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About The advocate. (Portland, Or.) 19??-19?? | View Entire Issue (March 22, 1930)
/x w w w w x w w w w v $ True Stories 2 Achievement S / Portland Advoca te 8 $ Stories ow w w w w w w w w ' iv n /m < • •«« » tt* H k s ti mi » ILLUSTRATKI) KKATI'KK SKCTION March 22, 19««* ( ||l< *«•. 2 Clean Fiction $ > ✓ / Human Interest / Features P ictures tn tier I llu n i »U-*l Peaturr Meet ton were p o « « t. • ud <lo not depw t p rln n p a U unless so rsp tiou ed E E * IM M 1 Jr. I salare Editar W eird, Gruesome Tragedies Result After the Rub of Madam Schriver’s Four Black Cats A TRUE STO RY O f An A G E OLD SUPERSTITION A re Black Cats a Sign of Bad Luck? Wellf Here is a Blood-chilling Story that will Make You Think So . By Paul Bryant l^lll 'r .ili)" I ..................I tin* history of crime in the «tate of Mis- noun, perhaps, was the case of the woman with the Mark rata. It vvas rather difficult to catalogue the stranite for tune teller as a criminal merely herau.se her four huge Mack rats hrouicht misfortune to all those peo ple against whom they lazily ruhhcil themselves. Those enormous Murk rats appear eil sinister in the orange reflertions from the fire of the entile stone fireplace in Muilum S i h i n e t's consulta lion room. Perhaps it wasn't the uitetl clairvoyant's fault t h a t Mahel Fisher, pretty ami twenty, shut herself in the left lireast because h e r sweetheart took an auto mobile riiie with another women. . . . Iti'Kariiless of the guilty person, the four black cats, once iluring the remliiiK the clairvoyant ac corded to Mabel Fisher, emerged surreptitiously from the low kitchen of the frumc house, passed through the orange reflections, and cere moniously paused to rub themselves against Miss Fisher’s shapely limbs. . . , Then and there, the ener getic and nervous little lady knew that the presence of those four black cuts and the fact that they had re peatedly rubbed themselves against her meant that dire misfortune was not f a r away.’ Pretty little Miss Fisher know well this omen so she did not need Mud.un Sel'iher til (ell he! I'm Imps. Mudimi Sehrlver would not have told her anyway If the siri hud not already known 8he was V IC T IM O l Itf.A C K C A T "M A U IC ” IMI«« »'a v elie »'ram e, w hose m oth er was a Victim o f tlie w om an w ith the blaek cats. WH M tr: M A D A M S C H R IV E K P E R F O R M E D The W hite Dure, where M adan, S rhrlver'a old fram e bouse oner stood. en. pushing the door slightly ajar, that something dreadful was going to happen to her. She didn't know what, nor when, but she felt a pre sentiment of approaching doom, and could not escape the unnerving rmo.'on that kept a stern clutch on BEW ITCHED her. "H er nerves were s i b a d i) «h a ltered when the hie, k ■ at« em erged Iron, the O. course she had heard all tlie kitch en and ruhbed thrm arlve« a g a in ,! her leg In M adam S rhrlver'a cnn «ul- strange hair-raising stories regard I I t i m i m u n i I h . I -tir a m a r i nut Ml lei ror. ana fa in t e d “ ing the bad sign ot the notorious four black cats. Tlie moment they pushed the kitchen door slightly considered Uie cleverest fortune mmiv of her patrons were supersti open and paraded In single llle from teller on tlx Mississippi Hiver, and tious and that they were llrm be the wart, (kitchen, froiti whence there had never been a time when lievers in the so-called, unlucky came the aroma of cooking cab she had (ailed to litvc complete sat sign of the black cat; moreover, she bages. the Fisher girl clutched spas- isfaction. was aware that the presence of her uudlcally at hei throat, whitened Madam Sehrlver was a very stale lour black cats made her customers under Madam Sehrlvers steady ly colored woman. At the time ol nervous This situation hindered stare and exclaimed: "Oh. my Ood. tier death she wits sixty years old her ability to concentrate on the drive those terrible creatures out ot Her white clients numbered ns ' (alas pf hr- numerous clients. It here!" many aa the colored, who believed soon yew to bo unusual to see one Hut Madam Sehrlver feigned sur- lu lier strung!* powers' she charged uf Madam Sehrlvers blaek cats prts ilia: anyone should be so ter five dollars for a simple rlnlrvoyant When one apiwarrd. it was time for rified bv four blaek cats. Convinc reading a.Id got It Some days, she seripus and quick thinking ingly she tried to explain that four gave ns many as twenty rrrxtin.' - Tilts was tlie bellrl of many peo black cats were no different from It was said when she died. ftjfcCtehe ple and no doubt they had ample lour white cats. Anybody with suf left a fortune hidden gomewlterr ground upon which (o base their ficient intelligence to capture and about the ancetnt frame house In opinions In the llrst place, there ivhl. It she had silent the last fifteen were many dire misfortunes that years ol her llle, although no trace befell those women, both colored of the money ‘ lias ever been un nnri white, who though reluctantly, earthed had visited Madam Sehrlver s flvr- list hoy. the rumor spread that room frame house on dark nights. the presence ol Madam Sclirlver’s It is true that many of Madam four black cats meant disaster. Is Sehrlver'.« clients went to her place hard to say but that sort of rumor virtually against their own wills; began years ago and once tt had because, the misfortune of those started, there war. absolutely no way who encountered the four black of stopping It cats was notorious In that section of the country Madam Sehrlver occasionally kept In .• four blaek cats locked securely Pretty Miss Fisher was not super In the kitchen She was well aware, stitious. but she knew when the without having to be told, that black cats emerged from the kltch- !Mr. Paul B ryant, the a u th or ol llie ab ove »lory , was attracted lo llle scene o f these strange tragedies by tlie unusual and e\trr ordin ary f a d s su rroun din g the clairvoya n t pow ers o f the m ysterious M adam e Sehrlver. T lie repu tation o f this w om an was know n llirouglm u l the state of M issouri. M any people have witnessed the wild and gruesom e deaths that Im re follow ed Ifte spiritualist«, readings o f M adam e Sehrlver. T A Y L O R D I'N K IN He recalls the w om an with the black eat*, having lived near her many years. He is also a firm believer in this accou n t o f her exploits. hold a brave mans love, as Miss Fisher had done; was intelligent enough to forget all about the non sense commonly heard about black r a t, This sort of talk reassured Miss Fisher, who knew all about the cats, consequently, she thought that ev erything would be all right. Madam Schrtver had given her several hint* about how to make good headway with Captain Rupert, tlie married man whose attentions she wished to win; and after Madam Schriver had penetrated l-ei secret* to this depth, there was no possibility of Ill-feel ing. Moreover, who was suppos t to know more about black cats than fortune tellers? Was there any in disputable evidence that those cats had ever brought hard luck to their owner? Tin.- appeared to be so much bunk and the strange stories ol Madam Schriver's patrons dying and being tragically disappointed in love, proved to be the figments of highly Imaginative minds. «•RAM OSO S’ O F M A D A M SIIR IV K K Pretty Miss Fisher went home that T om Sehrlver. g ra n d -so n o f M adam evening, after the clairvoyant had Sehrlver. w ho lias inherited his g r a n d enlightened her as to certain proced- m oth er's strange fon dn ess for black rats. Continued on Page Seven
