HERE'S LUCK.

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 32, 16 January 1930, Page 5

HERE'S LUCK.

MoTals ,it has been-said, are merely differentiated by latitude. In the matter of taking long chances, however, all people in all climes seem alike..

Deeply stored in the subconscious -is the human instinct for taking a chance, a risk, a venture.- It is, indeed, i>.n instinct akin to love or hunger. Troly seen, a gamble,"a punt" is *t response to the same urge which has ever: actiuate'd man to get to grips with the

forces of the unknown.

Hence everywhere is seen man reacting to the lure, the thrill of the '•" little"flutter."

In China risking his cash at" fan-tan; in Mexico^ tthe jumping bean fans "rooting-" their, champion to victory in theiicaagic ring; in darkest -Africa tossing knuckle-bones for a superfluoas wife, a decorated shield, or a bag of cowifs shells, their- Commonwealth currency, in cultured EuTope, giving, one's self a chance at dice—with its weird ritual—roulette> or auction-bridge; bwt here in t&e Spring one "plays'? -the horses on Randwiclc's board of green cloth, elbowed by crowds of fellovrwoTshippers at the shrine of Saint Hone,

Here is seen the working of 'he crowd —(psychology witih. all its remarkable repercussion.- Almost all seek the suTe tip, that present-day version of the age-old philosopher's stone. All lending an eager ear to advice promising a golden return to the assay; a favouring breeze wafting safely to harbor one/s golden argosy. , Some with fait-h in a charm, an amulet, a Solompnjs ring for luck." Others with belief, in divination ot in dreams. "Very few indeed, "defying augury" like Hamlet. Most indeed agreeing that ' * there's divinity in old numbers" and arranging their wager-

ing accordingly

To touch a hunchback is, or used ro be highly regarded as correct magical preliminary to a tilt with fortune. To walk into a horsehoe when it point jd towards one is -an' excellent augucy, especially in, these days of autos;> nor is it to be lightly regarded on a race day when a white horse is encountered.

A cross-eyedd woman is, of -couTse, anathema to a, believer in omens,'whereas "po meet a man similarly afflicted is a' splendid pick-me-up for, your 'true believer.

When "one is in luck" how rarely is it recognised that the expression carTics the human back to those dim poginnings of things when Lok, lame god of t-ixe. under-world, controlled chanci ? So, \'if in luck'>=■ it; followed that one's 'sacrifice to Xioki had not been in vain H

To "touch wood" to gain immunity - from bad . fortune surely suggests asymbolical rite; where Wod, the old, Norse deity, is invoked on our-behalf I In short, our Taceeourse gambling rites aie really survivals of ancient fetis'liworships when evil luck and good iuek personified as gods were propitiated in all sorts of ways.-

Hence springs tie -belief in the virtue or lack of it of certain .numbers, jhe three and the seven for good fortune, the thirteen, the Judas Iscariot of numerology; lucky and unlucky days, Wednesdays favouring some, Saturdays ethers, while Friday seems the black sheep of t-he family of days; the value b2 vowels preponderating in the name of a hoTse, the saying is "AH good horses have good names," so there is apparently something in a name giviag potency; the preference some have for red against black in roulette; faiti in the yalue of alliteration in the names of horses in successiveraces; the alphabetical method of locating the winner said to be favoured by Chinese punteTs, are all attempts to gain the <{opei. sesame" whicSi it is hoped will reveal the ever-elusive winner.

Nothing is toa incredible for the gullible when a system for winning on the turi is tlie bait..

There was, for: instance, that system of taking the position of tie moon f s the true indicator as Whether the winner /was to be sought among the top, middle ot bottom in a handicap. If rising the Jheavy-weighted brigade were favoured if setting the bottom weights; "and very likely when, the luminary was on the meridian then the. niic'.dle weights would have ttheir' op-- .

F-ar.tastical as it may appear the system claimed many votaries and-as it is _possible in Taeing, as every follower knows, to fluke shots with almost any and every systesa, "finis -partictilflr one was able to show its -percentage of -hilis

to misses

Perhaps after all, it may be possible to reduce luck to a scientific basis.