Comcidences, Luck, Chance 



BY J. DAVIS BARNETT, STRATFORD 



Read before the Hamilton Scientific Association, 

 April JOth, 1908. 



Travelling east of Toronto recently, I spoke to an 

 elderly man I thought I new. I found that I had his sir- 

 name, his profession and his residence town absolutely 

 correct ; but nevertheless it was not my old acquaintance, 

 although some fifty years ago he had been a pupil at the 

 school of the man I had mistaken him for, and with whom 

 I was then chatting. 



When younger, and more fond of social functions than 

 I am to-day, I did not get a wedding invitation one year 

 until late in the fall ; but, for that day, eventually got two 

 invitations, in different towns. When I arrived at the 

 earlier, I found the groom's birthday and wedding-day 

 coincided. This cannot be counted as a "coincidence;" 

 but that it was his sister's birth anniversary, and that they 

 were not twins, can be. 



The display of wedding presents was so large that it 

 was a matter of surprise that there was but one case of 

 duplication, but that was perfect. Reading the cards on 

 these duplicates I noticed the sirname was alike, the pre- 

 ceding initials were alike, but one was Mrs. and the other 

 Mr., and they came from towns far apart. 



In the course of a long tramp in England five years 

 ago, my brother and I walked up Hay Tor (Dartmoor). 

 Being warm when the summit was reached, we wind- 

 sheltered under the lee of a large boulder, where, with the 

 sweep of a large prospect, neither person nor habitation 

 could be seen. Eventually the head of a man was seen, 

 following up our trail, and when he came close (to his sur- 



