The absurd attempt to dispel the superstition as to the
number " thirteen " by founding a club that challenges ill- luck to vindicate its special proprietary right in that number by way of revenge on this conspiracy to rehabilitate it in popular favour, on which we have commented elsewhere, is aptly dealt with, much as we have dealt with it, in a letter signed "M. J.," in Wednesday's Times. The writer urges that the whole idea of lack requires that there shall be no such prearrangement as that which the Thirteen Club deliber- ately makes, but that the lucky or unlucky lot shall leap from the urn without premeditated selection. And surely the writer truly interprets the character of this superstition. Thirteen, if chosen of malice aforethought, would, we should say, rather desire to bring good luck to the choosers, in order the better to disguise his real character, and secure himself more hapless victims, when he is really the outcome of luck, and not of choice. You cannot exorcise a mere superstition by making all the world talk about perverse attempts to misunderstand
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