The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 18, 1897, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 18, 1897. 19 THE NUMBER THIRTEEN IS A LOCAL HOODOO| yisr I | i { \ N e o 2 N { | N /4 I 1l e b e ¢ 4 4 et 3 200 t passed 9.5 y popular, e xtion. The age of superstition h away; before an i men yet make r Diana of the Ephesi ol, seemi et divine. I am convinced of this bec ve beard the evidence. I have seen a class of wealthy, intelligent men bow before | the shadow of a dark and gloomy fable and 1 seen the numeral system of language distorted at the maundering lic of the middle age: the hotels of San n- the Pacific, have no bave braced the seven ) but two exceptions , has no existence. managers s; men .who a iscuss the mat titious will 'bey object to o not want it, and u want to keep a man ous with the house, give | If you want to send stop 10 ue with him e secretsin all trades the number not evan- | e money | en can go | 1d that is all t like the number and nish. Hotel men are ; it is their businessto m ing people. The thir more easily thaa the g there is to it. Of course almost everybody knows the | the Last | s com- e and several of the apcstles <4 ition had its origin w “Well, tobe frank with you, that num- E ber is distasteful to me, and,”” s within the vear. There- |4 5oked through the window at the sult is that for centuries thirieen guestsat | qryopino s wringe, reflectively twisting his t.:b:e‘hfis been shunned with a pertinacity | mustache meanwhile, as though he were equaled only by the manner with which i oSS voco tg&:}?éoooo il SO THE THIRTEENTH MAN AT he paused | resolving in his mind whether to sound the retreat or advance, and then as his eye sought the warm glow of the open fire, he concluded, “If you have no objections, I'll take an easy chair and wait by the fire to-night. Let me have the first vacant room, though.”’ And tnat from a man who had graduated from West Point! In the morning some other guest not so troubled was found and given room 13, and Colonel Morrison satisfactorily quartered. He died a few years ago, and probably solved some things that he had his doubts about while here. One night a negro registered at an ob- scure interior hotel. He was given room 13. The boy teok him up and the guest BANQUET MUST TAKEA BACK SEAT T0 AVOID CALAMAT Y, | was docile enough until he got to the door, | when he saw the wnumber. Then he rebelled, and a few moments later reap- veared, the bellboy following with his ! valise. “Look a heah, boss,” he began, “is you | highest salary ever paid a traveling man, got dat number down dar at my name, sun?”’ “What number?”’ “De number o’ that room, suh?” he re- plied, as though fearful of even mention- ing the bad omen. “Yes.” ““Well, suh, vo’ kin take it right off an’ WHAT! TEMPT FATE BY THIRTEENTH ! MApam le’ mesleep in the bahn.” But another room was found for him and the next day another ‘‘parlor A” | arose on the ruins of the erstwhile ‘‘room {13 | Once in a while, though rarely, men are | found who like the number. Oscar Tolle, | clerk of Judge Carroll Cook’s court, is one | of these. He lives at the Baldwin Annex, | and says he likes his rooms, which are 12 and 13. Mr. Tolle, in speaking of this “hobby” of his, telis of what he calls the vest time he ever had. It was one vaca- tion, when he left San Francisco, on June 13, got stateroom 13 on the steamer, room 13 at the Hollenbeck Hotel at Los An- | zeles, the same at the Nadeau Hotel, where he went later. He arrived at Lake Tahoe April 13, where he got room 13 on | the barge. Fred Ditter, Baidwin’s brother- | in-law, was to sleep w.th him, but would not when he discovered the number of the room he had. Mr. Tolle relates this with great gusto and solemnly avers that he never had a better time in nis life. He has another story, too, which he likes to tell, This happened about ten years rgo, when Pete Randolph, since dead, but who during life was known as the prince of drummers, was in his prime. Mr. Randolph received $56,000 a year, the and scoured the country with Robert Bridges, now a drummer himself, as his secretary and thirty sample cases. One night he gave a dinner at a restaurant in this City. He had invited fifteen guests, but two failed to respond. Mr. Tolle was the thirteeiith man, and as he entered the room Mr. Randolph, with a gesture of WORKING ON THE' You WRONG mEe "’ horror, exclaimed: “Don’t sit down, Oscar; please don’t.” ©All right,” replied Mr. Tolle, and he ate his dinner at a smaller table, so placed that he could see and be seen. Mr. Tolle scmetimes calls attention to the fact that other numbers may become fated and Guotes the case of John Miller, who shot another man while attempting to raurder his wife November 18 last. He had his preliminary examination Decem- ber 18, his trial commenced February 18 and he was to have been hanged May 18. An appeal for a new trial, however, was formulated April 18 and a respite has been granted. He is also generous enough, however, to admit that Durrant has good reason to shun the thirteen su- perstition, as it was April 13 that he was arrested. This last recalis my original theme. The California Hotel has no room 13. | Probably to avoid the accusation of being guilty of *fooiishress,’”” as Chief Clerk Downing puts it, the numbers commence at 300. Downing says that women are the more superstitious, and that they will not stopin room 13, nor in any room whose number contains 13. Therefore they are never even assigned to rooms 313, 413, 513, 613, 713 nor 813. the superstition clings and finds lodgment in even the most highly civilized commu- | Paris the “14 man”—homme | s a profes<ion. Inall sorts of | nit the-way vlaces he is found, and is | by the tin t Langs outside | As well as possessing many things of v, which nces for a suit- | great size, California can lay claim to able remuneration his entire willingness | having within its borders the strongest ce the fourteenth man at any gath- | creature that lives—tnat is, when its size whatsoever. is considered. urious fact is that the Jews donot | The creature referred to is the Califor- the superstition, but those who be- | nia black ant. If ever you have been out brotherhood of man may find | camping you will know all about aim. Tt in the fact that nearly ail | This, of course, does not mean that you rations races have their fated n know how strong he is, for that discovery In Hottentot it corresponds to our nine. | was made only a few days ago. The ant's | The Ame however, always progres- | great strenzth, however, has long been een satisfied with this, but | an accepted fact of natural history. ber his tramecars, his| It hasoften been stated that an ant or coaches. In many | could carry a load equal to its own weight. ke a journey | Some species were known tkat could carry the montn; will not sitin | a load equal to 1wice their own weight. at the theater; will not be served | But the California ant throws them ail by waiter 1 tat a table of that | into the shade, as the saying is, for this number, and refuses to sleep in room 13. | fellow is capable of carrying with ease a Mine host sees all this, and with his ac- | load of six times his own weight. And it customed suavily says the American is | may be that he can carry more if he would r t. He shall t sleep in the room it | try real bard. he does not w 1o, and straightway as- | The ant that possesses such great signs him to parlor A, which is room 13| str ngth is known in different localities by by another name—all of which goes to | different names. The commonestof all is show how even the scoffer is permeated | ‘black ant,” but besides this it is called with the ever-domi gious thought, | “'giant ant.,” ‘‘sting ant” and a few other There is the Palace H for instance. | names unnecessary to mention. In this A magnificent caravansary, but it has no | article the creature will be called the single room 13. The room which would | black ant, for that is what scientists call bear that number is part of a suite, and | it when they are too tired to mention its when a guest is given it the number that | other name, which co mes from the Latin. goes on the register is The affable | Of course men who have been bitten by it chief clerk says that in his San Francisco | have called it names that were neither exyerience he has never had a man object | Latin nor Greek. Just what they were is to room 13, but at the Metropole Hotel in | a matter of no consequence; not now at New York years ago a titled foreigner, | least. English nobleman, Mr. Cummings thinks, | At all seasons of the year the black ant came to the hotel and was assigned room | is most promiscuous in all parts of Cali- 13. He would not bave it. He knew he | fornia. In the winter he can be seen was foolish, he said, but as he was he was, | climbing among the crevices of rocks on he concluded, and he was given another RS when it is warm enough to be out. In the At the Baldwin there is no such room. | summer he frequents different localities, The enumeration commences at 30 and | but shows a fondness for climbing over from there goes merrily on. Clerk Mc- | lunch-baskets and iInto sugar- bowls when Cue knows the reason for that. He can vou are out camping or even off on a tell how many times men and women |da picnic. In fact, picnics are said to have refused to occupy an apartment so | be this fellow's delight. He usually starts numbered. For years he was cashier at!in on the lunch that the picnickers bring, the Palace; was a: the Ualifornia some |and then he siarts in on the picnickers time ; kept the Vance House at Eureka; | themselves, as can be told by certain was chief clerk at the Rainier at Seattle, | screams that issue from secludea portions and in one capacity or another has been | of the iorest at the mostunexpected times. all over California. In size the black ant will measure about *‘Why,” he said, ‘'you can’t get actors, | three-tenths of an inch in length on the actresses: or commercial men in them. When I was running the hotel at Eureka I took the number from the door and made the room parlor A. After that I bad no trouble, but before—why Icouldn’t | give it away. As a matter of fact, I do not think one man 1u forty will sleep in a room so numbered.”" Then, as an instance of how even the otherwise most intelligent men are in a manner governed by their superstitions, he tells ot an army officer who came to Seattle in 1893, the time of Vice-Presi- dent Stevenson’s trip to the coast. The city was thronged with visitors, and the Rainier had butone room unoccupied, and thav was 13. “Col. Albert Morrison, U. S. A.” was the way he put it on the| register, and Mr. McCue in the proper coiumn added “13." “Have you no other room?” anxiously inquired the prospective guest. “I am sorry, but I baye not,” was the reply given, with all due savoir faire, ‘‘but 1 may bave one in the morning.”” ‘ 5 will not ntre rainy days and over the trunks of trees | | average. He is smooth and polished like a bit of jet and has legs as stzong as steel. | These legs are mot tough, as might be imagined, but are brittle like a sewing needle, and can be snapped in two with a pair of tweezers as if they were made of | elass. It is this, perhaps, that gives it the great power of locomotion. The jaws of this creature are something almost impossible 1o conceive of. They have been known to bite through a piece | of fine brass wire at one movement and cut it as clean as though thev were of hardened steel. Everything about this ant is of the strongest kind, and in Teality it looks as if it were built to resistthe most terribie forces of nature. It really can resist a great deal and force iuseif through a great many things. Ithasbeen |known to bore holes in hard granite bowlders, and yet this same ant is help- | less when he falls into a molasses jug. All this has, you may say, very little to |do with the great strength of the black | ant of California, and you will be right, but it 13 necessary to give an idea of just what sort of a creature this terrible fellow 1s. In this connection it might not be out of place to mention the fact that smail swarms of ants similar to these have been known to attack a man and kill him in very short order. The California black | ants are fully capable of such a terrible 1 fear, but fortunately there are not enou:h of thewm to make such a disaster possible. A few days ago a party of scientific men were watching a number of these ants moving supplies into their cellar for the winter. It was on the northern hill in Mill Valley, in a spot sheltered from the wind and exposed to the sun. In factan | ideal place for black ants. As the pro- fessors had brought no lunch with them | the ants were compelled to lay by the | common stuff to be found on the hillside. | Some were engaged in carrying seeds, while a few others were removing the choice parts of 2 deaa beetle. j Each seemed to be making efforts to outdo the others in carrying capacity, just as country boys have been known to do during: harvest season. Some of the ants carried two seeds, and might have carried three if they could have taken hold of them. . While all this was going on there came racing over the rough ground from a spot California Bleck Ant (Magnified 20 Decimeters) Carrying a Loal Six Times Its Own Weight, STRONGEST CREATURE THAT LIVES a few feet to the west of where the big crowd was at work an ant who seemed particularly proud of what he had accom- plished. In his jaws was a piece of some kind of root, about one and a half inches long. Mr. Ant had hold of one end of it and held it bolt upright—the hardest way be could have chosen to carry it. But perhaps that is the reason he seemed so proud of what he had done. Of course it did not take the scientific professors long to catch sight of him, and in a few moments there were four mag- nifying glasses focused on him. 1t was plainly seen that he was holding the root at one end, and that his jaws were deeply imbedded 1n it. Over bowlders and chasms the ant climbed, apparently with little effort, and always petting nearer and nearer the storage cellar. Wnen he went through the big crowd not one of them made an effort to help him. They didn’t even stop 10 admire him, but kept right along with their seeds and the dead beetle. Once while going over a bowlder be slipped and fell to the bottom, but never let go his hold on the piece of rooi. After strug- ghng wildly he managea to get the root pointed upward again, drew in a long breath and started off. At this stage of tbe game one of the professors thought he was a good thing to have and in a a few minutes Mr. Antand Lis ‘piece of root were both 1nside of a bot- tle that had been prepared for them. In all the handling he received the ant still clung to his load. Arrived at the laboratory of one of the professors, an interesting computation was made. A very fine scale was brought out,and preparations made io weigh the ant and his load. The scale was so fine that if a piece of paper an inch square were balanced on it and afterward marked with a lead pencil the amount of lead usec could be accurately determined. 1t was found that the ant weighed forty- five one-hundredths of a grain and that the piece of root weighed two and eighty- five one-hundredths grains—or, to calcu- late roughly, the ant weighed about half a grain and the piece of root about three grains. The weight of the ant was a surprise to the scientific men. It was almost as solid as if it were made of some sort of metal. But the fact was demonstrated that certain of the Califor- nia black ants were capable of carrying a load about six times their own weight, By carry it is meant to lift it and move it with ease over obstacles, not simply to drag it. As far as science knows no other creature in the world can do this. Let us suppose that a man should be- come endowed with the same proportional strength. What a powerful creature he would be! The average heavy - weight man weighs about 175 pounds, and could he carry six times his own weigbt he could with ease move about with a fireproof safe, weighing half a ton on his shoulders. He could go over to Mill Valley and pull up a young redweod tree, poke it up in the air and walk off with it. No need of derrick if that man was around. If a locomotive got off the track he would simply put his shoulder under it and hoist it on again. But what else could he do? ‘Well, he could do lots of things. You cun figure them out yourself. And he could do them simply because he was as strong as the California black wnts GALIFORNIA BLAGK ANT A MAN GOULD DO WERE HE AS STRONG AS THE WY i) N i in 0 W) i dl i I an T TRR) all I I ’l M) 4