Took a Chance | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 11, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 40.

“Took a Chance”

AN engineer on the Lake Shore Railroad is held responsible for a wreck in which two men were killed. He is a man past his three-score, and has been in the employ of the road for forty years. He told the coroner’s jury with tears streaming down his cheeks that he “took a chance, ran past his signals, knowing they were out of order owing to the blizzard, but thinking the track ahead was clear.” The foreman of the jury was so affected that he refused to sign the verdict. He “took a chance.” The track ahead wasn’t clear. That’s all. Two dead. This was not a “lucky” chance. He tried his “luck,” but lost and caused others to lose.

The man who “chances” it on his luck will get into a mix-up somewhere. There are always dangers on the road ahead. The track is always blocked somewhere. Common sense should teach men this, but they are poor scholars. Chance is blind. To pass the signal is to take a run in the dark.—The New York Observer.