The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-20
IT HAPPENED BY ACCIDENT
MOST S0-CALLED ACCIDENTS DUE
 TO GROSS CARELESSNEss.
Child Maimed for Life Through Momen- tary Neglect of Nurse-Pleasant Experiences Often Come by Ac- .
 cident-Love by Chance.
BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER.

BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER. I tcopyright, 1905. by Joseph B. Bowles) |
 Nine-tenths of the untoward hap penihgs that people call accidental are
 due to gross carelessnes and shameful neglect.
 There are two sets of people In the | vsa-those who keep things up and
 those who let things run down, The first have never indulged in the hapit of putting off till tomorrow what ought to he done today. If the roof leaks oI tbere ts a crack in the ceiling or loose board in the floor or sasghe hinge or a broken window cora, they repair the damage at once. They hhow nerfectly that it costs less to meno than to mar, and marring goes rapioty on where there is no menolns. As evervbody knows the best way to let even a fine house go to absolute rum is In shut it up and leave 1t without an inhabitant. A house that IS iVeo III lasts longer and looks better than d house that Is untenanted, because the forces of nature are constantly making war upon the buildings of men, and constant battle must be waged against them If men arc to come off Victors'
 The needless housekeeper has casu- ally mentioned that there IS tnin place on the stair carpet which VIII presently wear into hole. She Is not ignorant of a rip in rug which may catch somebody's heel and cause tum- ble. But being needless, she puts on repairing the rent in carpet ana rug until an unlucky person hurrying along has a fall which means hip out or joint or a broken leg, or, worse, still, far which may cause apoplexy to some one in old age, or the develop 1 ment of a malignant disease in some | one younger. These baleful sequences do; come from slight falls, and some body is responsible.
 4 variety of miseries shuttle along i in the train of so-called accidents | which never should have been permit ted to occur From time to time people die because they have eaten toadstools when they thought they were eating mushrooms. Nothing is easier than to | distinguish between the delicious edi- | ble and the deadly fungus, yet there are those who mourn such deaths as If they were laid at the door of accident.
 Children are sometimes left in the care of thoughtless hirelings and are maimed for life through falls for which there was neither excuse nor occasion. A man fearfully deformed with great hump between his shoulders was in his infancy the most noble and beautiful of children. While his pretty nurse was flirting with a gallant policeman the baby carriage took slide down steep hill and was overturned at the foot, and years of pain and wretched- ness, with the handicap of the hunch- | back, have paid for that folly.
 We seldom read of a railroad accf- | dent that is not due to the careless l ness of somebody, and yet 1t would be most unfair to utter sweeping criti- | cisms on the employees of public con- | yeyances The average man is superb | Iy trustworthy The engineer sticks to
 his post and dies in the effort to save | the train. When one of the engines | on the Majestic" was suddenly put out | of commission not long ago, by real | accident that no care could have an- | ucipated or averteJ, the corps of en- | gineers, at the risk of their own lives, | In the face of clouds of scalding steam, | shut off the machinery. and were car ried to gthe hospital afterwards. They | were heroes. l
 There are accidents that no one can | prevent But as compared with those | which come by lack of care. they are | few When the lightning from the sky | strikes a man dead as he sits in his | house or walks by the way he may be | said to perish by the act of God. But | when a man takes hold of live wire
 with bare hands, he has only himself | to blame if he drops dead the next in-
 stant. The accident was stupid and
 Ioolhardy. ~.-
 
 We need not limit what happens by
 apparent accident to disaster and ca
 lamity.~ There are pleasant things that | may properly be set down to the ac-
 count of accident, since we have not | planned them nor in any way made the | least provision. mentally or materially, l for their coming to pass. A young man | casts about for good place to spend | brief holiday. Business claims him l so constantly that vacations are few | and far between. Not often does he | obtain a recess. Shall he go to the l mountains, to the old homestead. to the | inland springs or the shore? Shall he | accept friends invitation to join him | on yacht, or possibly shall he go on
 bicycle tour over a distant State? | He finally decides on one jaunt or an-
 other with no ultimate object, except | to have a good holiday.
 Yet on the yacht or in the farm house | or by the way he is to meet a girl | who shall change the face of the world | for him for the rest of his life
 How came Hugh to marry Belle?" | l once asked, wondering at what seem | ed an incongruous marriage the hus- | band a man of profound culture and | varied learning, while tfe wife was a l brilliant social butterfly, who cared for | little except personal adornment and | beautiful surroundings.
 "Oh," said the friend who answered | me, they met on a slow steamer cross- l ing the Atlantic Nearly everybody on | board was seasick. But they had in | common the fact that they were both | good sailors, and by the time they reached Liverpool they were engaged l You might call it an accidental we'd