THE DREAD OF THIRTEEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1054, 8 June 1912, Page 4

THE DREAD OF THIRTEEN.

The dread of sitting down 13 to a table is widespread. And however much people may scoff, there are undoubtedly very strange stories told of ill-luck befalling people who had the temerity to dine with 12 companions. Sir John Millais, the great painter, once had a dinner party, at which Matthew Arnold, among others, was present. During the meal somebody noticed that there were thirteen diners, and expressed alarm. Matthew Arnold said:—•“According to the superstitiou, the first of us to leave the table will die within the year. But we will cheat Fate. Three of us will rise at the same time —myself and these two strong young men here. 1 '

Accordingly, at the end of the meal, the three meu —Arnold, a Mr Dawes, and another man, who is referred to, lor obvious reasons, in the story as “E.S.” —rose and left the table simultaneously. Six months afterwards Matthew Arnold died. A week or so later “E.S.” was found dead in bed, with a revolver beside him. And before the year was up Mr Dawes was drowned in the steamship Quetta, which went down in the Indian Ocean with all hands.