The daily Alaskan., 1909-07-12
THREE LINKS
By NORMAN P. WHITE.
IN A CHAIN OF FATE.

[Copyright, 1909 by American Press Asso-
 ciation.l
 "Fate be hanged! There's no such thing as fate. Napoleon said, I 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 I am a resident of this city, that I 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 incldent-that wouldn't be so sin gular-but of number of Incidents happening fin 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. I was n young lawyer, with no clients. I advertised to secure the care of estates. The man was q stran- ger In town and wished for some one to be agent for building there. See ing my ad., he came to me. If he hadn't seen 1t I wouldn't be talking with you now. He told me that the building, one of a scattered estate, be- longcd 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.
 "One afternoon, being bored by hay 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. I. The passengers poured out of the cars, and one, girl about seventeen years old, came walking, with a satchel In her hand, toward the audience. It seemed as If she were going to step right Into the showroom She had tlmid 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 thlther 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. I waited till 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 off. By that time I was desperately In love. Odd, isn't 1t?
 "The next in the chain of incidents was T trip 10 Schenectady on business. That was two years after falling in love with moving photograph. While there l went into merchants office and saw sitting at table jabbing type keys with her fngers-whom do you suppose? l 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-offered her a 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 1t pleasant for her. and l made love to her in a delicate, gingerly way-she was very sensitive and reserved-and won her. But l 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 l spoke of came to town, and paid him some collec- tiOns. 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 certain period the prop erty was to go to specified charities. That period would expire in 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 fancee-I mean my flancee-asslstant- looked up. After the man had gone she asked me:
 "'What was that man saying about Eliza Pendleton?
 "'Why do you askT
 "'Because that was my mothers name before she married my father
 "It was probable that there were great many. Eliza Pendletons, but 1t struck me the matter was worth look ing into. Evelyn told me that she knew nothing of her fathers family, but that her grandfather on her moth CTS side was named Nathan Witridge. had her typewrlte letter to the
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