RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 143, 13 March 1939, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events (By Kickshaws). We note that a critic in England claims that a certain musical comedy actress is without a peer. Maybe the supply is running low. V * * Jillian, it is reported, intends to increase wool production 240 per cent. An expert we consulted declares the whole thing is a yarn.

Evening gowns, declares a critic, seem to stay up without visible means of support. It's just as mysterious the way the price does, too.

The recent contention that people in Wellington do not like to number their house 13 may seem childish, but this fact has been borne out in places other than the city of Wellington. There may be nothing iu tlie 13 superstition. Indeed, the Japanese consider four more unlucky. Nevertheless. one sees here and there indications that it is deeply ingrained in the lives of a community. There may be other reasons, but it is a fact that there is no number 13 in the Strand, London. Ilolborn has no house numbered 13. Westbourne Grove, Haymarket, St. James's Street,’’Woburn Square, Gordon Square, Tokenhouse Yard, Threadneedle Street, have no house with number 13 oil it. A number of London streets, including Bark Lane, have converted the unlucky Dumber into 12a. It is obvious, therefore, that Wellington householders are not alone in the fear of dire results if their houses bear the dreaded figure 13.

In addition to street numbers, there are other indications that 13 is unpopular. The traditional distrust of 13 applies to passengers on railway trains. It is more difficult to get a passenger to reserve number 13 seat than any other. The difficulty is overcome in the sleeping cars by calling the berth 12a. Ordinary carriages, however. still continue to provide seat number 13. In a road race between Palmerston North and Wellington some years ago none of tlie participants were willing to spend 'the night in room number 13 at their hotel. Indeed, this obsession against 13 is so great that a man who intended to get out of a London tube at a certain station did not do so. Just as be was going to alight he saw in large figures on an advertisement the dreaded numerals. This worried him so much he had to go on to the next station. When 13 members were present at a meeting of the French Academy in 1935 one member was so terrified he had bis name erased from the list, and left the assembly as a precaution.

The superstition regarding the figure 13 takes us 'back far into the twilight of history. It is no new obsession. It is claimed, of course, that when lt> people sit’down to a meal together one of them will die within 'the year. The fact that 13 sat down at the Last Supper adds fuel to the superstition, but it does not supply the origin. This superstition was encountered in Norse mythology. Loki, the God of Strife, attended a banquet in Valhalla as an unbidden guest, bringing the total up to 13. By guile he contrived the death of Baldur, the God of Peace. According to ancient lore, numbers possessed sex. The odd were masculine, and 'tlie even feminine. All male numbers were supposed to bring luck, according to one authority.' The feminine numbers were neutral. Thirteen, however, broke the spell, and was held to be unlucky. In Scotland 13 is still referred to as the devil s dozen. The further one tries to trace the superstition about 13 the more evident it becomes that man must have awoken racially with the superstition stuck iu his brain.

One may scolf at tlie very idea that numbers can carry any sort of significance except that which is associated with a number. Nevertheless, here and there one sees the creation of a superstition, although there appears no good reason. For example, an analysis of the sale of lottery tickets in France has produced some curious results. Out of tlie total number of tickets which remain unsold the largest proportion consists of tickets numbered 5.555,555, 1,558,888, 8,113,333. and so on. For some reason unknown these sequence numbtlrs are unanimously considered to have no chance of winning. The most ]>opular choice is a ticket with a good mixed number. It would be too much to assume that every purchaser of a ticket consciously makes his choice in this wa.\. It would appear to be* instinctive, despite the assurances of mathematicians that a sequence number is every bit as likely to turn up as any other.

In a presidential address to the Royal Society of London. Sir Frederick Gowiand Hopkins referred some years ago to a strange combination of figures which appeared to be a scientific talisman. Sir Frederick pointed out that Eddington, the author of a book entitled the "Expanding Universe,” had found a number that seemed almost mystical in its properties. It was a pure number, but by its entry into equations it displayed a unifying power that was truly remarkable. Sir Frederick suggested that the physicist should carry this strange number, 137, as an amulet. At any rate, :t was known as the fine structure constant for very good reasons. It was concerned, for example, in justifying the claim that if one wanted to measure the mass of an electron a suitable procedure was to make astronomical observations of the distances and velocities of spiral nebulae. If, then, scientists have their pet number, which, incidentally, starts off with a significant 13, nobody can blame the rest of the community for developing numerical partialities.

"We have been discussing Waterloo,” says "J.T.W.” “My opponent in the argument maintained that, had it not been for the arrival of the Prussians, Wellington would have been defeated. I took the opposite view. Mho is right?” . . . [This controversial point in tne Waterloo campaign will probably never be finally settled. It has been contended that the Prussians arrived after Wellington had gained the victory. Nevertheless, but for the manoeuvres of the Prussians and their presence on the fringe of the battle area, Wellington would probably have been unable to turn what looked like defeat into victory. Grouchy, who bad been detailed to hold the Prussians and prevent a junction with Wellington’s forces, failed to do so. Napoleon, when reviewing the campaign of Waterloo at St. Helena, laid the responsibility of the disaster on the inaction of Grouchy, who not only failed to prevent the Prussians from uniting with the Allies, but also failed to join up with Napoleon's armies subsequently. It is impossible to say what would have happened if Blucher had not united with Wellington, but it is almost certain that, but for the presence of the Prussians in the battle area, Wellington would have been defeated.}