LUCKY NUMBERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 217, 22 October 1878, Page 6

LUCKY NUMBERS.

["Pall Mall Gazette."]

Superstition dies hard; and of all superstitions a belief in lucky numbers is by uo means the least remarkable for vitality. From a letter written to one of our newspapers a few days ago, a belief appears to prevail in Venice that "in the event of a stranger dying in one of the hotels there, the numbers of hie room will be lucky numbers in the next lottery;" and the writer of the letter mentions^ "singular illustration," not only of the belief, but, unfortunately, of its confirmation alao. It is stated by tbe writer that on " the death of the late Sir W. Stirling M>xwell at Daniell's well-known hotel, the employees of the hotel immediately subscribed to take shares in the numbers of the next lottery corresponding with the cumber of the two rooms occupied by the late member for Perthshire, both of which numberß, strangely enough, were afterwards drawn prizes," to the unspeakable grief of " a person connected with the hotel," who "bitterly lamented that he had been prevented by sudden illneßS frcm taking tbe whole of the lucky numbers, and thus realising a handaome fortune ot one stroke." Some curious instances of the " deviltry 1 ' connected with certain numbers havo been selected by a French journalist, from the Hisloire de la Lotterie in the Entr'actes of the younger Dumas. Here is one : — " A poor working man. farrier to a regiment of cuirassiers, took it into his head to moke a note of four regulation numbers branded, according to custom, on the quarters of the remounts ; he chose a number, accordingly, and nearly went mad with joy on winning 150,000 florins. The first thing he did was to buy as many pairs of trousers as there are days in the year, so that he was known all through the cavalry "as the man with the 365 pairs of breeches." Here is another : — "A woman dreamed of ten numbers, wrote them down on some little bits of paper, 6tuck these tickets on sticks, and placed them atop of Eome beans planted at equal intervals in a strip of her little garden. Til take,' said Bhe, 'the numbers of tbe lirst five that sprout und put them in the lottery.' In due lime five came out. She copied tha numbers, and gave her eon 10 francs, ali tho money she had in the world, saying, 'Bun and take me this sequence of five at the oflice rounJ the corner.' * All right, mother.' Tha son spent the money, and then came back and assured her that he had done as he was told. The numbers won. It is impossible to describe the grief which overwhelmed the poor woman when she learnel the truth. She went mad, and a few years afterwards her son blew out his brains."