several names for
cherries.
What we call ox-hearts they call
bigarre. and what we call pie cher
ries they call cerises. Cerise is the
general name of the fruit. but big
pronounced and spelled the same as
the word for persistent bad luck.
So. after the tragedy of Carmen"
prudent actors began to speak of
"the cherries" Thence it spread to
the boulevard. And to all France,
more or less.
All these things are to break
"them."
Alexandrine comes with her snare
drum, by appointment. quite expen-
sive janitress in the Rue Caumar-
tin does it cheaper with Jumps of
dough. She tells you where to place
them, with what words and gestures.
If YOU do not place them right. it's
all wrong. That is why so many peo-
ple wear the ankh. the THAI and an
emerald engraved with ram.
STERLING HELLO.