The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-06-28
Essay ON Luck.

We are all children of chance. Some
OF us are kindly favored by fortune
some seem to be the victims of fate
and others neither the one thing nor
the Other-knOcked about from pillar to
post, with here streak of fat luck. and
there streak of the leaneSt kind. But.
brethren, every one of us is lucky in
one respect, that is, in getting into this
IlVlng and breathing world. Our being
born Is but the result of accident after
all phllos0phlze as you may upon the
subject. What q glorious escape have
we made from remaining forever in the
womb of nOnentity! Let us cOngratu-
late one another, then, that we have the
lot OF living, moving, and having a be-
ing on this terraqueOus globe.
Many OF you imagine that yOu are
born to lll-luck, and seem to strive your
prettleSt to foster your ridiculous fan
C!es. You will have it that others reaD
richer harvests from the field of chance
than yourselves; that, when it rains
bean -pOrridge your dishes are ALWAYS
bottom upwards ;,When it SHOWS Genesec
Hour, the wind blows it to your neigh
boris door; and when it halls hulIed
corn, you have no milk to eat it with.
You tind a pistareen in the street
" just my luckw you exclain, as YOU
pocket the disappointment, eff any
body else had found it, it would have
been a quarter, sure ~ If you feel for a
knife i'll the dark, among q peck of
knives and forks, you are certain to get
hold of fork. What ever you do, and
wherever you go, everything works
against you, according tOyOur thinking;
but, III accordance with my humble
opinion. you wor k against things more
than things labor against you. You
labor under a mistaken idea if you
think to the contrary. The man who
petltl99ned to have the lamp posts re-
moved because they interfered with
him IN his nocturnal perambulatiOns
considered himself victim of ill-luck.
He might have been so; but the moor
lamp-pOsts had more reason to com
plain of hard rubs than himself.
have to write for your edifcatiOn,
and perhaps amusement. [ am lucky
when by chance [ have good article,
and get half a handful of genuine COP
pers Ill return, but, as | always expect
more or less bad ones in the heap, / am
never disappointed. bag the lot, with
out pauslng to QuestiOnize as to whether
any other writer would have been cursed
or blest with the same luck, had he been
IN my boots. So should you take mat
ters easy; for, recOllect that Fortune
never picks out a particular individual
to smile upon, nor selects a certain DOR
tlOn upon which to cast her spitefuI
frOwns. The fact is this, my friends
rather than depend upon labor, you are
too apt to rely upon luck and when the
latter betrays your confidence, you owe
it a grud ge that time never can pay,
10 test your luck, don't throw dice
nor buy lottery tickets; but put youl
hand to the plough, and hold on; OF
drive the cattle, and let somebody else
hOld-but be sure that you do one OF
the other, and the end thereof shall be
fortunate. Expect a bar of iron to melt
with the breath of southern wind-a
seaman's whistle to calm the excited
oGean---a town on fire to be extinguish-
ed with wOman's tears-the stars to
be blown out by September gale
You may expect these to happen, if you
like, but don't suppose that good luck
too lazy to work, and so depends upon
the precarious crumbs of chance, Il
you firmly believe in an unalterable de.
cree of luck, you will have more
of the bad sort plastered to yOul
remembrance then were ever feath
ers attached to fresh coat o1
tar. Mondays and Fridays will en-
ter into a conspiracy against you; al
your new moons will be seen over the
left shoulder; squirrels will run across
the road before you, from the right tx
the left; you will spill more salt at thu
table than any other one, and the clouds
will be certain to take the opportunity
to rain when they catch you without al
umbrella.
A murrain on all your superstition
about luck; one mortal is just as liable
to mishaps as another. Keep clear OF
the fire, and you will escape being
burned; go not near the water, anG
there is no danger of getting drowned
look not for the apparitions of ill-luck
and you will see but few of them, al
the most, and they, like all other ghosts
possess more power to scare than harm
So mote it be!