Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-02-16
;A!exa,sdris dazettf.
TUESDAY EVENING. FEB 1G, Is :
BORN UNLUCKY.
What He Has Suffered and What Hs
Thinks He Has to Fear.

What lie has sehN " if's ~S
Thinks He Has to Fear.
"Were you in the ware inquired
the young hero worshiper of a Sc
cret society guard in this city as the
SCARED and gray haired veteran OF
long life painfully hobblod across
the floor of the anteroom.
NO, he sighed, but I couldn' t
have been more injured if l had
been. said he, rubbing one of his
legs tenderly as he spoke
''What was the troublc2' persist
ed the young man sympathlzlngly,
"Trouble It's been nothing but
trouble since 7 camc on earth, sad
" replied the afflicted one. Il was
born unlucky. I am living picture
of bad luck, and the more l think
of my misfortunes the more forcibly
I 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
Il pirate for one of my ancestors ana
that l am visited with all his sins.
rs it possiblel" commented the
young man.
Yes, my bad luck began when |
was born, for my mother died then.
When l was but 2 weeks old, the
house took fire and l was nearly
suffocated and cremated. Before |
was 5 years old a servant dropped
me to the sidewalk, aud had brain
fever as result; l fell down stairs
and broke my collar bone, and l
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:
L was but / years old when a
playmate cut off the ends of three
of my fingers with an AK, and two
wears later l had measles, whooping
cough, chicken pox and scarlet fe-
yer. When 1 was S l fell from Il
cherry tree and broke Il leg, and as
soon as that got we'll l was knocked
down and trampled over by run
away horse That kept me in bed q
long time, and my nose has been
crooked ever since.
"When 1 was 10 years old, was
The only boy in school who got lick
ed and kicked by bigger boys every
day. and Il year later l was the only
one in the town who had cholera.
When I was -, l went to a circus,
and the tent blew down. l 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
a tree l was standing beneath, and !
was picked up for dead. When l was
%, again fell through the ice, and
wetting gave me pneumonia and
left my lungs weak. Soon after |
got well | caught cold, which nearly
resulted in consumption. The fol
lowing year rheumatism attacked
me. and at times I cannot use my
left arm and leg, and my last mis-
fortune was to receive 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.
II suppose, he said, with a world
of pathos in his sad voice, that
some day I'll sit on a barrel of dy-
Mantle which will explode, and then
my troubles viii be ended. Wash
ington Post