THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15237, 26 February 1913, Page 11

THINGS IN GENERAL.

THE SUPERSTITION OF THIRTEEN. nv"-, average Britisher prides himself upon Lias- a cold, logical, and practical mdifdull,' but at heart he is superstitious. The ) :]i 'J which is more common than is ■ eneraJly admitted, is common to the ma-L-'t.v ra ther than the minority. There is ' 1 *'eed for a failing such as superstition HO be outwardly shown to prove its existo be outwardly shown to prove its existence; rather it is one which is recognised ~ the individual and hidden by him under ft 'cloak of bravado or indifference. Very rarely is a person found entirely free from superstition. It may be present in one of the proverbial hundred and one ways, but that it exists few can deny. The most common form for its existence is in regard to the number 13. When the new year pawned a few weeks ago there were many \rho spoke of it as the unlucky year, and tio seers, whose duty it is to provide » forecast of the year's events for an everexpectant public, spoke of it as a blade year, no doubt doing so to comply with the popular wish, for ;i public robbed of what is expects is ever ungrateful—a fact not forgotten by either an author or a publisher. That, however, is a transgression. We were dealing with the superstition attached to 13. No less a person than the President-elect of the United States of America, Dr. Woodrow Wilson, has allowed : ii;iaself to be drawn into making a public statement on the question. He, like so many Americans, ''is agin the Govinment," a nd takes up the attitude that 13 is his lucky cumber, and quotes many instances to prove that the number has. indeed, been a lucky one for him. both from the aspect ci hi* election and pecuniary returns from literature. JL-et us hop* it will so continue. The exact reverse, however, is to be found in Tendon, where many of the streets in the city proper are all numbered so as to miss the fatal 13. In some instances the street numbers run 11, 11a. and then — surely an extreme carrying out of the superstition, but one, nevertheless, that proves the contention that Britishers are superstitious. Instances such as quoted are inriummerable, but a couple more only need

be told. .It is not long ago since a com-

pany of sceptics formed a Thirteen Club in London as a protest against the superr.iiion. On the way to dinner the members passed under ladders. They sat down in thirteens at separate tables, broke mirrors, opened umbrellas over each other's heads, spilt salt and helped their neighbours to it, crossed knives and forks, and

did many other equally foolish and daring things. The club, I believe, no longer exists, but, it was not superstition that killed it. The percentage of mortality, or even of evil' fortune, among its memoers has not been higher than the average rate applicable to the community us a whole. Again, DU years ago lord Roberts was one of a party of 15 at dinner, on January 1, 1853. i:'.even years later they were all alive, X though most of them had taken part in suppressing the Indian Mutiny, five or six hav- '■;: ing been wounded. liy rights I should give a local instance, fyi but, as the*l>est one I know of concerns ■:: rather a prominent citizen, it might give offence, and will therefore be allowed to

pass, and one of a fellow-journalist given Kin its place. In all other respects, he is ordinary—very ordinarybut when dealing .with "copy" he will not number a slip "13" or finish on one bearing the number, v preferring either to follow the London pre- : cedent or cramp iris writing. He has a, reason, which is superstition. -< ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN. : ' When the love-sick young man " will atourting go" he is sometimes given the ad- , vice, '"Agree with father on polities and -.■."jiother on religion and you'll be all right." ,;lf the advice was not given., ho mentally : lived up to itthat is. if he was able to let.his mind wander away on to any other 1 subject than the charms of his divinity. Certainly, no swain of my acquaintance : ever schemed to be taken home, to see what > sort:of a woman and housekeeper mother i: was, in preference to enjoying the adored ;■ one's society, unless he was so depraved J and so lost to all self-respect as to be a H cupboard lover, and then he had only an. :; interest for mother so far as the latter attribute went. From America, the land of' ierer-recurring wonders, comes the advice , of a Chicago clergyman, who upsets the ~,: p reconceived idea oi how to woo. . Our *" clergyman adviser says:—"Pick your mother-in-law first." And why? "Because mothers are living pictures in the albums of the years, showing just what time will do for their daughters." If mother has 1? double chins, a voice like a -crake, and a cold and frosty eye, O Benedict-to- '<■ he,. shun . —give her a miss-—flee from the wrath to come. For the fair, damozel "mom thou meefcest when the clock strikes eight, and for whom thou cher.ishest matrimonial intentions, is likely to grow into a replica of ma. Be warned in time. "'And," , says the clergyman, whose knowledge is positively uncanny, find me a mother whose house had no order — rolling-piii in the music rack, the -satin sofa-pillow in the _ coal-box ; who never combs her hair until she. ' goes out,' and who looks like a fright until somebody comes. If the text is true, the daughter will keep house in the same manner." Therefore, young man, keep a skinned eye on the mamma of the young gazelle thou courtest lest'peradventure in thy innocence thou art let in for a wife from the slovenly clan Draggletail.' ARISTOCRATS OF LABOUR, Some newspapers would find circulation diminish if a practice followed i.i the cigar factories at Havana were generally adopted, The men in these factories are aristocrats of labour. Without a mould or binder or any pattern to follow, each hand turns out 50, 75. or 100 cigars a day, all identical in shape, size, and weight. " Working by the piece and highly paid, the cigar-maker insists on being amused. His amusement takes the form of being read to aloud. At

every cigar factory in Havana a reader, engaged and paid by the hands themselves, occupies a pulpit iii the centre of the rcom for some hours every day, regaling his, audience with -newspapers and novels. Some of these readers receive as much as £10 a week, and not a few of them were elected as members of the first Cuban Legislature.

OUR FALSE VANITY. • _ How dearly we love to make an impression! Of late years it has grown to such an extent that with many it is now almost a fetish. At ono timo it was only the- ultravain who strove to create the impression, out nowadays, the desire is so common that .; a means to supply the demand has been set '(:■■ up and resulted in a new avenue of trade /being opened. This statement, from a • -London journal, needs no comment: ■'~: .- There is an easy way of obtaining a portmanteau reputation as a traveller by purchasing labels at a certain little shop, which deals chiefly with trans-Atlantic visitors. /..Here may be procured labels of practically ;; *very railway and steamship company in >,? the world, and you may plaster your bag- ;;■" gage with Oceanic, Mauritania. "Majestic, Minnehaha, Canadian Pacific Railway, or -.Orient Express, or Basingstoke, for a few _ Pence at your own sweet will, and imagine .:■:.;-:■ we wide experiences at leisure and at S|i J iJ° me -" .It has been said that wealth and -s;? 6 ensuing over-indulgences ruined Rome. :,%« history repeating itself?

| A RAN ON LAUGHING. r '\3 is not often tliat we find a prominent ::;;;. *u„iior issuing ; JU injunction against ; *nghter, particularly when his own • W~ , n }? concerned. Yet such has ocV ; - arreu. England just now possesses an au- . v £oi" who is apparent!v not understood by ■■■••JM general public, and, according to his views, not appreciated. It is W. E. ' ■ 5? m .Md Shaw, author, critic, and problem .Playwright. His latter works are some- :•■ ?.?*?' successes and sometimes not, but, .. 'nether they are or not, their author al--1.1 B 'Manages to find some wav of gently jjWwng items, and incidentally himself. inn* ■ } - 1!! his restriction on'laughing, jQ 2^ ne J"; an appeal to visitors at the ;S 8 !*, a J T he , atre - In ifc h » a»vs : -'Have »*■« noticed that if you laugh'loudly and

repeatedly for two hours you get tired and cross, and are sorry the next morning that you did not stay at homo? Will you think mo very ungrateful and very unkind if I tell you that, though you cannot possibly applaud my plays too much at each fall of the curtain to please me, yet the more applause there is during the performance the angrier I feel with you for spoiling your enjoyment and my own? Would you dream of stopping the performance of music to applaud every bar that happened to please you? And do you not know that an act of a play is intended, just like a piece of music, to be heard without interruption from beginning to end? Have you ever told your sons and daughters that little children should be seen and not heard? And have you ever thought how nice theatrical performances would be, and how much sooner you would get away to supper, if parents in the theatre would follow the precepts they give to their children at home?" Could anything be more ridiculous? Depriving an audience of what it primarily went to the theatre foran evening's honest and untrammelled enjoyment! It's a pity Mr. Shaw camo out of the obscurity in which ho was hidden prior to a. fellow-author answering an interviewer, "Who is Shaw?" when asked his opinion on the letter's works. Such a request can appeal neither to audience nor actor. Laughter and applause are the apparent manifestations of appreciation and contentment of an action done. The General.