The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-11-05
DISCOVERIES SUGGESTED BY TRIVIAL
THINGS,

WTlltGS us SOlntMutb SiuSuiiC tlItb
the curiosities of chance have never
suggested themselves to any writer
enticingly enough to give the world
a book under that title. That such
q book would prove q romance of
interest no one who reads can doubt,
for how many great concerns have
been begun or ended, how many
momentous battles won and lost,
how many great discoveries made
and secrets lost, how many things,
great and little, done and undone,
by chance happenings in themselves
nothing? 1t has been said that there
never was an individual born whose
whole career did not hinge upon
chance or accident. Whether or not
an assertion so broad and sweeping
be true, it is fact that the history
of men who have stood in the fore
most ranks is rich with instances of
the effect of happy chance or acct
dent.
Thus, Wallenstein the Magnificent,
the great captain who never lost a
battle, was until the age of manhood
little better than an idiot, until a
chance fall down stone staircase
injured his head, but cleared his
clouded intellect. Mabillon was a
mere idiot until n similar happy
chance fall restored him to reason.
The golden genius of Charles Dick
ems might have remained unsupported
but for chance. Dickens in early
life was enamored of the stage.
After many attempts he succeeded
in gaining a promise from the man
ager of the Covent Garden Theatre
to accord his histrionic powers a
private hearing. A chance exposure
to rain storm brought on a cold
which prevented Dickens from keep
ing his engagement, and thus the
stage lost an aspiring actor, while
literature gained a king. Thorwald-
sen, the great Danish sculptor, after
working four months unrecognised
in Rome, determined, in despair, to
return home and lay down the
sculptor's chisel for ever. A chance
error by careless clerk in drawing
his passport detained him twenty
four hours. During that interval of
waiting Mr.. Hope walked into the
studio, admired his Jason in clay,
and aroused the Responding Danes
hope by ordering copy in marble.
Thorwaldsen unpacked his boxes,
and never afterwards in his long
career lacked patronage. Rachel,
the great tragedienne, was when a
child street singer, and as such
might have passed into womanhood
and old age, had not party of
critics dining together Glanced to
hear her loud, clear voice beneath
their windows. They observed the
child's wonderful face and eyes, and
in kindly spirit, aroused, no doubt,
by the wine they had drunk, pro-
posed to her protectors TO place her
in the Conservatoire as pupil. Sir
Walter Raleigh would probably have
remained out of favor with the
Court had Elizabeth, on her walk tC
the Tower, CHANGED to take a patti
less muddy. Every reader of his.
tory knows the story: how the gal
liant Sir Walter spread his cloak
beneath the Royal feet, and was re-
warded with his sovereign's smile
and speedy restoration to favor.
Potemkin, the favorite of Cattle
rine H., and the founder of thu
powerful Russian family which bears
his name, would doubtless have re
NAMED an obscure soldier, had no
a trivial incident-a chance, in fac
changed his destiny. After Ca
Uterine had deposed her weak hus
band, and herself assumed tn
sceptre, she was accustomed t.
parade the streets of st. Petersburg
at the head of her troops. One da.
Potemkin noticed her sword bore n
knot. He boldly stepped forward
Drawing the knout for his insubordina
ton, and offered his. The Czarin
accepted it, and, struck by the hand
some young lieutenant, asked hi
name and regiment, and if he woul'
not like to serve her in the palace
Hail Pasha, the Sultan's chief o
artillery and most trusted adviser
was a timer. Employed in thu
palace, he offered to mend a valuable
French clock, as no clock-make
was available, and did the work 81
we'll that the Sultan made him la,
aside the timers furnace and serv
him. Sir Robert Wilson, one o
England's best generals, owed hi
elevation from the desk in soil
citor's Office to chance meeting
with the Duke of York in the rain
George Stephenson, the invento
of the locomotive, was born with
taste for mechanics. His parent
were too wretchedly poor to Civ
him the advantages of education
At very tender age he was con
PEELED to work as a pit boy at tw
pence day to help to support til