The usher seating the first patron of the evening fondly imagines that he will be lucky until the end of the performance, but if the first coupon he handles calls for one of the many thirteen seats, he is quite sure that it will bring him bad luck for the rest of the night.
To the usher, a tip from a woman for a program also spells misfortune, and few of the old-timers will accept it. A woman fainting in the theater is sure to bring bad luck to the usher in whose section she is seated. Not to hear the first lines of the play is to invite misfortune, so he believes.
An usher feels sure that if he makes a mistake in seating the first person in his section, it is sure to be quickly followed by two more. The first tip of the season is always briskly rubbed on the trousers-leg and kept in the pocket of the recipient for the rest of the season as a "coaxer." To receive a smile over the footlights from one of the company also brings luck.
GRAVE, GAY, AND EPIGRAMMATIC.
PAYING THE PIPER.
By Virginia Woodward Cloud.
The Piper sat by the river, his tireless pipe in his hand,
But ere the sun set and the white stars met
He scratched with a stick on the sand.
"My bills are due," quoth the Piper, "and now they pay," quoth he,
"Who danced and played from the sun into shade
Now render account to me.
"Here is one for a year," quoth the Piper; "a year of love's delight;
A heart that is dead and a soul unwed
Shall cancel a debt so trite!
I need not dun," quoth the Piper—and laughed, but nobody heard,
A chill in the air, and a shudder somewhere—
"They will render without one word.