JUST FOR LUCK

Evening Star, Issue 18031, 27 July 1922, Page 7

JUST FOR LUCK

SIGNS .AND WONDERS

FRIDAY, THE 13th. [By Normax Campbell, for tho ‘Sunday Times,’} All prophecies and dreams and signs and other premonitions Must, liavo somo weighty import, so the ancient eages say. These mustn’t bo confounded with our modern superstitions. But have their confirmation, as we know, ev’ry day. — 1 La Mascotlc.’ Tho Diggers, like all soldier's, were very superstitious, and were great believers in mascots of all kinds. True, the Bible w.-rn.-us •against “the working of Satan with power and signs and wonders, ’’ bnl stition: is hard to kill. I was told lately of ono Digger who w. v. right .through tho'war up to the auni-t-. without a scratch. Ho attributed Ir. immunity to a piece of hangman's rep; li. some admirer had 1 given him before lie Australia. He said he had worn this g: -m talisman “next his heart” ail the i.r.w. There must ho something 111 it, for this 1 articular Digger never got nearer to Rare; than Horsefeny road!

Superstition, attaches to many things connected with hangings, suicides, and corpus, and seems to be a survival from the wiiolicraft days when thci Hand of Glory wap.' an accepted l cliarm. Sailors believe that a caul win save them from drowning. But if ono had to carry around all the charms and tokens,. mascots, wishbones, horseshoes, ami other fetishes ono hears about, one l would want a pantechnicon, or at least, a wheelbarrow. FATAL THIRD CIGARETTE. W. J. Locke, in ‘The Wonderful Year, 1 explains why Diggers think ib unlucky for threo men to light their cigarettes with the one match: “He held 1 a lighted match to Corinna’s cigarette and to Martin’s. _ Them he blew it out, and lit another for his own, ‘A superstition,’ he said, by way of apology, ‘lt arises out of the Russian funeral ritual, in which three altar candles arc lit by the same taper. To apply the same method of illumination to tluce worldly things, like cigars or cigarettes, is regarded as «n act of impiety, and heueo as unlucky.’ ” Gamblers are notoriously superstitious as to certain colors and numbers, spilling the. salt, meeting a funeral or a. cross-eyed man or a. speckled hcu. And, of course, Friday the 13th is beyond all question an unlucky day. The story goes that a ship owner was determined to explode this particular belief. Ho built a ship which ho named Friday, the keel was laid on a Friday, she was launched on a Friday, slio sailed on Friday, 13th, _ and —she was never heard of more. Some hotels have, no Xo. 13 bedroom, although they have a 12 ami a 14. But if you want real dyed-in-the-wool superstition you must go to the theatrical profession. The late Alfred Dampier would faint, almost, if an umbrella were opened on the stage of the theatre where he was playing: and if a deadhead presented a brief—i.e,, an order for a free scat—before anyone had paid for admission, ho was certain that it boded misfortune. Most people ■are aware of the stage superstition that foibids the speaking of the last few wouls of a play, the “tag,” at rehearsal. To some actresses it is fatal, so i hey suppose, to wear anything green. _ Xo tu-ter likes to get a “part” which is fas;.;,,-1 with black thread or a black pin. Tn whistle in a dressing room k an uripava..,able solecism, Tho carpet bag, now hapnilv obsolete, is a, thing to shudder at. Mr Allans Wilkie tells me, with a deprecat v ■smile, that it is dreadfully unlucky to si:..; or whistle Locke’s music for ‘ Machet h ’ in

the precincts of the theatre, However, dclied augury by opening his prwent Australian season in Melbourne with ‘ Mtebelli.’

No self-respecting loading lady dare eu:;.‘When 'Other Lips’ at a rehearsal of ’ban Lynne,’ which is why it is invariably sung very badly when the performance of that lachrymose 'affliction takes place. A- Hamlet remarked, ‘‘lt is but foolery, but h ■■* such a kind of gain-giving as would, perhaps, trouble a woman.”

DEATH OF DANTE. The Into Daddy (L. J.) Lohr, that very shrewd theatrical manager, father of the now famous Marie, once told me that black lettering on a yellow ground, whim used ter theatrical printing, ie frightfully unlucky. I pointed out to him that uemo of the daybills ho was then using to boom Danto the Bread were printed in those very culms. Ho was greatly upset about it, and when Dante was fatally shot at Dubbo a lew weeks later Daddy Lohr attributed tbo accident to those black-and-yellow posters. Peacock's feathers are anathema to the theatrical profession. When Bernhardt visited Australia the _ decorative peacocks above. tho proscenium in the Princess ’Jluutre, Melbourne, bad to bo completely camouflaged' with -seme other ornament before the"divine Earn arrived, or she would have declined io act in « theatre which flaunted such calamitous portents. I was on, tho sin go at the Theatre Loyal. Sydney, <m the night of November 17, 1895. Tho scene wuo set for the hiral learais.il of ‘Tho Silence of Dean Maitland.’ the boils to bo u'-rd were tolling dismally, and iwo propertv ” graves word set* on tho stage—dreadful"omens. Wo were awaiting ibc arrival of tho two distinguished principals, Arthur Dacre and. his brilliant wife, Amy Rosclks Io commence rehearsal, v;ucn iij<> news waa brought of their tragic deaths that afternoon. I heard ft prominent actor eav, in all (seriousness, when tho dreadful traced'• became known: “What could you expect? A rehearsal on Sunday night, and two graves cu the stage I” ' ' CYNICAL CHARLIE. Poor Charlie Cogill used to make fun of thosa theatrical signs and: wonders. ” I believe in signs," ho said, “ and when I scthe Salvation Army Baud in the street, for instance, blowing away on their trombones. I know it’s a sign of wind. But it I spin tbo carbonaceous pigment, when I’m makingup I don’t believe that my mother-m-h-.w i 3 coinin'-' to sky at our place for a month. A ‘punk’ bouse if) the only evil omen I trouble about.” Shakespeare seems to have been responsible for tho perpetuation of a great many ■of tho superstitions attaching to various si-ns ami wonders. Horatio says, in ' Hamlet’l

And even the like procureo of fierce event*, As harbingers preceding still the biles And prologue to tho omen coming on. Have heaven and earth together demonstrated TJnfo our climaturos and countrymen. So we have very respectable authority for our more positive prognostics. Would you, for example, gentle, or it may be savage, reader, care to walk under a ladder on Friday t-ho IJtt?,