SUPERSTITION AT CARDS

Evening Star, Issue 20019, 9 November 1928, Page 3

SUPERSTITION AT CARDS

OMENS OF LUCK AND ILL-LUCK Most card players are superstitious, which is not perhaps surprising when you consider the amazing things that happen at. the tables. We may'learn a great deal from mathematics about the law of chances and the theory of probabilities, but when wo come to actual practice wo find again and again the mathematicians confounded (writes A. E. Manning Foster, the leading English authority on card-games, in the London ‘Daily Mail’). Every confirmed card player is aware of that mysterious sense which tells him when he’s “in vein.” Even among those hard-headed people who pride themselves on their freedom from any trace of superstition you will find it. 1 know a man who is particularly contemptuous of other people’s fancies, and who yet invariably moves, if ho has the chance, into the winning seats when playing bridge. Ho will not admit this is a superstitious practice. •’ “ I follow the run of the cards,” he says. And yet that very belief is a superstition, since it is based upon no ascertained or proven fact. Of course,' there aro “runs” of the cards in certain seats sometimes, but the wins occur just aa, often intermittently. To argue that it is not a superstition is'ridiculous. , There arc some who believe that they are lucky on certain days of the week and unlucky on certain other days. Bnlwer Lytton believed that be always lost at whist when a certain man was at the same table or in the same room or even in .the same house. This idea’of certain people bringing good or bad luck is very prevalent It. is believed that if you" meet a hunchback and venture to touch his hump you are bound to be lucky. At Monte Carlo in the rooms there aro certain, people who, everyone is convinced, are ill-luck carriers. Such are the lady known as the “Queen of Italy,” who is supposed to have the evil eye, and the tall veiled lady who.walk among tho tables like a revenant. On a similar plane is the idea that you must never wish a player “ Good luck.”

Among bridge players many strange superstitions are rife, A certain man believes that it is unlucky to accept anything from an adversary on the principle “ Timeo Danaos.” Ho will not take a cigarette, match, or a drink from an opponent, although ho is quite ready to do so from his partner. “I know I shan’t win this afternoon,” said a player. ■ “ I have on ■ ray unlucky' suit. I never win in it.” And ho didn’t! This idea of lucky and unlucky* clothes, although seldom admitted among men. is quite common with women players. Ono woman 1 know al-' ways sits on her' handkerchief, when things are going badly, and she asserts 1 it always brings her good luck. Another changes her luck by touching the K oker or walking round her chair, [any men aa well as women aro horrified if their partners, in changing seat?, move'in the wrong direction. They must go the “way of the port ” —that: is, to the left. ■ . ■ Maiiy players are particular 1 about the cub. of, the cards. They must be divided and put back with the most meticulous care. A slovenly cut brings i good luck to the dealer and bad luck to the cutter. - Som©’ imagine that special tables or positions at the tables are lucky to them, and refuse to play unjess they can get the:places they desire. To drop .a card on the floor wheii playing is generally regarded-as a bad omen Some players carry mascots, and, although a lew of them d° it m jest or half in jest, some-have 1 implicit faith in their particular charms—-black cats; lucky pigs, pieces of • coral, “touchwood” charms, . scarabs, little gods, and other strange, devices. “How very- childish I”, the superior person will say. Perhap*, ; *na , yet how very human!