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True Stories
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Achievement
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Portland Advoca te
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Stories
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ILLUSTRATKI) KKATI'KK SKCTION March 22, 19««*
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2 Clean Fiction $
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/ 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