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CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
SUDDEN FORTUNES.
BY MEAD AND STREAM.
THE HOMING PIGEON.
A WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE.
COIN TREASURES.
MY FELLOW-PASSENGER.
A SKATING REGIMENT.
ECHOES.
No. 16.—Vol. I.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1884.
SUDDEN FORTUNES.
Few things are so fascinating to read as storiesof fortunes suddenly made. They lend to theadventures of miners in gold or diamond fieldsan interest possessed by enterprises of no otherkind; they also impart a most seductive glamourto accounts published in continental newspapersof prize-winners in big lotteries. When theFrench annual state lotteries were abolished in1837, a writer of some distinction, M. AlphonseKarr, protested energetically against what hecalled a hardship for the poor. His defencewas curious. ‘For five sous,’ he said, ‘the mostmiserable of beings may purchase the chanceof becoming a millionaire; by suppressing thischance, you take away the ray of hope fromthe poor man’s life.’
Almost any man can relate from his ownexperience tales of suddenly acquired wealth;and by this we do not mean the riches thatmay be inherited through the death of arelative, or those which are won by speculation.The professed money-hunter who succeedson ’Change is like the sportsman who bringshome a good bag—his spoils, though they maybe large, are not unexpected. But there is theman who goes out without any thought ofsport, and returns with a plump bird that hasdropped into his hands; or the man who,wandering on the seashore, picks up a pearl. Itis with persons of this description that we maycompare those lucky individuals who, awaitingnothing from fortune, are suddenly overwhelmedby her favours. A few examples of such luckmay induce the reader who sees no signs ofwealth on his path just yet, never to despair.
At the beginning of 1870, the Hôtel desRéservoirs at Versailles was for sale. It was thelargest hotel in the city; but as Versailles hadbecome a sleepy place, almost deserted in winter,and only frequented in summer by casual touristsand Sunday excursionists, the landlord hadscarcely been able to pay his way. The hotelwas disposed of in January for a very low figure,and the new proprietor entered upon his tenancyon the first of April. He soon repented of hisbargain. The season of 1870 brought fewerexcursionists than usual; and when, in the middleof July, war was