STROKES Of LUCK: GOOD AND BAD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2317, 28 July 1898, Page 55

STROKES Of LUCK : GOOD AND BAD.

■With Some Vkbt. Extraordinary Results.

" J had a strange case in my office yesterdd.w 1 ' said a lawyer friend to the writer. " For years I have been paying a poor old fellow £10 quarterly until the other day, when his benefactor died and left him £5000 I a.-ked him to come to the office that I might lei) him about it, and what. must, he do but fall down in a rlt. He died v few hours afterxvcirds. The money would have done his family a world of good, and no doubt the pleasant shock killed him." In all probability this poor pensioner would, havfi survived the intelligence that his annuity had been reduced to £ZO.

HP CARKI) MORE AIIUI7T PAYING THE, TWOFENCK.

Here is rather a droll pendant to the above A choleric gentleman not long ago commissioned Ins agent in Ireland to sell certain lands, and in dun time he received the letter advising him of the sale. He expected about £900 lor the property ;the sale realised £1)50 But the agent had bj chance neneglected to stamp this letter, so that, the choleric gentleman was called upoD for twopence by the authorities. And this so enraged him that he dabbed hi? list on the table and gashed himself bad\y vrith un erasing knife Blood poisoning set in and he had a narrow shave for his life. The loss ol twopence affected Jiim more than the unlooked foj gaic of £250,

A seasoned old country court judge, known far and wide in his district for seventy and his awesome countenance, was visited by a train ol misfortunes, beginning with the death of his wife, going on to loss ot money, more domestic trouble, and ending with the illness, apparently mortal, ot his youngest and favourite daughter. He bore ail these afflictions stolidly, and was. he said,, prepared tc be bereaved in this last particulai also. But one morning the doctor came to him w;th the news that his daughtei lud •-ken a turn for the better.

"J thinli she will pull through now/ he said.

Whereupon the seasoned old judge burst out crying like a little child. He could have borne anT number oi misfortunes u'lthut flinching,' but this joy was too much for him.

LKB AWAT JIT A TOG KT.IVV

The man who us & ga^.b)?/ !■ tses Mid winsmoney with apparent irxificvri'-e ]? supposed tc show good breeding That may be so. fi;r Richard "Burton met the late Tichbome claimonf in South America, and had no doubt oi his aristocratic birth because he showed no emotioo whether he won or lost at cards. It is, however, odd to marls how contrarily men are affected at such times. A foolish (and more than foolish) young curate, being tempted, indulged in a Stock Exchange speculation, which netted for him about £200 in a fortnight. He promptly resigned his curacy and settled in London, deter-

' mined to live in future as a financier. By the end of that same year he was glad to borrow a sovereign from the writer. J Another man m the same circumstances, and making only about £300 a year by his own calling, lost £900 m a month. He gave , bills for £750 and set himself to gradually I pay oft" this terrible mortgage on his income, j and he was as calm and cheerful after the ! loss as before it, so that everyone praised his j conduct, especially as he had foresworn ! gambling m the future.