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Show PICKED UP DEATH CARD. Player Handled Fatal Four of Spades in Poker Game and Fate Followed Him. ." "Worse and worse, laughed the Washington woman. 'The death card's yours for keeps now.' "B didn't speak, drew one card and bet all the chips he had. He won the pot on a straight, and the four of spades was in it. I never knew whether wheth-er It was the one card he had drawn that time or not, for he got up from the table and refused to play any more. We Joked him about 'cold feet' and about quitting as soon as he had made his j stake back, but he didn't take it in good part. He left us all feeling decidedly uncomfortable. Just at daylight his wife aroused the house with her frantic screams. B was found dead In bed, and I firmly believe he died of fright The doctor said heart disease, but I'm convinced con-vinced the worry over that foolish four of spades brought on the attack of heart failure. I always deny that I'm superstitious, but perhaps I am, for since that evening I've never been able to bring myself to touch cards again." Washington Post. A "curious" example of the power of suggestion over a superstitious mind has Just been told me by a man whose name is too well known to mention. He tells the story as his reason for refusing re-fusing to play cards these days: "Several years ago," says he. "I was a member of a house party at a clubhouse club-house in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Pennsyl-vania. One evening a man who made his home at the clubhouse suggested a game of poker. We made it a five-handed five-handed game, I think, and we adjourned to the man's room to play. Besides the man who suggested the game the party was made up of his wife, who sat at his left; one other man and myself. The man I'll call him B was a Jovial fellow, with not an ounce of superstition supersti-tion In his make-up, so far as I knew. We played for an hour or so. and the deal came around to the Washington woman. She shuffled as prettily as any woman I ever saw, but as she gave the cards a fillip, the four of spades, flew out of the pack and fell to the floor at the feet of the man to her left. He picked it up for her, and she said, laughingly: " 'You oughtn't to have picked that card up. It's the death card. It fell on your room, at your feet, and you picked up bad luck when you touched it." "B laughed, but from that minute he began to lose. I was surprised to see how badly he took his ill-luck, for we were playing penny-ante, 6-cent limit, and he couldn't lose but a few cents, no matter what cards he held. The Washington Wash-ington woman bantered him a great deal about the unlucky death card, till he grew actually peevish. Later in the game, after the deal had gone around several times, It came to him, and again the four of spades fell at his feet as he shuffled the pack. |