FATAL THIRTEEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15718, 19 September 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

FATAL THIRTEEN.

HOUSE OF ILL-FORTUNE.

Crniovs crowds gather en Hamburg about a house which used to be 13, Ritterstrasse, but which is now No. 27. According to the correspondent of the Express, the number 13 brought misfortune on its tenants for five years, but the bouse has become known as " the house of luck" since it was renumbered 27 a month ago. He quotes this record of the disasters that befell tenants of the house since the autumn of 1909:A man shot himself on the eve of his wedding. A cavalry officer was thrown from his lDise and so had to resign his commission. An artillery captain's only child died c'-ght days after the family moved in. , A major fell downstairs and b:oke,his leg. He' was discharged disabled from the am;v. Two tenants died suddenly. • Ono became a bankrupt. One went mad. Two were discharged from good situations soon after they tamo to the house. The rooms were lastly occupied by two families, and soon after the number 13 va.i painted out the father of 01. won. an £800 prize in a lottery. The wife of the other occupant received a legacy of £12,500 from a relative in America, while her daughter, after being awarded a gold medal tor violin playing r at the Leipzig Conservatoire, became enWi"«d to a Hungarian mine-owner, whose v.e'iith is estimated at more than £700.000 ■ The house has become a popular show place, and the landlord, a wine merchan* ■named'Rothcnheim, has been offered cor -hie' ible sums for the lease, but ho has ■dc fined all offers, bei'.eving that the ■ pi tee will bring him luck in his business.