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Show CHANCE IN LIFE. Xan-r (Irtat Inv.ntion Bora of 6traia f 'Irf-u ni.tnnr... St, I.oiiIk Pot-nisiat"' It has been remarked by various writers as somewhat singular that tho curiosities of chance have never suggested sug-gested theinseJvc to any writer enticingly entic-ingly enough to give the world a book under that title. That such a book would prove a romance of interest no one ho reads can doubt, for how many great concern, have been begun or ended, how many momentou battles bat-tles won and lost, how many great di-coveries di-coveries made and aecret lost, how many things great and little done and undone, by chance happenings hap-penings in themselves nothing? It ha been said that there never was an individual boru whose whole career did not hinge upon a chaucu or scci-dent. scci-dent. Whether or not an assertion so broad and sweeping be true, it is a fact that the history of men who have stood in the foremost rank is rich with instances in-stances of the effect of happy chance or accident. Wallcnstein, the great captain who never lost a battle, was, until the age of mnnbood, little butter than an idiot, until a chance fall down a atone staircase stair-case injurod his head, hut cleared his clouded intellect. Mohiilon was a inure idiot until a similar happy chance fall restored him to reason. The golden genius of Cbarlct Dickons might have remained unsuspected but for chance. Dickens in early life was euamored of the stage. After many attempt ha succeeded suc-ceeded in gaining a promise from the manager of the Covent Garden theater to accord his histrionic powers a private hearing. A chance exposure to a rainstorm brought on a cold which prevented Dickens from keeping hi engagement, ami thus the stage lost an inspiring actor, while li'erature gained a king. Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, after working for month unrecognized in Koine, determined, in despair, to re- turn homo and lay down the sculptor's sculp-tor's chisel foreyer. A chance error by a careless clerk in drawing his passport detained him twenty-four hours. During that interval of waiting Mr. Hope walked into his studio, admired ad-mired his Jason in clay, and aroused i he despondent Dane's hope by ordering order-ing copy in marble. Thorwaldsen unpacked his boxes, and never afterward after-ward in his long career lacked patronage. patron-age. Kachael. the great tragedienne, was when a child, a street ginger, and as such might have passed into womanhood woman-hood and old age had not a party of critics dining together chanced to hear her loud, clear voice beneath their window. win-dow. They observed the child' wonderful won-derful face and eyes, and in a kindly spirit, aroused no doubt by the wine they had drunk, proposed to her protectors pro-tectors to place hor in the conservatory as a pupil. Of Henj.vuin Disraeli there was a story current years .ago to prove tha building of his greatness was helpca along by chance. In his youth ha was a reckless spendthrift. His ambition wnsto lead his party, but such was the state of his finances that at one time it wus doubtful whether he could longer support the expense of a seat in parliament. Accident or chance threw him in the wsy of a noted money lender in London, who liked the brilliant bril-liant yoii'ig dandy on first sight and did what he had never doue before nor ever afterwird to any man, lent Disraeli Dis-raeli A'.VMmj on no other security than his genms and ambition. Disraeli never foruot the service,' and never tired, so the story goen, of returning it in tlio various ways which his after in-flueiiceenal'led in-flueiiceenal'led him to do. Of all the thousands who every day glanced nt the swiuging lamps sui-peuded sui-peuded from the roof of the cathedral of l'isa, not one saw any principle involved in-volved in thoir regular motion tmtil (ialileo, searching for a tneaus to regulate regu-late tha movements of a clock, chain ed to behold them, and instantly hit upon the idea of the pendulum. Montgollier, the father of wronant. chanced to see a piece of paper placed on the top of a cotTee pot swell and rise as the steam distended it. and couceived the idea of the balloon. Schanward, a Nuremburg glass cutter, cut-ter, chanced to spill it drop of aquafortis aquafor-tis on his spectacles. Attempting some time afterward to wipe it off ho found that it had corroded and the idea of etching on gla.v dawned on him. The chance lack of pen and ink to a lay an thor ciused him to jot down words on a rough stono, which, on trying to clean, he found transferred its impros-unns to paper. Thus was the incalculably valuable val-uable discovery of tho lithographic stone made, (ilass, according to Pliny, was discovered by an accident. A party of merchants, traveling with niter for lack of stones to build a fire on, used lumps of niter. What was their astonishment lo behold, be-hold, as tho lire grow intense nnd the nitor was burned, a transparent fluid running over the sands. Klectricity, though vaguely known for ceuturies, was not discovered to exist as a universal univer-sal force until chauoo threw together a combination of elements which mado tho fact clear to an observing man. The application of steam to the uses of man might have been delayed fitly vears had not a rainy day chanced lo shut a thoughtful boy in' his mother's kllchon, ami the kettle or lack of something some-thing elso, suggested itself as a plaything.- Thus is t lie world indeptod to chance for many of her comforts. |
