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irst fourteen, losing thence to the end; and so estimated would amount to about 170, an equal number being first markedly unfortunate, and then constantly fortunate. But the number who had experienced a marked change of luck would be much greater if it were taken to include all who had won a large proportion of the first nine or ten games and lost a large proportion of the remainder, or vice versa. These two classes of players would be well represented.
Thus, then, we see that, setting enough persons playing at any game of pure chance, and assuming only that among any large number of players there will be about as many winners as losers, irrespective of luck, good or bad, all the five classes which gambling folk recognize and regard as proving the existence of luck, must inevitably make their appearance.
Even any special class which some believer in luck, who was more or less fanciful, imagined he had recognized among gambling folk, must inevitably appear among our twenty millions of illustrative players. For example, there would be about a score of players who would have won the first game, lost the second, won
the third, and so on alternately to the end; and as many who had also won and lost alternate games, but had lost the first game; some forty, therefore, whose fortune it seemed to he to win only after they had lost and to lose only after they had won. Again, about. twenty would win the first five games, lose the next five, win the third five, and lose the last five; and about twenty more would lose the first five, win the next, lose the third five, and win the last five: about forty players, therefore, who seemed bound to win and lose always five games, and no more, in succession.
Again, if anyone had made a prediction that among the players of the twenty games there would be one who would win the first, then lose two, then win three, then lose four, then win five, and then lose the remaining five--and yet a sixth if the twenty-first game were played--that prophet would certainly be justified by the result. For about a score would be sure to have just such fortunes as he had indicated up to the twentieth game, and of these, nine or ten would be (practically) sure to win the twenty-first game also.
We see, then, that all the different kinds of luck--good, bad, indifferent, or changing-which believers in luck recognize, are bound to appear when any considerable number of trials are made; and all the varied ideas which men have formed respecting fortune and her ways are bound to be confirmed.
It may be asked by some whether this is not proving that there is such a thing as luck instead of overthrowing the idea of luck. But such a question can
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