ILLUSTRATIONS OF NAMES AND NUMBERS

ILLUSTRATIONS OF NAMES AND NUMBERS

It is quite natural that under the tension of war people are more inclined to watch for the slightest clue that might give a warning of danger. I know of many instances where men actually saved their lives by following the clue given by this system of numbers. In one case a man resting by the side of his battery was amusing himself asking the birth dates of the men around him. He was startled to find that they were all born under the number 8, he himself being born on the 26th January, a number 8 man in the “period of the 8″. It had just dawned on him that the day of the month also happened to be an 8, namely the 17th February and looking up he counted the number of the battery: it was also an 8. Just then a German gun opened fire. He counted the shells as they dropped, each one coming nearer and nearer. As the seventh fell he could not resist the dread that overcame him —he rushed out into the open, and as he did so, the eighth shell struck his battery — he was the only one who escaped. .