Show LUCK IN ODD NUMBERS Superstition of Modern Gamblers Whlcfc Are as Old as tho Kills If there is one active principle thai enters into gambling it is superstition andfor almost every man that hunts the elusive dollar over the desolate waste of the green baize cloth or on the racetrack race-track or in any of the other multitudinous multitudi-nous ways or places that one may lay siege to alluring fortune there is a separate sep-arate fancy rack McDonald one of the best known bookmakers of America believes that he is most successful in those years which are indicated by odd numbers and if you are doubtful of the truth of it he will offer you figures to prove it Carley B as Bookmaker Woolf is best known has a steadfast belief in 8 and after he has selected horse to bet upon he will place an extra heavy wager on him if ho discovers that he is numbered 3 on the programme i Several superstitious betting men at the Morris park races a few years ago noticed the coincidence that tho thirteenth thir-teenth day of the meeting fell upop June 13 and they straightway sought out a horse numbered 18 on the card They found one and bet upon him and to make the coincidence most strange he won That this belief in luck as applied to certain numbers is as old as our philosophy philoso-phy is shown by tho fact that centuries before tho Christian era the Pyfchagoreiis and Platonists who represented all movements and phenomena of nature by numbers invented tho science of arith nomancy consisting of the use of njagic nl squares and applying occult powers to numbers On the combinations of certain cer-tain numbers depended systems of divination divi-nation and particular virtues were ascribed as-cribed to numbers accordingly as they were odd or even Theres luck in odd numbers is a saying as old as the hills As ancient a writer as Virgil says the gods themhelves esteemed tho numbers odd for in tho sightS eclogue he wrote Around his waxen image first I wind Three woolen fillets of three colors joined Thrice round his thrice devoted head Which round the sacred altar thrico is led Unequal numbers please the gods The Chinese have similar ideas With them heaven is odd and earth even and tho numbers 1 3 6 7 9 belong to heaven heav-en whilo the even digits are of the earth earthy So it is little cause for wonder that our modern gamblers stick to their belief be-lief that fortune abounds in odd numbers num-bers onlyNew York Herald |