Facts That Aren't so.
One day last winter I stayed home from the office to think over some lecture I was preparing to give, and in the evening I happened to meet a gentleman whose office is in the city (I live in a distant suburb). With the feeling of a recluse, I inquired what had been going on in the city that day, and with the importance of a well-posted man of affairs my friend remarked that when I saw the papers the next morning, I would believe that something had been going on. Eagerly importuned to impart the information, he told me that the elevator in my office building had fallen that day. The elevator was full of people at the time. The fall had been from one of the upper stories. He had not been able to find out how many were killed, but it was a serious accident. The ambulance had been called; he had seen a man who had seen the ambulance. The sad event had occurred about three o'clock—just too late to get into the evening papers.
Well, wife and I hardly talked about anything else that night. Who could have been in it? Were any of our friends killed? Was the force of our paper crippled? What if I had been in it? (Wife shuddered.) What if she had been in it? (I shuddered.) Why could they not make elevators so that they would be safe? And so on. And so on.
As soon as I got into the train the next morning, I bought a paper-which I usually do not do. I learned afterwards that wife had sent down street for a paper, and was reading hers at the same moment. Neither of us found a word about the accident. I hurried to the building. No scene of ruin greeted me, no splintered elevator, no gaping crowd, no reporters with note-books, no policemen. The elevators were running smoothly, as usual. I stepped into one of them gingerly, and immediately asked, “How did it happen? How far did it fall? How many were killed? Whose fault was it? How did you get to running so soon? Say!"
“WHAT?" said the elevator man.
There had been no elevator accident. A man had slipped on the icy sidewalk in front of the building and hurt his head a little. They had taken him to the hospital in an ambulance. That was all.
And there is a moral lying around loose here somewhere.