Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1894 — STRANGE THINGS DO HAPPEN. [ARTICLE]

STRANGE THINGS DO HAPPEN.

Was This a Coincidence, or was It Something Still Stranger. What is the explanation of it? The facts are attested by several reliable persons. One of the most prominent railroad men in the State and receiver for a great corporation was a guest at the Grand Pacific Hotel. This was but a day or two ago. While he was at the hotel his son and daughter came to take dinner with him. That evening he went to Mr. Paul Gores, the clerk, and said, “ Charge me with two extra dinners.” Mr. Gores knew the daughter was at the hotel, but he had not seen the son, and for some reason supposed that a girl friend of the daughter had been the third person who took dinner at the hotel. There is a rule of the house that the name of every guest must be entered on the register. So Mr. Gores opened the book to put down two names. He just wrote the name of Miss , the daughter. Then he thought for a moment and wrote below it “ Miss Warburton, Cleveland.” Of course Warburton was not the name he wrote, and Cleveland was not the town, but they will do just as well, and in every other particular the story as told will be exactly true to the facts. He didn’t know why he wrote “ Miss Warburton, Cleveland.” He simply “ thought up ” a fictitious name and put it on the register, as he had often done before. Next day when the guest came to pay his bill the cashier looked up the account and said You have been here three days and th are are two extra dinners charged—one for your daughter and one for Miss Warburton.” 11 Miss Warburton?” “Yes, Miss Warburton of Cleveland. Is there something wrong?” “Two extra dinners is all right, but there’s something wrong. How did that name get on the register?” “ I don’t know, I’m sure.” “ Well, I have a certain reason for asking, and I wish you would look it up.” So the clerks were questioned, and Mr. Gores said he wrote down the name. “ But how did you happen to get that name and that address?” “ I don’t know, I’m sure. I wrote the first thing that came into my head.” “ That’s the most extraordinary thing I ever heard in all my life.” They did not venture to ask questions, but he told them any way. “ Miss Warburton of Cleveland was a dear friend of my daughter. She died about three years ago under very sad circumstances. When my son and daughter were with me at dinner the other evening we were talking of her, and I dare say my son and daughter, whom I left up in the parlor, were talking of her at the very moment that name was written. I’m sure I didn’t mention her name in the hearing of any clerk.” “No.” said Mr. Gores. “It just came to me.” Then they fell to wondering whether it was simply an unexplainable coincidence or a beautiful case of thought transference.—[Chicago Record.