Arizona republican., 1896-09-13
Escaped Death Twice in
 One Day.
Then Attended the Horse Races
 for a Change.
Bet on a Horse Because the Name, Jockey and Pedigree Suited
 Him and Won $500.

There probably is no such thing as luck, says the New York Mail and Elk press, yet a Williamsburg storekeeper has had an experience, or, rather, series of experiences, this week which compel him to take issue with you on that question. Tuesday, five minutes before the hour at which he has for twenty years taken a seat at his desk and begun the labors of the day, a 200-pound anvil crashed through the floor above and fell directly upon his chair, smashing it into fragments. If he had been in that chair at the time his skull or back would have been broken.
 When, later in the day, he began to appreciate his narrow escape, he grew so nervous that he concluded to take an afternoon off and brace mp. A trolley car hove in sight, and on the big fender he read a sign advising people to take a certain line for the Sheepshead Bay races. Now, this storekeeper's knowledge of horses is confined to the breed which pull gro cers' wagons, but as the race track he concluded to see what the Coney UOChSy CIuU uldu uO O1ItI III uu5 way of sureeaSe from falling anvil scares.
 He essayed to board the car while it was in motion lost his grip on the rail, and he rolled under a team of enormous Percherons hitched to a loaded brewery wagon. The great 1 horses stepped carefully over him and the wagon wheels runlbled harmlessly an inch from his head on one side and an inch from his heels on the other. A little dust on his coat. which the frightened conductor brushed away, was the only visible sign of the acci- dent
 The storekeeper boarded the car and all the long journey to the track he thought of his rare good fortune. Tn one day he had narrowly escaped deahh twice
 Striding down the brick, tree-shaded walk to the grand stand, he met a friend, to whom he recounted his ex- perrences.
 If I were in your form,'' remarked the friend, "I'd beat every race on the card and go home with all the money in the ring"
 | But the storekeeper was not given to betting, and the suggestion that he "play out his string of luck" fell upon deaf ears He sat in the stand and listened to the band until after the third race. He was having a restful and enjoyable time, and that was all he had come out for Suddenly he be- thought him that it would be gcod idea to buy a programme. He paid 10 cents for one, and saw that a bay colt named Savarin, by Hindoo, out of Ricochet, was entered in the name of J. W. Rogers in the autumn stakes. l It was a strange coincidence that the anvil which had fallen through the ceiling of the store was a Rogers make, that he had made 1t rule to take
 lunch at the Savarin whenever he found himself downtown in New York at lunch hour. Furthermore. the con-
 ductor of the car from which he had fallen had told him that his name was Clayton, and that he hoped he would make no trouble for him, and here
 was a jockey named Clayton billed to ride Savarin.
 It was all very strange, and, although the storekeeper is not superstitious, he thought it would do no harm to bet
 $50 on that colt. He could afford to
 lose the money. Perhaps after all his
 luck in escaping death mgiht be SUD-
 plemented by the unusual luck of beat
 ing the races.
 He bet that $50 at odds of 10 to 1.
 Savarin won the race by neck.