THE THIRTEEN SUPERSTITION TROUBLE IN LONDON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 63, 12 September 1911, Page 2

THE THIRTEEN SUPERSTITION TROUBLE IN LONDON.

The superstitious significance which has been attached to the number thirteen dies hard even in these enlightened daye. There has been quite serious trouble iit London of late owing to the obtrusiveness of the fateful number into the system commonly employed for distinguishing each house from the next in thesame street. The London County Council and the smaller , bodies which order the municipal existence of tho various portions of th© great city exhibit naturally a brutal disregard for sentiment and superstition, ruthlessly saddling the most conscientious objector with the burden of a house number that makes his life miserable. Some people have not hesitated to change their habitations in order to avoid the tyranny of fate and the ',municipal authorities, but a more frequent practice in London has been the substitution of "12a" for "13." Unhappily for the ill-used householders, the local bodies have, failed to appreciate the excellence of this simple' little subterfuge, and the scares of "12a" houses in ihe big and little streets are to be compelled to put off their disguises. The County Council has been at war with a lady who changed her number because Jt prejudiced her business of "keepittg apartments." The officials of* the council set their faces sternly against sentimental considerations, and the lady's defiance of their mandate has been overcome by the ponderous forces of law and order. She has found a little sorry consolation in the refusal of a large party of visitors to take rooms in her house because they considered that 12a was as unlucky ac 13. The ban which has been placed on the cva t - sioii of the unlucky number has affected eight or nin© of the- largest houses in the fashionable West End, besides large numbers in other parts of the metro polis. Probably the -suffering householders will live to realise the foolish, ness of their» fears. They have been placed in good company. The Earl of Carnarvon's house in Berkeley-square is numbered 13, and " Mr. Pierpont Morgan's London address is No. 13, Prince's Gate. Yet the earl owns 36,(300 acres of land and the handsome vestibule of Mr. Morgan's hove« seems to be in no danger of attack by, the proverbial wolf.