BOUGHT THE COAT TO KEEP HIS LUCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11538, 24 November 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOUGHT THE COAT TO KEEP HIS LUCK.

A GAMBLER'S QUEER SUPERSTITION. " A MAN who plays poker can't help being superstitious," declared on -old clubman the other evening. "In any prolonged game such extraordinary streaks of good and bad luck are certain to occur, such strange coincidences will take place in the 'draw,' and so much apparent fatalism will attach to certain cards that a player will look around instinctively for some mascotte or hoodoo to hold responsible for the phenomena. The commonest superstition, I suppose, is that the foot of a spectator on the rung of one's chair brings bad fortune. I confess I can't stand it. Not long ago I was playing in a friendly game at a fishing club on the lake side when a man sat down behind me and rested his foot carelessly on my chair. Instantly luck left me, and after I had lost five or six good pots in succession I got desperate and tilted forward in the hope of shaking the fellow off. Thereupon he removed his foot from the rung and put it on the floor. I glanced around, and, seeing ii, directly beneath the rear chair leg, decided to take a horrible revenge. So I settled back and came down square on his toes, but to my amazement he never turned a hair. He was chatting with somebody at the time, and seemed to be totally unconscious of the fact that the chair leg' was resting on his pedal extremity with a pressure of about two hundred pounds to the square inch. That uncanny episode made me so nervous I quit the game. Later on I learned that he had ( a cork foot. " Another queer thing," the old clubman went on, " is the way a player will attribute changes in luck to the most grotesque and outlandish incidents. Years ago a friend of mine, a veteran river captain, was one of a poker party in a hotel at Hot Springs. He was (Losing * steadily, and glanced around slyly to find a mascotte. A gentleman wearing a very long frock coat was sitting near him, with his back turned, and the captain quietly picked up one of the flowing coat tails and tucked the corner under his leg. He did so on the theory well known to confirmed poker players, that some outre act will change the ' run of the cards.' As chance would have it. he immediately began to win, and was on the high tide of success When the other man started to get up. 'Hold on!' exclaimed the captain, clinging like grim death to the coat-tail, ' for heaven's sake don't take away my mascotte!' ' But, confound it, sir !' replied the other, when the situation was explained, 'do you expect me to sit here all night so you can keep my coat-tail under your leg?' A bright idea struck the captain. ' I'll tell you what I'll do,' he said, 'I'll buy your coat. What do you want for it?' ' A hundred dollars,' answered the stranger. ' All right,' said the captain, handing over the money, ' now slip out 01 it as easy as you can.' Next morning he told me that the deal had netted him 950d015. profit."