uck to him, but if they fall over, bad luck
is to be expected. They will also bring him all kinds of misfortune if
placed on a chair in the dressing-room.

If, when an acrobat throws his cuffs on the stage, preparatory to doing
his turn, they remain fastened together, all will go well, but if on the
other hand they separate, he must look out for squalls.

Cats have always been considered the very best fortune-producing
acquisitions a theater can possess, and are welcomed and protected by
actor and stage-hand alike. But if a cat runs across the stage during the
action of the play, misfortune is sure to follow. Bad luck will also come
to those who kick a cat.

Mirrors and Peep-Holes.

The actor goes the layman one better in mirror superstitions. He believes
it will bring him bad luck to have another person look into the mirror
over his shoulder while he is making up before it.

As much care must be taken by the actor on making his entrances as in the
repeating of the lines. Not for their importance as an effect on the
audience, but to avoid the "hoodoo" attached to certain entries. For
example: To stumble over anything on making an entrance, the actor firmly
believes, will cause him to miss a cue or forget his lines.

If his costume catches on a piece of scenery as he goes on, he must
immediately retrace his steps and make a new entrance, or else suffer
misfortunes of all sorts during the rest of the performance.

Even the drop-curtain contributes its share of stage superstitions, as
nearly every actor and manager believes it is bad luck to look out at the
audience from the wrong side of it when it is down. Some say it is the
prompt side that casts the evil spell, while others contend that it is the
opposite side. The management, not being sure of which side the bad luck
is likely to accrue, places a peep-hole directly in the center.

There is another superstition which passed away with the advent of the
frame curtain. In those days the curtain was rolled up like a window-shade
instead of running up and down in a groove as the modern ones do. In those
days for one to sit on the curtain-roller was a sure method of bringing
the boss carpenter or property man with a stage brace for the prompt
removal of the sitter. To them it was an infallible sign that salaries
were not going to be paid.

Vaudeville performers believe it is bad luck to change the costumes in
which they first achieved success, and many of them cli