Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1907 — Why Opals Are “Unlucky.” [ARTICLE]

Why Opals Are “Unlucky.”

The world is full of superstition, and one of the worst is that the opal is “unlucky.” This superstition arose when the “black death” swept Europe.

At that time the opal was very unpopular, and some noticed that when a victim of the disease was dying tht opal on the finger brightened and when be was dead it became dull. Of course, this took the popular fancy and at once opals became “unlucky,” and have remained so ever since. Very likely they do not change at ail on the fingers of a dying person, and the whole matter is like that question which once caused so much discussion In the scientific world, I. e., why Is it that when you put a fish In a bowl of water the weight of the bowl Is not Increased? Many learned answers were given, but finally one duffer weighed a bowl of water with and without the fish In It, and thus settled the matter.—Kansas City Journal.