The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-09-03
CHANCE IN LIFE.
Many Great Inventions Born c
Strange Circumstances.

Strange Clrcum stances.
From the ST. Louis Post Dispatch.
1t has been remarked by various writers
as somewhat singular that the curioSities OF
chance have never suggested themselves to
any writer enticingly enough to give the
world book under that title. That such q
book woull prove romance Of in
terest no one who reads can doubt,
for how many grea: concerns have been
begun or ended, how many momentous
battles won and lost, how many great
discoveries made aud secrets lost, how many
things great and little done and undone. by
chance happenings in themselves nothing
II has been said that there never wss an in
divitual born whose whole career did not
hinge upon q chance o. accident " te:her
or not an assertion 50 broad and sweeping
be true, II is fact thai the history q rea
who have stood in the foremost racks IS rich
with instances of the effect Of happy chance
or accident
Wallenstein. the great captain, who never
lost battle, was, until the age Of man
hood, little better than an idiot, until
chance fall down a staircase injured his
head, but cleared his clouded intellect.
Mohillion was a mere idiot until q similar
happy chance fall restored him TO reason.
The golden genius Of Charles Dickens might
have remained unsupported but for chance.
Dickens iu early life was enamored of the
stage After many attempts he sue
ceeded IA gaining a promise from the
manager OF the Coveut Garden Theater
90 accord his histrionic powers a private
hearing.
A chance exposure TO q rainstorm brought
on cold which prevented Dickens from
keeping his engagement, and thus the stage
lost su aspiring actor, while literature
n ugal ha
Danish sculptor, after working for months
unrecognized in Rome, determined, in des-
pair, TO return home and lay down the
sculptor's chisel forever. 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 his Jason in clay,
and aroused the respondent Danes hope by
ordering copy in marble. Thornwaldson
uupacked his boxes, and never after ward in
| his long career lacked patronage.
Rachel, the great tragedienne. was, when
child, street singer, and as such might
have passed into womanhood and old age
had not party Of critics dining together
CHANGED to hear her loud, clear voice be-
noath their windows. They observed the
child's wonderful face and eyes, and In a
kindly spirit, aroused no doubt by tie wine
they had drunk, proposed to her protectors
to place her in the conservatory as pupil.
or Benjamin Disraeli there was a story
current years ago to prove the building OF
his greatness was helped along by chauce
In bis youth he was e reckless spendthrift.
His ambition was to lsad his part, but such
was the state of his finances that at one
time 1t was doubtful whether he could lon
ger support the expense of a seat in parlia-
ment. Accident or chance threw him in
the way of noted money lender in London.
who liked the brilliant young dandy on first
sight, ana did what he had never Done be-
fore nor ever afterward to any man. lent
Disraeli IS 900 on no other securitythan his
genius aud ambition . Disraei never forgot
the service, and never tired, 30 the story
goes, of returning it in the various ways
which his after influence enabled him to
do.
or all the thousands who every dav
glanced at the swinging lamps suspended
from the roof of the cathedral of Pisa, not
one saw any principle involved in their reg
ular motion until Calico, searching for a
means to regulate the movements OF a
clock, CHANGED TO behold them, and Instantly
hit upon the idea of the pendulum. Mont
golfer, the father Of aeronauts, CHANGED to
see piece Of paper placed on the top Of a
coffee pot swell aud rise as the steam dis,
tended 1t, and conceived the idea of the bal
loon.
Schanward, a Nuremburg glass cutter.
CHANGED TO spill drop of aquafortis on his
spectacles. Attempting some time after
ward to wipe 1t Off, he found that it had
corroded, aud the idea of etching on glass
dawned on him. Tho chance lack Of pen
and ink to lazy author caused him to lot
down words on rough stone, which, on
trying to clean, he found transferred its
impression TO paper. Thus was the meal
culably valuable discovery of the htho-
graphic stone made. Glass. according to
Pliny, was discovered by an accident. A
party of merchants, travelling with inter
for lack OF stones to build a fire on, used
Jumps of inter.
What was their establishment to behold.
as the fire grew intense and the inter was
burned, transparent fluid RAINING over
the sands. Electricity, though vaguely
known for centuries, was not discovered to
exist as a universal force until chance threw
together combination of elements which
made the fact clear to al observing man.
The application of steam TO the uses of man
might have been delayed fifty years had
not rainy day CHANGED t. shut a thought
full boy in his mothers kitchen, and the
kettle, for lack OF something else, suggested
itself as plaything.
Thus is the world indebted to chance for
many of her comforts.
Take Simmons Liver Regulator for head