Card-players' Mascots.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 15 May 1914, Page 8

Card-players' Mascots.

There are some gamblers at Monte Carlo who will never play unless the ticket given them for their hat and stick bears an odd number, and others who are convinced that there are certain .hours, days, and minutes which bring them to the best luck. There is another strange superstition with regard to staking gold and silver on the same number, and many a gambler has been seen 'to remove his gold stakes from the board when another has placed silver on the same square. Since bridge became such a craze a great business has been done bykeepers of antique and curiosity shops with men and women who believe in quaint luck-bringers. Hideous Indian idols (probably made in Birmingham), carved wooden animals, and lucky stones are among the mascots which women who play bridge bring to the tables. One wellknown society woman never plays unless she has with her a tiny lizard, which is attached to her dress by means of a thin gold chain, while another always wears her

baby's first tooth set in gold as a brooch. By the way, there is another class of gambler who is exceedingly superst'ititious—i.e., the Stock Exchange speculator. One weii-known member of Throgmorton Street will never make a speculation should he chance to see a white or grey cat while going to his office. If, however, the feline happens to be black, he regards it as a good omen and does not hesitate to "plunge." Another member of the 'Exchange always gets his boots polished by a certain bootblack before going on the floor, and not only chats about his business to the wielder of the blacking-brushes, but has confessed that he has often been guided in his speculations by the advice" of this bootblack, who has a peculiar knowledge of the markets. 0 In another case, a member who regards the rfse and fall of the markets as purely a chance affair actually decides his daily operations by tossing' ■.a penny ; while another speculator wears a grey suit of clothes when he wants to i sell, and a dark suit when he wants to be successful on the buying side.