Newspaper Clipping of the Day

This latest installment of the "Boston Post's" series, "Famous Cats of New England" pays tribute to a favorite topic here at Strange Company HQ: lucky black cats.

Because she dropped in out of nowhere on Christmas day--this good luck black cat that came to live in the household of John J. Gateley at 101 Brown avenue, Roslindale--the children named her Chris.

There isn't any money on earth that Mr. and Mrs. Gateley or the five children would take for that little black mascot of a Christmas present that came to them two years ago on Christmas. The day that Chris arrived every single one of the whole family was down with the "flu." That Chris, the black cat that crossed their paths all unsolicited, was the jinx that drove off the "flu" the whole family insist.

Therefore it is to be expected that Chris is quite the cock of the walk in the cheery, cosey Gateley home to which she annexed herself. No tempting morsel or favorite nook is forbidden Chris. When she, sinning black thief that she is, was discovered with a naughty paw gouged deep in the juicy depths of one of Mrs. Gateley's apple pies Mrs. Gateley saw to it that ever afterward a special little individual saucer of apple pie went into the oven for Chris.

Whenever the rolling pin comes out of the pantry Chris is all agog, for she is suspicious that apple pies are coming. And when the door of the gas oven is dropped at the end of the baking process, so that the pies may cool before they are removed, there is Chris ready to risk a burning of her paw, in order to know just the exact moment that her pie will be ready to eat.

Stairways have no interest for Chris. She uses the trellis exclusively to let herself up and down stairs, her favorite exit being by the den window and the porch roof, along the trellis to the lawn beneath. She knows a secret trail to the top pantry shelf, too, where eggs have to be kept hidden from stealing little black paws. And she climbs it and rolls the eggs out and breaks them and laps them up.
~January 2, 1921

So now you know: the cure for anything that ails you is to let a black cat into your home.

Just don't forget the pie.