The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1914-12-09
An instrument
of Providence
By WILLARD BRAKEMAN

was walking on the beach, watch
Ing the waves come rolling In before
q gale and throwing up driftwood.
when a bottle was tossed at my feet
I extracted a paper from it on which
was written:
We are going to pieces. Whoever gets
this go to Norman D. Carlisle and tell him
he will find my Will in my desk in secret
drawer.
This was aIl-no date. no signature,
no address as to where Norman D.
Carlisle would be found
That night ! went to bed thinking
about the message. Suppose it was
genuine. Somebody was enjoying prop
.erty that belonged to another. But it
seemed to me that If it were genuine
the writer would have given at least
the city in which the person for whom
1t was intended lived. Ir the perpe-
traitor was doing the thing for sport or
to pass the time or because he hadn't
any more sense he would have given it.
And yet perhaps that's just what
he wouldn't do. He might not IKE to
particularize. On the other hand,
man who is about to be dumped into
a roaring ocean might leave something
out that he should have put in.
l was impelled to find Norman D.
Carlisle. / didn't wish to engage in
looking for needle in a haystack. but
couldn't resist the feeling that Il
was my bounden duty to do so. Their
were then some 100000 people in
the United States alone. The name
was Anglo-Saxon, and the person
might be somewhere in the great Brit
ish countries. Nevertheless when !
found that 1 couldn't let the matter
alone / went into it methodically. !
put a personal advertisement in one
newspaper In every city in the United
States whose inhabitants numbered
O0,0O0 or over for the said Norman D.
Carlisle. I received several replies
signed Norman D. Carlisle, the middle
name usually differing. 1 wrote each
of them, asking If he had lost rela-
tive at sea, but they all answered In
the negative-that Is, SO far as they
knew.
After six months I put in another
advertisement for Mr.. Carlisle and re-
ceived reply from a Norman D. Car
Isle living In a town Of about 10000
people. He had seen the ad. while In
the city where it had been inserted. I
asked him IL he had lost relative at
sea. and he replied mo-" 1 dropped
the matter so far as he was concern
ed, but later he wrote me that he was
a lawyer and had had client who
had sailed from Rio de Janeiro In a
vessel that was catalogued among
missing ships.
After some correspondence he sent
me a check for expenses. and l went
to see him. He made an engagement
for me to meet a lady in his ONCE.
and 1 was introduced to Miss Edith
Parks, twenty-one years old and come
". She appeared to be lady. but
was shabbily dressed. was informed
that her uncle had been lost on the
missing vessel from Rio. l brought
out the paper had found. which ]
had carefully kept, and as soon as
she saw it she said she believed that
It had been written by her uncle. Some
of his letters were produced. ana all
doubt was removed. The message,
though scrawled hastily in trembling
hand. was found to correspond with
the uncle's writing.
was then told that Miss Parks had
been brought up by this uncle, who
was wealthy, he being unmarried ana
without children. After he had been
declared legally dead the courts had
set about administering his estate and
had already found forty persons who
were heirs at law
Since Mr.. Weatherby. the man who
had been shipwrecked. had given Miss
Parks to understand that she was to be
his heir it was likely that the VIII men,
Toned In the message gave his proper
ty to her. But the desk-where was
it7 Mr.. Weatherby's furniture had
been sold a year before. Who had
bought the desk7 No one could tell.
since had gone so far In the matter
did not propose to be beaten now
Advertising having arailed, ! adver-
Used FOR the person who had bought
a desk at a sale OF the effects Of Cyrus
Weatherby In due time ! received