ANECDOTE AND INCIDENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5733, 28 November 1896, Page 7

ANECDOTE AND INCIDENT.

SOME WONDERFUL COIN CiDENCES.

(English Papa.:}

One of tbe most extrßordinary coincidences that have ever occurred was the trial of a mau held at the Old Eailey a short time ago. The prisoner, who "was deaf and dumb, was tried or. an indictment for brutally assaulting a deaf and dumb girl. The fact that both jirisonev and accusant, without being* even distant relations, were afflicted with deafness and dumbness, is ill itself most extraordinary; but it seems like flagrant fiction -when coupled with the fact that all the witnesses — and thero wero- seven —were also deaf aud dumb ! The case is probably without a j-arallel in the whole history of the world. A sad and strange coincidence occurred' in a provincial town a fey/ weeks siueo. While a man was walking past a house in a quiet neighbourhood, a woman hurried out and suddenly fell dead upon the doorstep. The man ran off immediately in search of a doctor, and arriving at the house of one, rang tlie bell, but before his summons could be answered lie fell dead upon the doorstep, the shock of what he had seen, accelerated by tbe speed at which lie had run, acting upon a weak heart. A most remarkable incident took place in a London coroner's court not long ago. On calling out the names of the jury summoned to attend, it became evident that all the " twelve good men and true " were named either Jones, Smith or Brown, and that one member of the Brown section was not present in court. His name was : called the proper number of times, and as he failed to appear, the coroner called for a substitute. A mnn rose from the body of the court and offered his services, and in answer to the coroner, said his name was Eobinson. The circumstance caused considerable astonishment and amusement in court, as it well might. A short time ago a - lady was walking down a street in Mancbeister, when she happened to see a ring lying upon the pavement in front of a jeweller's shop. By the peculiar pattern of the ring, and the motto inside, she immediately recognised it as one she had lost only a few clays before and had bought from the very shop outside which she had thon found it. Thinking she mnst havo lost it there, and that it had by a series of remarkable incidents remained where she dropped it, she entered the shop to tell the manager of her extraordinary good fortune. The manager expressed his astonishment at the coincidence, but answered the lady that it was not as she thought, for a man had been into the shop a few minutes before to have the ring rallied (without a doubt this particular ring), but when asked to produce it, found that he had lost it, aud thereupon left the shop. He had probably dropped it on entering the shop, and the lady had picked it up, just as she must have dropped it for him to pick up a few days before. The lady's story, which is corroborated by the Jeweller, knocks fiction into a cocked hat.