| Show am j OF U P calamities v J i i rii misfortunes never come singly is a proverb wel known in every language an and devoutly believed by the people of every nation there seems something fatalistic in the promptitude with which calamities tread on oil one an others heels one of the earliest sacred books of the jewish canon furnishes an illustration in ill point t for in a single day the oxen and sheep the camels and other beasts of burden of the patriarch of uz hz were swept away liis ills servants were vere slain ills his children destroyed the messengers following e each ach other so quickly that hardly was there time for one dismal narrative to end ere another began but we do not need to go as far back as the days of job to find examples of the rapid sequence of misfortunes according to tile the st louis globe democrat democrat every one knows that one accident or disaster is certain t to 0 be followed by another sometimes of similar character and having a visible connection with its predecessor sometimes entirely dissociated so far as appearances go from everything that has preceded tile the clustering of accidents is well known among men in III particular lines of business every rall railroad foad superintendent knows perfectly well that an accident involving considerable loss of life will within a few days be followed by another so similar in its leading p features as to make inake it seem as though the second had been carefully prepared on tile the and after tho plan of the first all fire department departments understand that a great conflagration is usually followed by a second and often by a third within a few days insurance men have noticed that a fire occurring in III a building devoted to an unusual occupation is also followed at a short interval 1 by a second fire in a similar line and that the rule also applies to buildings 1 I devoted to a particular often common kind of business for a month or tw two 0 it sometimes seems to the insurance men that all the hat stores in the country are devoted to destruction then for a long time the hat stores will hulva have immunity willie while tile the shoe stores dry goods stores and groceries are burning the principle even applies to smaller accidents and misfortunes A surgeon in a large manufacturing plant bears testimony to the queer fact that whenever a mechanic comes in with in an injured thumb necessitating amputation another accident of identical character will occur within three days no explanation is furnished perhaps in our present of knowledge no explanation is possible but the fact that one accident follows another without visible con lection Is too well known to b doubted |
