COINCIDENCE’S LONG ARM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 199, 24 August 1931, Page 12

COINCIDENCE’S LONG ARM

SWEEPSTAKES ODDS ECLIPSED ; REMARKABLE INSTANCES STORY OF LOST £lOO NOTE At a season when everybody is discusing long chances on the Turf, it. is interesting to remember, says the News of the World, that the odds connected with a big sweepstake are insignificant compared with the stupendous odds that are often encountered in other fields, where the long arm of coincidence or the irony of fate is so strange as to pass understanding. Thus, in November, 1927-, news came that a native of Abyssinia named Dr Martin was concluding a £4,000,000 con cession with an American syndicate foi control of the waters of the Blue NileOn the very day this news startled Great Britain there was published the life of Lord Napier of Magdala, writ ten by his son. In this book was told the story of a British officer named Martin who rescued a tiny black boy on the battlefield, and, taking a fancy to the child, brought him up as a doctor. Investigation by the Foreign Office showed that Dr Martin of tho Blue Nile incident and the rescued child were one . and the same. Again, on the very day that the Sal 1 ration Army decided that the late Gen- ' eral Bramwell Booth should cease to retain control, there appeared in the London Gazette a notice of a firm ■ named Bramwell and Booth, of Birmingham, being dissolved. While Driscoll and Rowlands, the Cardiff murderers, lay under sentence of death. Sir Austin Chamberlain was acting Home Secretary in the absence > of Sir William Joynson-Hicks. It happened that Sir Austin resided in a ground-floor flat at Morpeth Mansions, while in a flat above lived the late Mr : T. P. O’Connor, who was working hard to secure a reprieve. Thus the two politicians most actively engaged in 1 considering the facts that would decide , the fate of the condemned men were actually living under the same roof. ’ The odds against such a coincidence i must be infinite. ‘ What looked like the theft of £lOO banknote from a city man by an office ’ colleague occurred recently. They banked at the same branch. One of ' them drew nut a £lOO note, and a day or two later missed it. He mentioned the loss to his colleague, who advised him to obtain the number from the cashier, and to stop payment at. the ’ Bank of England. There he was told the note had already »>een presented. 1 and on further investigation it was ’ found that tho name and address of the colleague was written on the back of the note. Hurrying back to the office, the loser demanded an explanation. His col j league replied, “The only £lOO note I . have negotiated is one I drew myself t from the bank. Come with me and tho j cashier will confirm the number.’’ They C went together, and the cashier dis 1 covered that when the loss was report j ed he had confused the two numbers [ when asked for particulars. , It afterwards turned out that the missing note was quite safe in the in- ,. side pocket of a coat which the supi | nosed loser had changed. Such a clrnp--5 ter of accidents seems impossible, but _ the story i< W.