Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1909-05-26
THREE LINKS
Bv NORMAN P. WHITE.
IN A CHAIN OF FATE

"Fate be hanged. There's no such
thing as fate. Napoleon said. 4 will
make circumstances And he did-that
is. till they became too powerful for
him by the union of all his enemies"
THAT may do for Napoleon. but not
| for me. That | am resident of this
city, that am the husband of my
wife. the father of boy named Alan
and a girl named Lucia and that we
are all rich is the result Of not
one incident-that wouldn't be so sin
gular-but of a number of incidents
happening in succession. the absence
! of any one of which would have made
entirely different surroundings for me.
1.-THE first incident was this: On "a
certain day man took up a paper he
had never seen before and saw an ad.
of mine | was a young lawyer. with
no clients. | advertised to secure the
care of estates The man was stran-
ger in town and wished for some one
to be agent for building there. See
ing my adj. he came to me. If he
hadn't seen it | wouldn't be talking
with you now. He told me that the
building one of scattered estate. be-
longed to some one he was looking for
ard couldn't find The interview re-
suited in his giving me the agency. the
building being Il part of the Pendleton
!. estate.
'One afternoon. being bored by hav
ing nothing to do. l went out and
strolled into il vitascope show. One of
the pictures was the arrival of an /eX
press train at Schenectady. n Y. The
passengers poured out of the cars. and
: one Il girl about seventeen years old.
came walking. with Il satchel in her
hand. toward the audience. 1t seemed
as if she were going to step right into
{ the showroom. She had timid look
, On her face. such as q girl might have
arriving in strange city. She was
looking about her. fearing some of the
many vehicles passing hither and
thither would run over her | wanted
to go and put my arm about her to re-
=. assure her. Then suddenly she passed
a out Of the picture.
a There was something in the face
|
, performance lasted half an hour. then
:. began all over again | waited till
had seen my little girl get out Of the
train and run the galtlet of wagons
and carriages three times Not only
that, went to the show every day till
the picture was taken off. By that
:, time was desperately in love. Odd
isn't it?
1.-THE next in the chain of incidents
was trip to Schenectady on business
That was two years after falling ir
love with moving photograph While
o there | went into Il mere hant's office
~ and saw sitting at a table jabbing type
keys with her fingers whom do yol
n suppose! | recognized her at once
y the original of my moving picture
What sent me to that city and tina
e very counting room! Fate.
l. Having found my love. didn't pro
pose to lose her learned her name
r. Evelyn ckworth-offered her a bet
g ter salary than she was receiving t.
work for me. and she joined me a
:, the end of the month.
II You may rest assured made /
pleasant for Ter. and | made love t.
r her in delicate. gingerly way-sh
- was very sensitive and reserved-an'
~ won her But was still poor Law
yer with too small an income to MARI,
Il on. so she stayed on as my typewrite
F" till l would be better fixed financially
That she might be of more assistanc
IF to me. l taught her to keep my &C
ID counts.
y lone day the man who gave me tn
agency of the building l spoke of cam
9 to town. and | paid him some colleo
,e tons. He told me that he had bee
(. unsuccessful In finding the heirs to tn
estate. and he rather thought the pre-
vision made in the will in case the
were never found would be carrie
h out. The provision was that at til
70 expiration of Il certain period the prOI
m erty was to go to specified charities
id That period would expire in Il fey
IN months. asked him if he knew VIII
ae the heirs were. He said he knew tina
If all were dead except the children c
q Eliza Pendleton. AT the name EliZ
IN Pendleton | noticed that my assistan
lc looked up After the man had gon
az she asked me:
what was that man saying abor
Eliza rendleton?
why do you ask?'
ed because that was my mother
be name before she married my father
q ut was probable that there were
pr great many Eliza Pendletons, but
m struck me the matter was worth lool
to ing into. Evelyn told me that 81
in knew nothing of her fathers famil
he but that her grandfather on her mot
II er's side was named Nathan Witridg
re- had her typewrite letter to Il
manager Of the property. giving tn
Information. He had gone back
where he lived and didn't get the lie
Ter ter till the next day. Then received
I'D telegram giving an affirmative rep
it. and asking why l wished to kno'