Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-02-03
AIexsmaris 3azettf.
BORN uNLuCKY.
What He Has Suffered and What He
Thinks He Has to Fear.

What He Has Suffered and What He
Thinks He Has to Fear.
''Were you in the war;" inquired
the young hero worshiper of Sc
cret society guard in this city as the
SCARED and gray haired veteran OF
long life painfully hobbled across
the floor of the anteroom.
ono" he sighed, "but couldn' t
have been more injured if 1 had
been, said ne, rubbing one of his
legs tenderly as he spoke.
"What was the troubled" persist
ed the young man sympathiAngly.
sTrouble! It's been nothing but
trouble since l came on earth, sad
ly replied the afflicted one. Il was
born unlucky. l am living picture
of bad luck, and the more l think
OF my misfortunes the more forcibly
am reminded of that passage in the
good book which says that the sins
Of the father shall be visited upon
the children to the. third and four
generation. My father was good
man, and so was his father, but l
am convinced that l must have had
a pirate for one of my ancestors and
that l am visited with all his sins. y
us it possible?" commented the
young man.
Yes, my bad luck began when l
was born, for my mother died then.
When | was but 2 weeks old, the
house took fire and I was nearly
suffocated and cremated. Before I
was years old servant dropped
me to the sidewalk. and had brain
fever us q result; l fell down stairs
and broke my collar bone, and /
got lost and was found by police
man half persisted in an ash heap
The victim Of misfortune sighed
deeply over these incidents in his
career and rubbed his paralyzed
hand. Continuing, he said;
Il was but years old when q
playmate cut off the ends of three
of my fingers with an AK, and two
years later had measles, whooping
cough, chicken poX and scarlet fe-
yer. When was s, l fell from a
cherry tree and broke leg, and as
soon as that got well l was knocked
down and trampled over by run
away horse That kept me i'll bed
long time, and my nose has been
crooked ever since.
when l was 10 years old, I was
the only boy in school who got lick
ed and kicked by bigger boys every
day, and a year later was the only
one in tho town who had cholera
When | was Is, l went to q circus
and the tent blew down. was the
only person who was stepped upon
or hurt, and the entire audience
walked over me. 1t was three
months before recovered from that
affair, and six months later | fell
through the ice while skating and
was pulled out half drowned. a
year later, while rabbit shooting, a
friend shot me in the hip, and l
have never fully recovered from it.
The next summer lightning struck
q tree / was standing beneath, and l
was picked up for dead. When was
25, again fell through the ice, and
the wetting gave me pneumonia and
left my lungs weak. Soon after |
got well caught cold, which nearly
resulted i'll consumption The fol
lowing year rheumatism attacked
me, and at times l cannot use my
left ann ana leg, and my last mis-
fortune was to receive Il paralytic
stroke, which has rendered my right
side from the top of my head to my
foot absolutely useless, as you have
observed when l hobble about.
Il suppose, he said, witha world
of pathos III his sad voice, THAT
some day III sit on barrel of dy
Mantle which will explode, and then
my troubles will be ended. Wash
ington Post.