Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1878 — Chance. [ARTICLE]

Chance.

Chance works very favorably at times in the acquisition of wealth and property for those who least expect such luck. A Ver ailles wine-shop keeper was at work in his cellar, when suddenly the ground gave way and he fell into what was at first thought to be a well; but, on lights being brought, the hole was found to be the entrance to another wine-cellar containing some of the best vintages of France and Spain. The archaeologists of Versailles were aroused; and their exarrination proves that this mysterious subterranean wine-cellar formed part of the Pavilion de Rendez vous, which Louis XV. annexed to the Parc-aux Cerfs about which so many queer things are related by the court chroniclers of the period. The wine is said to have attracted connoisseurs from all parts. A farmer in the neighborhood of Tavistock was as lucky in another way. In repairing an old mahogany secretaire, knocked down to him at an auction, he discovered a secret drawer containing 40 sovereigns, a gold enameled ring, and a lot of securities for money, one of which was a certificate for over £SOO 3-per-cent consols. An old scrap of paper dated 1700 led to the belief that 40 guineas had originally been placed there, but had been taken out in modern times and replaced by the sovereigns. A Hastings chemist was even more lucky than the Tavistock farmer, all owing to an accident that befell a lady’s pet dog. He treated the animal so successfully that, when the grateful owner died, which happened not long afterward, she left the lucky chemist a good many thousand pounds, which enabled him to change the cares of business for ihe pleasures of retire-ment,—-Chambers' Journal,