Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1918 — HOOSIERS A CRANKY SET; KICK ON AUTO NUMBERS [ARTICLE]

HOOSIERS A CRANKY SET; KICK ON AUTO NUMBERS

Indiana people, like lefthanders, are said to be an eccentric set, and the whims and superstitions of the Hoosier populace reach amazing proportions. There are just as many cranks and nuts and just as many superstitions people among automoble owners as can be found in the ranks of any other class in Indiana. *Their crankiness and nuttiness and other peculiarities crop out when they make application for their automobile license plates. Some of these peculiar ones shreik when contemplating the possibility of getting number 13 for their automobile. They would not run the machine if they had to take a number bearing the fateful 13. M. W. Pershing, head of the automobile license bureau in the office of the secretary of state, says he received many letters ordering number plates but requesting that the plate do not contain number 13 or any Combination of numbers that could make 13. Some of these superstitious ones object to a plate bearing 13 or any multiple, such as-2,639 and the like. Mr. Pershing says he cannot grant all the requests without disorganizing the bureau and its system, but that he attempts to comply with the requests whenever it can be done. He does not wish to attach a hoodoo to any person that does not want it. There is as much objection to 23 as to 13. Apparently no one wants the skidoo number, but this year automobile license 23 is held by J. C. Mather, of Indianapolis, Bert Boyd, a grain dealer of Indianapolis, got number 13 this year because he had the nerve to ask for it. There is a woman at Muncie to whom number 13 is a nightmare and a fright. She wrote in for a number, this winter, and made it especially clear and emphatic that she did not want 13 or any multiple of 13 or any number that could be totalled 13. A special effort was made to comply with the woman’s request, but, as always happens when elaborated preparations are made, a cog slipped, and the plate that the shipped to the woman bore a 13. She promptly wrote back, expressing her indignation and her opinion of the person that made the mistake. She asked for a different number, but this could not be done without disorganizing the records, and she was so informed.

Her indignation knew no bounds. She hired a lawyer and set him post haste to Indianapolis to do something. He managed to make an exchange at the automobile license bureau, and the woman now lives in a peaseful frame of mind. Many persons write in for a number bearing a good poker hand, such as a full house, three nines and a pair of eights, or four of a kind. Others want a plate bearing consecutive numbers like 34567. Others want the consecutive numbers to run backwards. . ‘ .