The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-04-28
]" SINGULAR CONDOLENCES .
Concerning Some Really Odd Happen ings, and Others Not Nearly so
 Curious as They Seem.
NeW York N ofl,l


 Of condolences i, may be sad. as oi dreams and premonltans, that. .econsid- ering the immense number of human be lngs upon this earth. and the multiiudin- ous points al which their eNIstences inter sec, one another. the ~an4es-iS- not that there are so many striking condolences. but that there are so few. The exchanges of the Ueyld have. during the past few months, recorded a large number of CO., incidences. some of which, at least. are worth noticing on the ground Of their singulari,y. One If the most curious happened only few days ago, when a letter was sent 10 the sheriff of Dunn eouny. Wis. authorizing the attachment of the stock of Charles Hudson. dry goods dealer. al Waneka. Who would have thought that the letter would go by mistake to the sheriff of Dane county :: that in Dane county there would be a place called Wannakee. and that among is residents there would be found a Charles Hudson, dy-goods merchant. whose stock would. of course. be at tached? Charle, (. Park. of Searsport, Maine, captain of the Sumner K. Mead, had not seen his brother, Jeremiah C.. Park. captain of the Alert. for six years. nor his brother Samuel Park. on board the same vessel. for twelve years; but the fates ordained that the two vessels should be beealmcd within few cables length of each other for whole day. of the eoas; of Madagascar. In the small town of Zei,z Tn rrassian Saxony. lived two women. Frau Schmidt and Frau Feus;el. occupying adjoining rooms in the same house. In February. 1881. each was made, on the same day, the mother of triplets. all boys. TAis was a decidedly curious coincidence m births. The Rev. Mir. Busch. of Winona. Minn.. whose five children were all born on Sun day. has been the sub)ec, of some news paper paragraphs. but his case is less noteworthy than that of a resident of Middletown. Conn. three of whose four children have the same birth-day-N No Fember 10th. \ less remarkable coinci- denee IS noted Tn the case of Mrs. Will ham Mnning. of Mount Auburn. Ohio. who celebrated, on one day. the anniver- sary of her birth. of her wedding and of ,he birth of grand-child. Why should accident have ordered that the same com pany of mins,Tels should have visited Washington on the day that President Garfield was inaugurated. on the day that his remains were borne m state to the cap- itol. and on the day that the oration was pronounced upon him by Mir. Blame :: An odd coincidence was reported no, long ago. in these columns. In ISoe a hre destroyed the city of Kingston. Ia I,,- bsai ia. of sh@ l.. Cordova was born. Aaron tie Cordova' ; grandfather was the iirsi man on the island who erected building. After the tire three months ago. in the same place. the present Aaron de Cordova was the trst man who erected building. liwas d ourous fate winch ordained that the son oi the Austrian Baron Carl von Hoier. and Andreas Hofer's grea,-grand- son, should perish by bulle, diseharg ged during ritiematoh. being the fifth mem Der of this distinguished family slain by such wound. Three years ago one Lewis Hilu. of Independence. Mo. killed Joseph Melody, but was acquitted. on the ground of insanity. Two years later. on the same day and at the same hour, he received fatal sunstroke. on the same
 
 incidences relative to deaths are numer- ous, if no, always very noteworthy. On the Sth of April, 1882. Edward 6oss was buried a, Troy. in this state, from the same house al which. in 1870. the same clergyman had buried his brother James. Both brothers died on the ssme day of the month, and at the same hour On the Sih of April, 1882, at Philadelphia. occurred curious series of wha, the English newspapers delight to call fatal iifes.' As Mrs. Winsmore was going to bed, she heard noise in the room of her sister. Mrs-sW Watson. and, running in. found her gasping for breath. The doc tor ard their third sister. Mrs. Smith. were sent for. and arrived in few min utes. In very few moments the sick woman died of an attack of apoplexy. and al intervals of ten minutes Mrs Winsmore and Mrs. Smith fell dead on the floor of the same apartment, a sue cession of deaths which woull have been voted absurd in sensational melodrama It is only few weeks ago, in this city, Mrs. Arthur Forshay died while prepar- ing to attend her husbands funeral, hay ing been apparently in the best of health {: but that did no, deserve to be cited IS singular coincidence. The deaths, on New Years day, 1881. of Major $ B. Shackford. of Chelsea, Mass, and of his only son, Charles B. Shackford, of Do- yer, \. H. more nearly fulfilled the con- ditions of curious coincidence" As 10 deaths which take place simul,ane- ously, or at an interval of few minutes or few hours, there is really not 70 much in the coincidence as people often make out. In the frst place. there IS an apparently irresistible tendency to falsify the record by few hours or few minutes. so as to make the coincidence more striking. In the second, when the two persons are very old, and have long been in feeble health, the announcement of the death of the first is altogether likely to bring about the death of the second, either by a positive shock. or by removing the incentive to life, or by ere