Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-01-13


commonly is known as superstition
finds a resting place in every human
heart. In some this fear is more pro-
nounced than in others, but In the
lives of most men superstition plays
an important part. And among
women, too, trifles, when paraded un-
der the limelight of superstition, be-
come deeply significant, and not IN
frequently have been the means or
wrecking promising careers on the
shoals of terror and insanity.
II is not intended herein to allude
to the ordinary superstitions to when
men and women bow until the end
of time Everybody knows OF the
thirteen" superstition, and the
thousand and one signs by which i'm
pending disaster or evil luck Is fore
told. Many are aware that even the
strongest minds have been and are
being daily stirred by these signs ana
that all men have more or less taltn
i'm them. Actor folk. gamblers, ousl-
ness men, financiers, women in all
stations of life, freely admit that they
believe in signs to a greater or less
degree. and that they are none the
worse because they do not unnecessa-
rily run counter to their oeliet tna'
destiny shapes our end, rough ne"
them how we will"
Jay Gould, as young man. hao
a profound conviction that he would
die IN a wear of his age which was
diyisible by seven. When he was SO
he was solicitous, and when he was AZ
the fear of death was strong upon
him until he entered his forty-thiro
vear When he was 49 the old rear
returned, but before the expiration
of the year he had passed away. Thls
NAV have been a coincidence merely
but life is made up of these coincl-
dences, and that they are significant
few will deny.
History furnishes numerous EVIL
dences that this mysterious divinity
that shapes our ends is constantly al
work. Take the history of the tam-
ily of Napoleon Bonaparte. From the
birth of Napoleon at Ajacclo, In
Corsica, on August Is, 1863, to his
death In exile on the island of st. He
lena, on May 5, 1921, destiny dealt
the cards in the dramatic game ne
PLAYED throughout his stormy ca
reer. It is a curious coincidence that
Napoleon and Wellington were born
in the same year. Waterloo was the
nrize for which both contended and
the Corsican went down in defeat.
II is a strange circumstance that
nearly all who enjoyed Napoleons
confidence and friendship met with
disaster. Marshal Ney was led to
execution soon after Napoleon fell'
and on the very day that the eXlied
emperor landed from the British
man-of-war, Northumberland, at 81
Helena, General Murat. whom Ma
poleon had raised to the throne OF
Naples. was shot in the fortress OF
Pizzo, in Calabria.
Associating strange and tragic
events with the career OF Napoleon
II is worthy of remark that General
Desaix was shot at the moment OF
victory at the battle Of Marengo, on
June IA, 1900, and that within hfteen
minutes of Desaix's death the life OF
his old friend, General Kleber, was
taken by an assassin at Grand Cairo.
One might mention, too, the tate
of Marshal Mortier, who was created
duke of Treviso by Napoleon in 1908.
During the invasion of Russia he was
intrusted with the blowing up Of the
Kremlin, and it was while giving Or
ders for the execution of this project
that a moujik charlatan whispered 10
him: LAS thou doest here, so shalt
thou die" Mortier recalled this pre-
diction with fear every day OF his
subsequent career. On July 2S, 1885,
at Paris, he was blown to pieces by
the discharge of Fiessel's Internal ma
chine. which had been intended for
the king. and the moujik's prophecy
was fulfilled.
1t is a singular fact that no Ma
poleon died in France. The death
of Napoleon Ill, like that of his pre-
decessor, took place in a foreign
country. The towering pillar OF his
hopes, the Prince Imperial, was
speared to death by the savages in
Zululand, while the only remaining
representatives OF the Napoleonic
family were expelled from France
some decades ago.
The vicissitudes of earthly affairs
are startlingly exemplified by the mis-
fortunes which befell the members OF
the royal Stuart race. James L. or
Scotland was a prisoner for twenty
years in England, and was set free
only to be assassinated by his sub
jects. James H., his son, was killed
in his twenty-ninth year at the siege
of Roxburgh, in 1860, by the acci-
dental discharge of cannon. James
Ill, after enduring a long term of
Imprisonment, was murdered, in 14SS,
while fleeing from the field of battle
with his own subjects. James w.
perished in an engagement with the
English at Flodden Field. James V.
died of a broken heart, while Mary,
his daughter, was beheaded. Charles
l., a grandson of Mary. lost his head
on the scafrold, and his son, James,
after being driven from England,
died in exile.
A singular coincidence is recalled
by students of history in the death at
Windsor Castle on January 20, 1920,
of George Ill, in the eighty-second
year of his age and the siXtieth year
of his reign. Three times prior TO
the reign of George ". and the three