New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-05-12
THREE LINKS
BY NORMAN P. WHITE.
IN A CHAIN OF FATE.

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BY NORMAN p. WHITE.
Copyright. 1909. by American Press Asso-
citation.
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 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 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 a 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-
1Ny1e pc1 fN h - e.
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. It seemed
as it she were going to step right into
the showroom. She had a timid look
on her face, such as girl might have
arriving in a 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, then
began all over again. waited till l
had seen my little girl get out of the
train and run the gantlet of wagons
and carriages three times. Not only
that, went to the show every day till
the picture was taken of. By that
time was desperately in love. Odd,
isn't it?
s'The next In the chain of incidents
was trip to Schenectady on business.
That was two years after falling in
love with a moving photograph. While
there went into a merchants office
and saw sitting at table jabbing type
keys with her fngers-whom do you
suppose? recognized her at. once
the original Of my moving picture!
What sent me to that city and that
very counting room? Fate.
Having found my. love, didn't pro-
pose to lose her. learned her name
Evelyn Brickworth-o offered her bet
ter salary than she was receiving to
work for me, and she Joined me at
the end of the month
You may rest assured l made it
pleasant for her, and made love to
her In delicate. gingerly way-she
was .ery sensitive and reserved and
won her. But / was still poor law
yer with too small an income to marry
on, SO she stayed on as my typewriter
till would be better fixed financially.
That she might be of more assistance
to me, l taught her to keep my ac-
counts.
"One day the man who gave me the
agency of the building spoke of came
to town, and paid him some collec-
lions. He told me that he had been
unsuccessful in finding the heirs to the
estate, and he rather thought the pro-
vision made in the will in case they
were never found would be carried
out. The provision was that at the
expiration of a certain period the prop
erty was to go to specified charities.
That period would expire in a few
months. asked him if he knew who
the heirs were. He said he knew that
all were dead except the children of
Eliza Pendleton. At the name Eliza
Pendleton noticed that my assistant
fiancee-I mean my fiancee-assistant-
looked up. After the man had gone
she asked me:
What was that man saying about
Eliza Pendletonp
Why do you asky
Because that was my mothers
name before she married my father
ut was probable that there were
great many Eliza Pendletons, but it
struck me the matter was worth look
ing into. Evelyn told me that she
knew nothing Of her fathers family.