The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-11-04
THREE LINKS
BY NORMAN p. WHITE.
IN A CHAIN OF FATE.

ciation.l
"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 u boy named Alan
and 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.
THE first incident was this: On a
certain day man took up 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 ad.. he came to me. II 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
and couldn't find. The interview re-
| suited In his giving me the agency, the
building being part Of the Pendleton
| estate.
Zone afternoon, being bored by hav-
ing nothing to do. went out and
strolled into 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. girl about seventeen years old.
came walking. with 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 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
out Of the picture.
"There was something in the face
and figure that took hold of me. The
performance lasted half an hour. thel
began all over again. waited till
had seen my little girl get out Of tn
train and run the gantlet Of wagon
and carriages three times. Not onl,
that, went to the show every day til
| toll off Ry "a
time was desperately in love. ODD
isn't it?
"The next in the chain Of incident
was trip to Schenectady on bushes:
That was two years after falling
: love with moving photograph. Will
there went into merchants ofttc
and saw sitting at table jnbbtng tyr
keys with her fingers whom do yc
suppose? recognized her at once
g the original Of my moving pictur
0 What sent me to that city and th:
) very counting room? Fate.
: Having found my love. didn't pr
y pose to lose her. learned her name
= Evelyn Brick worth-offered her be
# ter salary than she was receiving
r. work for me, and she Joined me :
0 the end Of the month.
t. "You may rest assured made
pleasant for her, and | made love
her in a delicate. gingerly way-sl
was very sensitive and reserved-al
:, won her. But l was still poor La
=, yer with too small an income to mar
on. SO she stayed on as my typewrit
"A till would be better fixed financial
+ That she might be of more assistan
to me, ! taught her to keep my
counts.
zone day the man who gave me t
agency of the building l spoke Of car
d to town. and paid him some cole
tons He told me that he had be
unsuccessful in finding the heirs to t
estate, and he rather thought the pl
. vision made in the will in case tn
- were never found would be carri
T out. The provision was that at
( expiration Of certain period the pre-
! erty was to go to specified chariti
I That period would expire in #
T months. asked him if he knew W
the heirs were. He said he knew tt
T all were dead except the children
! Eliza Pendleton. At the name El
I Pendleton noticed that my assista
! fancee-I mean my fancee-assistan
T looked up After the man had &C
) she asked me:
+ "'What was that man saying abb
> Eliza Pendleton?
{ "'Why do you ask?'
/ because that was my mothe
Z name before she married my father
+ "It was probable that there were
I great many Eliza Pendletons, but
! struck me the matter was worth 10
ing into. Evelyn told me that
Z knew nothing Of her fathers fam
I but that her grandfather on her me
4 er's side was named Nathan Witrid
I had her typewrite a letter to
/ manager of the property. giving
= Information. He had gone back
Il where he lived and didn't get the