The Smallness of the World.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 54, 2 July 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Smallness of the World.

Most of us have remarked upon .hisfac. before now. Most of us have commented upon the singular rencontres made in the most disbanb places between persons who fancied each other miles away. " What a small world this is, after all 1" we have said. At any " momentf.. you may come' upon afriend or an acquaintance whom you have not met for years. Here in London such meetings are of. daily occurrence. You. walk down the Strand, and rub shoulders with some one you knew in the backwoods of America, or have not seen since you were a boy. And this fact appears to have impressed itself very sbrongly on Miss Rose Eybinge, bebter known in the States than in England as a successful player in domestic drama. This lady tells us, in the columns of the " American Magazine" for May, that she has " often' been struck by the way in which people meet who would seem to be as far as bhe poles asunder." She has her own story to tell aboub the Strand. Walking there one day wibh a gentleman, she listened while he expabiabed on a narrow escape he had had from being killed by a shark in the Amazon river, and on bhe gallanbry shown by a friend of his on the occasion. It was very unlikely, he said, that he should ever meet that friend again, when suddenly he exclaimed, " Why, there he is !" and, a moment after, the bwo men were vigorously shaking hands. Miss Eybinge tells us how she was recognised on board ship m the Mediterranean by a waiter who had, served her at Delmonico's, in New York, and how in a remote corner of Michigan she was called upon by a party of ladies whom she had known at Cairo. Bub, in brubh, in these days of railways and steamers, bbere is nothing at all remarkable aboub such foregabherings as bliese. The world certainly does seem smaller and smaller every day, bub ib is. doubtful whebher this close bringing togebher, ofther ends of the earth is altogether the boon that it appears. Ib has its drawbacks asr well as its advantages. - -.:■.._ .. , '