The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-03-27

Foncier lottery bonds In RarAs on Saturday
last a certain lady appeared. oreathless and
with a bono Of the 1889 issue,
upon which she wanted to pay tho calls due
in order that it might b. oil gible for a prize.
The clerk declared that payment was too
late. az the drawing was about to commence, |
not failing 10 add the conventional phases
of regret. The lady. however. begged hard.
and the clerk consented to submit her case
to the board of directors who had to attend
the drawings. Several numbers had already
been drawn while the directors were con
sidering whether the lady's offer could be
accepted-merely d matter of a few francs.
one way or the other, as they imagined
when suddenly the number of the very bond
whose fate was in suspense came ont for a
prize of 10000 francs. The board ulti-
mately ruled that es anumbsr had emerged
after the lady's offer the latter must be emit
ertained. The clerk vent down. and. after
receiving the lady's money and handing her
a receipt for it. announced to her that she
was "a. 600 itch than when she came. Such
is the statement transmitted; very probably
a veracioua one since all sorts of
strange things do occur in connec-
tion with lottery tickets. But seldom.
or never. could it befall that fortune
should out her favo. 80 close to the
quick as here; the wheel WAS actually re-
volving, the lucky numbers were emerging. !
when the Partisan lady just made her
claim good in time to have the bond nd. |
mitted to the distribution. What rendered
her 80 energetic? There may or may not
be some fanciful story connected with her
perseverance, dream. possibly, or a gypsy
womRn's prophecy. or a stroke of advice
from the cards. In any case 'luck" pre-
sents itself, We suppose. as an e%minently
and real important factor in earthly mat
tiers to the mind of madam, who can now
pay off her milliner's bills-if she hiss any
and pursue the capricious goddess of
fortune on the bourse or at Monte
Carlo. She will not care to know
how many other gamblers at the same
wheel had provisions like herself about a
lucky number; nor reason that the "gros
lot" had to fall to somebody, and so fell to
her. If she was superstitious before she
will become ten times more so hencefor-
ward. and will certainly never sit down to
table with twelve other guests, nor 90 to
sea on Friday. nor spill the salt without
throwing some afterward over her left
shouldeI. Meantime, if fortune is but q
name and an illusion, the 100, 600 francs ore
certainly substantial enough. and crowds
of people who read of her success will be
bitten more than eve. with the mania for
"trying their luck"
The same name. which the world haSin a
deifed and embodied, is probably
connected by etymology with Lachesis, tho
second sister of the three Fates. The clnssic
ancients depicted her with q staff and ball
in her hands, as if they had anticipated
roulette and the croupier's rake. The ap-
plication OF this particular fate is derived
from a G!eek verb which means ITO hap
pen,' Ito fall out" and the Same signitca-
ton lies at the root Of all similar terms
found in other languages, suoh as ''Rluck"
in German, 'lycka' in swedish, "lykka'' in
Danish. "laka" in Armenian. ''lakki" in San
skirt. Clotho, who spins the thread of life.
and Atropos, who cuts it. the other two
sisters of the implacab!e three, were diff
ferent in character n had moro in them
of what We mean by destiny" and fate
Atropos especially signifies ''she whom men
none can turn aside" There existed,
therefore. some like the same confusion
and illogical,ty in the ancient mind as in
the modern. Peoale saw ard felt that
various moving causes aud influences did
not end in producing o pre.ordained de-
nouement. but they still kept a place
in the world for luck-for Lachesis,
who settles such minor matters rs
the fall of dice, the toss of a knuckle bone
como to think upon il, these things must
be governed by strict laws, just as much as
the movements of the planets. The posi-
ton of every grain of sand On tho sea
beach or in a block of stone must be tho
exact equation of its volume. its origin, its
mo'e outside the sphere OF the
evet-goveIninR forces and f%ashionings
OF the universe than Sirius or the
stars in the belt of Orion. so
with q half-penny spun by a street boy
against the eel pie man, the coin does not
come heads Or tails by chance. Exact nee. 80.
stiles of weight, position and impulse oblige
it to descend in this or that way, and We
simply call the result luck because nobody
can calculate the almost infinite factors OF
the problem. Persons have been known
with a fair deal at whist and CAREFUL,
trumps, an incident against which
the mathematical odds nre some.
thing stupendous. This is really no
more wonderful than any other unnoticec
hand: but the collocation singles itself out
from the perpetual combinations of cards
and specially strikes the fancy. In all thes'
matters, as Lord Bacon we'll remarked. liner
note the hits, but not the misses" III,
strange yet certain law of averages, also
which runs through all the operations o
nature, helps to make people believe in luck
The universe itself seems to play at odd an,
even and to make lotteries of events. Out o
30 many thousands Of everyday occurrence
only one or two will be extraordinary, nnl
these are sure to happen sooner or later
Eight or nine persons are run over INT
killed by vehicles every week in Londol
and forty or fifty injured. Thee will
surely be the usual proportion of sufferers
and to-day they 20 about as AZ ignorant O
tteir fate as We are, vet doing exactly tn
deeds and going precisely the ways which
with all sorts of other influences conceal
ing and conspiring, aa to bring them to tn
unfortunate issue. 1t will not, however, b
i~ll-luck; it will be the concentration an
co-action of a million invisible factors be
yond analysis or anticipation.
Nevertheless. the world will not essil
leave off talking OF luck nor quickly csas
to believe in il. Napoleon Bonaparts use,
always to ask of any officer whom b
thought of elevatinR to the rank Of genera
"Etes-vou-hsurenx?"-"Are you lucky p
And there is some reason. too, in such
query and in the practical belief attachin
to it: The man we call lucky in affai,
of life ia very often one who neglec,
nothing, great or small, which leads to sue
cess. Always v~igilant. always active
minded: he puts things perpetualIy in th
way of running right. and such a one
helped very naturally by forces which b
oannot control. They fall into the cour.