LUCK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9810, 11 June 1914, Page 6

LUCK.

• 'A remarkable instance of the caprices o* . |What, for want of a better term, w 0 con- • W U 9 ,t°. msult wfcnce by referring to as 5 luck is vouched for by the author of a i »oently-pubhshcd autobiography. "Thing* , I Remember.' A friend of th e 5 escorted on one occasion the three dauffh- • ters of a clergyman through the Casino at Baden. They had been strictly forbidden bv their father to stake any nionev at the tables but their.escort insisted, on* stakin" money for them on- the numbers of their respective' ages. The youngest gave' ner ' age as seventeen, and into this number, to the astonishment of all, the ball rolled . and the young lady pocketed 35 louis! ; ino second whose ajro was nineteen, had | similar uck, to their increased astonishment. But when the eldest was asked her age and she replied "twentv-threc." the 1 ™," 1 rol fe d .»»to twenty-six. As the party ). left the Casino the aitthdr's friend remarked | to the youngest girl on tho extraordinary I stroke of luck, adding that if the eldest I girls age had been 26 instead of 23. the l coincidence would have been little short of miraculous. "But it was." thc.girl replied, bne is twenty-six!.'' Another amusing story, which "Notes and Queries*' quotes from a "Dutch Magazine" for 1859; If ls 0 h t p ";. in 1 1695 when Kiijg William 01., the Stadtholder of the Netherlands Was besieging Aamur, two Englishmen who were caught looting were sentenced to death, buch extraordinary brave men were they, however, that H* CbmmandeHn-Chief decided to spare one of thqm, a throw of the dice to decide which. One of the condemned men shook the box, and—out fell two sixes. •Ihe other followed suit, and the result was again two eixes. "Throw again!" cried the commanding officer, and they threw again each one this time getting two fives, jibe officer was so. struck by the coincidence Itott he .delayed the execution, and referred the case to the court-martial, then sitting, line court-martial, howeyer, ordered another throfc, but when- this resulted in two fours it was so impressed U»at the case was rei fcrred to a higher authority, anil the men werp.-eventually pardoned. Possibly in this jase the facts may have been slightly adorned in the' process of time, but there" is more ground for Credence in an instance recorded in Proctor'* 'iChance and Luck." A wager iff * 'thousand guineas to one that seven could not be thrown with a pair of dice ten successive time* was accepted; and, marvellous to relate, that number waa thrown nine times running. At thi» point the wagerer offered 470 guineas to be off hie bet, but his opponent declined, and throw another seven. According to Proctor 4he fair oddeagainsf even nine successrre throws of seven w;ould [have been 40,000 jpiincts to a farthing. '"But when nine throws of seven had been made in succession tho chance of a tenth ww simply what it had been at the first throw—one-sixth." \lt is to be presumed that in this case the maker of the bet took the precaution of examining his opponent's peculiarly persistent dice.