"I cax'r make one of a he exclaimed; some of us wi sure to die within a week."
Thus spoke barber Jacob Ciross, of Batavia, on the 12th of November last. The occasion was a dinner party. When the guests were all seated Cross noticed that there were thir= ut table, ye others tried to laugh him out, of his superstition, but he insisted that he would 1ot eat as one of the company of thirteen. A fourteenth yuest was therefore added to the we're safe," said Gross, and the ies proceeded.
bourded at a hotel in Batavia, Ten days later the hotel was burned to the ground, The next morning the body of a man was found in the rains." It was the body of barber curious thing to happen, cer more than that? Do' you thing inthe common that Friday isan ann lucky day ofthe week treen is an no lucky smmber?
As much business is done on the 13th of the month as on any other date, and on Friday any other week day.' You wouldn't refuse tov take thirteen eggs for a dozen if your grocer insisted on it, neither do you have more bad luck on Friday than on any other day of the seven. No, no, it's all hum: bug and nonsense. Barber Gross's superstition had nothing under the sun to do with his death. Besides, he dined as one of sow teen persons, not thirteen, Don't be silly.
Understand this: Nature indulges in no senseless tri he kills wen without. hesitation for violating the laws of life, but not for assembling in groups of thirteen at dinner. Here we havea nun who says he, was afraid eat. Why in Mercy's name, was he afraid treat? Had he, too, some idle and foolish stuff in his head about bad luck? Not a bit. He'd been glad enough to have eaten in thirteen party on Friday if the dioner would only have stayed on his stomach and digested after he got it-down. But it wouldn't and his fear grew out of that.
He says, "I had a fulness and tightness at the chest after meals, and such " dizziness would seize me that I could scarcely see. This was in the spring of 1887. I felt tired, dull, and heavy, witha sinking sensation of the stomach. My appetite was variable, and I didn't know what to eat. In fact nothing seemed to suit me. There was a feeling of weight and pain over the eyes and at the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.