Fatalist, But Cautious

It was once said by some lramorist that the chances were if a man intent upon committing suicide shoulcl meet an angry buil in a field he would run to save nis life. And so it goes, the New York Ilerald moralizes. Most men who proíess a belief in destiny and an inclhTerenee to fate when brought face to face witli a danger or placed in a desperate situation seek to avoid rather than embrace the inevitable result of the eveut regarding which they have held such philosophical opinions. A case in point is related by a traveler returning from the south, and hinges upon the experience of a minister of the foreordination school of belief on a Mississippi steamer in the good old-fashioned days of river racing, when a negro sat on the safety valve and the furniture and woodwork of the boat fed the fire. The captain seeing a rival boat half a mile ahead began to curse in true old-time style. and ordered tar pine knots, naval stores, bacon, etc., to be thrown in to kindie the fire as hot as possible. As the steain got higfher and higher and the old boat trcrubled and groaned under the pressure, the preacher drew nearer and nearer to the stern. Xoticing this and never losing an opportunity to crack a joke, the bluff captain tapped the fatolist on the shoulder and said: "Helio, Brbther Blank, what'a ailing you? I thoug'ht you was one of them fellows what believes what is to happen will happen nohow." "So I do," replied the clergvman drawing himself up. "So I do, but I want to be as near the stern as possible when it does happen."