By 1900, it was already taboo to light a third cigarette with the same match. Where it started is not known, but it was reinforced by a sad story told in 1919 by The Times of Los Angeles’ Sports Editor and War correspondent, Harry A. Williams, concerning an incident with the 91st Division during World War I, at Argonne, France.
“Three privates, all of them slightly wounded, were limping back from the front one night, they sat down on the road to rest, and rolled cigarettes. Wounded men invariably crave a fag, even those who have never tasted tobacco before.
One struck a match, and with it lighted his own cigarette and that of one if his comrades. The third held out his cigarette for a light, but the man holding the blaze protested, as did his friend, that to ignite three from one match brings bad luck.
The other soldier was persistent, and kidded them about being superstitious, with the result that he was laughingly given a light from the same match. They had already taken two puffs when a shell hit in the center of the group, killing two of them outright, and wounding the other so seriously that he died on the way to the hospital. The incident became known when this wounded soldier related it to the stretcher bearer, and advised him never to attempt three lights from one match. This advice was unnecessary. It was not many days until the incident and the circumstances became known to practically every man in the division, and since then the Nintey-first (now 91st) Infantry Division has nurtured a perfectly good superstition.
There is no chance that the light from the match drew the shell, as the latter, coming from four of five miles, must have been fired before the match was struck. It was strictly a coincidence. If founded on facts, they wouldn’t be superstitions.”
(Quoted from, NO THIRD LIGHT FOR SOLDIERS, by Harry A. Williams, Staff Correspondent of The Times of Los Angeles, February 16, 1919)
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