EXTRAORDINARY WAGER.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 892, 25 November 1871, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY WAGER.

A London paper says a wager once •came off, the terms of which were as -follows : —" I will bet any man £IOO that he cannot make a million strokes with a pen and ink within a month." They were not to be mere dots or scratches, but fair down strokes, such as form the child's first lesson in ■writing. A gentleman accepted the challenge. The month allowed was the lunar month, of only 28 days, so that for the completion of the undertaking an average of 36,000 strokes per diem was required. This at 60 per minute, or 3,600 per hour—and neither the human intellect nor the band can be expected to do more—would call for ten hours' labour in every twenty-four. With a proper feeling of respect due to the observance of the Sabbath, he determined to abstain from hi 3 work on Sundays, and by this determination he diminished by four days the period allowed for him, at the same time, by so doing he increased the avenge of his stroke -to upwards of 41,000. On the first >day he executed about 50,000 strokes ; on the second day nearly as many. But, at length, after many days, his land became stiff and weary, the wrist ■swollen, and, without interrupting its progress over the paper, it required the almost constant attendance of some assiduous friend to besprinkle it with a lotion calculated to relieve and invigorate it. On the 23rd day the million strokes, exceeded by some few thousands, "to make assurance doubly sure," were accomplished; and the piles of paper that exhibit them testify that, to the courageous heart, the willing hand, and the energetic mind, nothing is impossible. These interesting papers are not in the archives of the Royal Society, of which their author is a fellow, but were claimed and received by the person who made the wager.