St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-06-21
A Chapter of Accidents.
SOME OF THE ALTERNATIVES WITH
WHICH FATE ABUSES HERSELF.
From the Portland Advertiser

SOME OF THE ALTERNATIVES WITH
WHICH FATE AMUSES HERSELF.
From the Portland Advertiser.
Accident and fate seem wide as the
poles apart; and yet it is sometimes
hard to distinguish between them. In
fact, it may be that a long series of odd
and apparently arbitrary and unneces-
sary accidents, which no human fore
sight could anticipate or prevent, first
started and strengthened the eastern
faith in fatalism. If the man who met
his death in the quiet street of a
Georgia town the other day, had been
in his youth told by fortune teller
that it was his fate to be killed by an
elephant, he would doubtless have be-
lieved that in order for the fulfilment
of this prediction, he must necessarily
visit the tropics and would have felt
that he was quite outwitting the Furies
by remaining quietly at home. But a
travelling menagerie comes along, and
the unsuspecting native is crushed to
death by much abused elephant, even
at his own door. One can hardly help
asking, was it accident, or fateP
Several cases have happened up and
down the country, since the war, where
men who went through the whole strug-
gle without a scratch, have fallen VIC
tins to some unforeseen plot of the
genius of accident, even in sight of
their own roOf-tree. If hero of the
war, a man who was killed last sum-
mer, had known in his boyhood, that
he was to die by the explosion of can
non, would he have volunteered as a
soldier? He did not know it, and he
enlisted and served four years, and
came home scathless. Yet at last he
was killed in firing Fourth of July
salute. Fate apparently overlooked
him on the battlefield, but afterward
pounced upon him and carried out the
original plan. -
1t is told of one now long dead, that
he had, from childhood, an impression
that his fate would be to die by water.
He accordingly avoided it, and would
never sail or row, even on the smallest
stream where boats may float. Moth
ing would induce him to approach the
ocean, or travel in steamer even for
the briefest distance. Yet he died I'M
timely, and was it fate or accident ?
of drOpsy.
In these odd incidents, there some
times appears an irony which is almost
ludicrous. Within this State there once
lived a gentleman, who, having lost his
wife by death, rather early set about
filling the vacancy proceeding not
uncommon. But it occurred to him, as
it has to many another under the same
circumstances, that it would look bet
ter to be quite off with the old love be-
fore he was on with the new, and he
set about placing somewhat large and
expensive marble at the head of his late
wife's grave, as sort of Precipitation to
the wandering ghost, who might other
wise feel aggrieved at his precipitancy.
He accompanied the monument to its
destination, in a cart, the linch-pin of
which slipped, throwing him out, and
piling the load on him like vindictive
fate. So he had the singular fortune to
be killed by grave-stone. The ghost
was probably appeased- at least, it
never appeared afterward.
An unusual number of similar things
have been noted of late in the news
papers. A little girl in Providence