The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-27
FOUR CHANCE MEETINGS.
Each Involved n Coincidence, and
Together They Upset the Doctrine
of Chances

From the New York Sun.
! Condolences" said the man from Bos-
ton, yes. I have had some had four
/ In fifty days in London, and, although
no one Of them was startling, the whole
| four formed a series that seemed to
/ knock the doctrine OF chances into a
cooked hat. I had crossed the Atlantic
with a bore, and parted with him at Liv-
erpool fervently hoping I should never
see his face or hear his name again. Two
weeks later I fell in with a talkative,
lower middle-class Briton travelling on
the underground In London and learned
/ that ne had just been seeing a friend on
from Liverpool. ] had a prophetic seiz-
ure. The name of the ship was the one
IN which mad crossed with the bore.
The name of his friend2 1t was that of
the bore himself. / had met among Lon
uoh uEe millions the one man VINO
could tell me the news of the person that
l was least anxious to hear from.
L had been but a little while in my Of
nee at London when two sailors came
IN to ask help TO America. Why did they
not 90 TO the consul? They had been to
him in vain. / refused aid, and an after
| thought led me TO ask their home port.
New Bedford, said one, or, more
| properly, a little place near it, and he
named the very seaport where my moth
er and L had been summering for ten
years past. Another inquiry brought out
the fact that the home of the man be-
fore me was exactly opposite my moth
er s cottage. For no better reason than
this l saw that the two sailors found
passage to America.
Before making that visit to London
| had fallen in at Montreal with my friend,
John Henderson, let us call him, from
Boston, and had borrowed 500 from him.
My orders TO London came so suddenly
that 1 got or with Henderson's 500 in
my pocket, but after settling down in
my office said to the lad that was half
clerk and half errand boy:
N ma a-rfH To- 1Har-
and sen him a hundred dollars
The words We're scarcely out of my
mouth when my outer office boy, or, more
accurately, the company's outer office
boy, came in and announced that a gen.
tleman wished to see me.
a man or gentleman l asked.
Wen, sir, said the boy, he is a man
now, and l don't think you want to see
him. He is very dirty, sir
"Inves tigation showed that the boy was
right, for my visitor was the worst spec.-
men of the brOken-down American in
London that l had ever come across. II
was the old story. He was dead broke,
and had simply come to the London office
Of an American railway company with
the hope OF finding aid. l sternly re-
fused, as my way is, and he urged it Ia
the name of better days, but 1 disre-
garded even that plea. AS he turned to
" 'Prhaps you know John Henderson,
Yes, l said, astonished.
Well, he is my brother-in-law.'
you
1.-The proof cost me 81. Henderson acfS-
nowledged his relative in reply to my let
ter but was not particularly glad to
hear of it,
when first reached the London office
found there Brown, whom l was to re-
lieve so that he might go home TO Ameri-
ca Brown was in great hurry packing
up, so he said:
" old man, take a GROWER, won't you,
and go to the Hortense flats You will
ma Judson on the, top floor. He has a
| dog that am to take back to America
Ator Brown had explained that a
| GROWER is four-wheeled cab, I started
on the errand. pleasant-looking Eng
lish woman let me in at the door marked
Judson,' on the TOP floor of the Hor-
| tense flats. She knew all about the dog
and took me out into the kitchen, where
he was tied up In a hamper awaiting
transportation to America. I was down
on my hands and knees taking a peep at
| the dog in hamper, when a sort of a
! groWl behind me drew my eyes upward.
! There stood a great, beaded Englishman,
looking mixture of amusement, sur
prise and vexation
! he said.
oh, I have just come after Browns
| dog, was my reply.
GOOD, he answered, with a smile
| Come and take a drink
| we had drink and / carried off the
| dog in the growler, having parted with
him again.
"A few weeks later found myself in a
| compartment of an underground coach at
an outlying station with another man. 1t
was cold, rainy night, and each of US
| sat in his corner with his ulster up to his
ears eying the other suspiciously, as one
| eyes a stranger in the loneliness of the
! underground at night. 1 saw by the
! strangers movement of preparation that
he was to get off at the small station that
| had in view, and l guessed that he
/ knew, as l knew, that there would prob
| ably be but one cab waiting there to carry
| passengers across town could read, too,
| q 7
to get hold of the cabby first. beat him
by a second, but he had heard my direc-
=" IF you don't mind he said, I will
snare the cab with you, as 1 am going
! your way"
Il was content, and we soon went across
| town. He talked of the weather I said:
" Yes, it was bad, not only in England.
but, on the Atlantic and in America as
All said he. you had cable from
Then I realized that he was Judson of
| the Hortense flats and that here was nv
/ fourth coincidence"