LUCKY DAYS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 166, 7 August 1909, Page 4

LUCKY DAYS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE.

It has lately been pointed out that Mr. Winston Churchill seems to have a special penchant for .Saturday (says an English paper). On that day he was born, on that day he escaped from the Boers, on that day he was elected M.P. for Dundee, on that day he received his lirst Ministerial appointment, and on that day he was married.

His Majesty the King lias a partiality for Tuesday. He was born on a Tuesday in November, 1811, and was married ' on a Tuesday in March, 1803. it wa6 oa a Tuesday, too, in December, 1871, that he passed the crisis of his one lerriiile illness—an illness, as all the world knows, which came within an ace of proving fatal—and, lastly, he succeeded to the throne on Tuesday, 22nd ' January, 1901. Loid Roberts follow,; liis Sovereign in his partiality for the third day of the week. The mere recital of the happenings during the Boer War is sufficient [ to show why he looks upon "lucky Tuesday," as he calls it, as his mascot day. On a Tuesday he began his famous march aero s the Orange Free State; on a Tuesday General Cronje surrendered to him; on a Tuesday he entered Bloemfontein; on a Tuesday he enterou the Transvaal; and on a Tuesday he hoisted the Union Jack over Pretoria! Friday is almost universally—and especially amongst sailors—looked upon I as an unlucky day, but Lord Kitchener does not-share in this belief. Many of the most important incidents in his i lordship's career have happened on that. day. Lord Kitchener himself lias pointed out that one of the world's greatest | sailors, Christopher Columbus, shared with him his belief in Friday, for almost the whole of the career pf the discoverer of America consisted of a succession of events which occurred un that day. It was on a Friday that Columbus set out from Spain to seek a new world; on Friday that he first caught sight of licntl; on Friday that he started on his return voyage; on Friday that he safely arrived back in Spain; on Friday that he lirst sighted the American mainland on his next voyage; on ;Friday that he first set foot upon it; and again on Fri[day that he landed in his native land! I Some men put their faith in numbers I rather than in days of the week. Mr. j Marshall Hall, the famous KjG, looks upon the number 11 as being singularly fortunate to him. When, he was elected for Soutliport he made his first appearance in the division on August 11; his second visit was (quite by chance on his part) on August 22; whilst the polling at which he was clocted was on October 11. Moreover, he polled 5522 votes, and • his majority, 209, is not only a multiple i (if 11, but its figures add up to 11. He i ttlls of a strange coincidence that • when he went with one of his constitui t-nts to church on the Sdnday after the • election the clergyman gave out as the number of the hymn 209. But he was I more than ever struck with the strange- ■ nes6 of the coincidence when he found '■ that the hymn began, "The fight is o'er, i the battle won."