The Black range. (Robinson, Socorro County, N.M.) 1882-1897, 1883-12-14
Advice to a Young Man.

uttu uO, III Ddu LUCK. Iuluk LutIe
IS no such thing as good luck. do not
believe that lazy, ne'er-do-weel sort
of man ever stumhles into fortune or
climbs into fame 10y mere good luck. or
if he does, he doesn't hold his good for
tune any longer than he is getting it,.
No man is born lucky. But some are
born unlucky, and l will tell you why
| have often observed:
If young man spends more money
on neckties than he does on books he
is pretty apt to be unlucky IN his liter
ary ventures.
If a young man attempts to make
living by sucking the head of his CANE
and playing billiards, he is pretty apt
to be unlucky in his business ventures.
If a young man habitually breakfasts
at ten o'clock, he is generally unfortu-
nate in his efforts to obtain a position
in the new bank.
If man takes half minute to his
prayers and an hour and half to his
dress he is generally unlucky In spirit
ual life.
If man goes to his father every
time he wants dollar, he develops into
an unlucky merchant with more assign
ees than statesmen.
If young man on the road plays
billiards all night and swings cocktails
all morning, he Is unlucky when he
tries to sell goods in the afternoon.
If man buys clothes on credit aud
has bill at every furnishing store,
restaurant and livery stable in town he
is "a very unlucky man on the first day
of January.
If young man studies art exclu-
slvely at the variety theater, he is an
exceedingly unlucky artist.
If he drinks Tom and Jerry all New
Years day to "swear off on he is a very
unlucky reformer.
If he goes to college with three Greek
books and five ponies he is very un-
lucky student,
If he scoots out of town because a
note is falling due; if he will not SOW
because the wind blows, nor reap be-
cause the sun is hot; if he fishes on all
the fair days, and sits on cracker-box
at the corner grocery and smokes on all
the foul ones; if he complains because
the world sights him and with
his hands in his pockets waits for
quail on toast to drop into his open
mouth; If he works while he eats and
rests while he works; If he is the last
man at the store or office in the morn
ing and the first one to leave in the
evening; if he rightly insists on every
one of his holidays and kicks against
every minute of overwork; if the boys
do all the chores and his wife builds
the fires; if he is lazy and shiftless and
selfish, then my boy, he is an unlucky
man. Bet every cent you can raise, and
offer big odds that Bad Luck with a
big B will haunt that unlucky man all
the days of his lite.
But:
If man ariseth up in the morning
with the "passed tree and harp if he
spends more time in the bath tub than
he does on green and yellow necktie;
if he can talk at the breakfast table
about what he has already seen in the
morning paper; if he gets to the office
the first man after the porter; if he
isn't afraid to dust his own desk; if he
weareth coat with glossy elbows I'M
I'll he can buy new one; If he knows
more about the petition he is drawing
up or the goods he is selling than be
does about trotting horse; If he can
sweep out the store as we'll as the por-
ter and run up a column of figures as
fast as the book-keeper; if he knows
every lawyer and merchant in town
and never saw Sullivan or Tug Wilson
in all his life: if he knows what he
wants to be. and bends every energy of
mind and body in attaining his point;
who works more than he sleeps and
reads more than he plays billiards: that
man, my boy is born to good luck as
the sparks fly upward. And now go to
work my son, and work as though you
believed in luck and had got into the
secret of the stars and knew how to
shape the destiny of at least one lucky
man in the WOrld.-Burdette.