SELLS RABBITS’ FEET.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2154, 28 October 1902, Page 7

SELLS RABBITS’ FEET.

OH Hew Tork Woman Who Jm M*ktßff Mock Money in the Odd f Bmlbcm, Over in Hell’s Kitchen lire* old Martha Washington, who claims to be the only dealer in genuine rabbits’ feet in New York. Martha doesn’t know just how old she is, but she is ▼ery, very old, and has been in the business for 25 years, not in Hell s Kitchen, mind you, for she regards her present surroundings of mixed black and white as a step backward in the social scale; but she has to be where the dictates of commerce call her. She is reputed to be quite rich, says the Herald. Few of her customers even know that she bears a distinguished name. To the public in general she is “Old Mammy Cottontail.’’ Cheap sports and gamblers constitute her game, and they go to the old colored woman with all the reverence and awe due to her position as high priestess of chance.

The left hind foot of a rabbit killed in a graveyard at midnight is notorious as possessing supernatural powers as a charm against ill luck and evil spirits, and “Mammy Cottontail” always has a supply on hand. Where she gets her stock is a mystery which none of her superstitious patrons would think of even attempting to solve. When the white neighbors miss their pet cats they sometimes cast threatening looks at "Mammy Cottontail.”