| "Luck affects everything. Let your hook always | | | | freshly printed in the columns of the daily press |
| be cast in the stream. When you least expect it, | | | | are so amazing as to attest the old saw that |
| there will be fish." - OVID | | | | "Truth is stranger than fiction." |
| The old Roman poet certainly knew what he was | | | | Out of a wealth of material which might fill |
| talking about when he wrote those lines, nearly | | | | volumes, let us select sample incidents of chance |
| two thousand years ago. | | | | and luck, classified along broad lines. |
| For luck does (or at least may) affect everything. | | | | Extraordinary Accidents Due to Luck |
| As we gaze at the varied drama of life, we see | | | | First of all, let us consider some strange |
| luck eternally playing in and out like the flashes in a | | | | happenings in the literary world which came about |
| moving-picture film. What strange occurrences; | | | | through sheer chance: Walter Scott, looking for |
| what extraordinary accidents; what weird | | | | some fish-hooks, found in a drawer the discarded |
| coincidences, occur as the result of mere chance | | | | and long-forgotten fragment of a novel. Up to |
| happenings, entirely unforeseen! All of us can | | | | that time, Scott had devoted himself to poetry. |
| instantly recall one or more notable luck-episodes | | | | Furthermore, his poetry was losing popular favor, |
| from our own experience; while some of the | | | | since Lord Byron was fast nosing him out of that |
| chance events chronicled in history or even | | | | field. |