Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 194, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1915 — HOT AT BLACK CAT; NEVER TOUCHED IT. Moral: If You Fire at One of These Evil-Eyed Marks, You Had Better Hit It [ARTICLE]

HOT AT BLACK CAT; NEVER TOUCHED IT.

Moral: If You Fire at One of These Evil-Eyed Marks, You Had Better Hit It

Pittsburgh, Pa.—Daniel Taylor's notion of the proper manner for a black cat to conduct Itself is to walk ever and anon in a straight line. If it turns In either direction he is firmly convinced that it should be shot at sunrise, nightfall or whenever the turn is made, and to show that he lives up to his convictions he took a shot at a cat shortly before the milkman appeared on his rounds, missed it and about twelve hours later paid $25 for the error in the city court. If he had bit the cat, he says, It would have cost him nothing.

When Taylor was a year and a half old he was taking a turn about the nursery when a large cat, blue black, walked In front of him. It stopped, he stumbled, and It took five neighbors to regain his teething ring, which he lost control of on the downward trip. From that day until this afternoon at fourteen minutes past three he has believed that a cat passing in front of him means hard luck. Now, however, he knows It. “What have you to say?" asked the court, when Taylor was arraigned, charged with missing the cat. "If I repeated what I have in my mind," replied Taylor, “I would bo sent to Siberia. I missed that pestiferous cat and lam sorry for it. lam a good citizen, but a poor marksman, and if I were not I would be elsewhere now. If I ever lay hands on that blamed cat, your excellency, I'll manipulate her nine lives with eclat and flnlßh. I'll count them over one by one, and—” "You talk too much,” said the court. "Perhaps,” answered Mr. Taylor, "but I have the advantage of knowing what lam talking about. I know that when a black cat passes In front of me It means hard luck, and, unless I kill it, misfortune will befall me. 1 know—” “I fine you $25,” said the court. "I need say no more,” remarked Taylor, counting the money out. "This proves everything.”