St. Paul daily globe., 1884-11-26
UNLUCKY PEOPLE.
The Tide Which Farors Some out Ruas
AGaSast Others.

In George Ebers clever DOOk. lin Wort -
one Of the magic words which Ulrich adopts
as his talismau is ''gluck," or, as we would
express It, ''Iuck" Many Of US are As
thorough believers in luck as Ulrieh was.
while others declare there is no such thing.
and II man is industrious and hardworkinp
he is sure To succeed. Well, this is true; and
vet It is not true The tide favors some: Il
is certaiuly against others. For instance, a
clergyman may preach an excellent sermon,
and among his hearers may happen 70 be a
cabinet minister, who is struck By the elo-
quence Of the preacher, and soon sfterward
offers him an important living. From tina;
living the step becomes easy to bishopric,
aud so on. Another clergyman, equally
gifted, may preach till his throat is hoarse,
but no hesrer Of authority happens to be In
the way, and he continues on in the old
groove, undisturbed by offers Of promotion.
It is the same in literature. A man NAV
write an admirable novel; it may even be
cried up by the reviewers; but If the
public will not take to it there is no
demand, and consequently the book
dies stiIlborn. II can not be said that pains
and industry have not been lavished upon II
.he author may have devoted years Of his
life TO celebrating the characters and devel-
oping the plot, and yet he may see it passed
over for some gauzy, Aimsy production,
which has been thrown of in few weeks and
possesses no literary merit whatever It is
any wonder that he protests, aud declares
that the luck Of some people is amazIngl
The unlucky ones seem 10 wear their fate
in their faces; we can tell when they come
into the room that they arc not fortunes
favorites, that the iekle goddess refuses to
smile on them, and invariably throws cold
water on their best attempts. There is A dis
pirited look about them which betrays their
secret, and announces that they have failed.
The lucky ones, on the contrary, have the
air Of well-to-do cock sparrows; they plume
their feathers and look out asgressively on
the world, as much as to say: ''LOok at us
admire US; everything that we do is sure Il
succeed. II we buy shares in a new CON-
pany they art certain TO 20 up next dav; II
We purchase house, the value of property in
that particular locality increases ten
fold. IL we write even a six-penny
/ pamphlet there is 4 run upon il:
it makes a nit, and We pocket hundreds by
/ the transaction. There is no trouble OF
effort in the matter. We have only to open
our mouths, and plums drop into them. We
have only to put our hands to anything,
and 10! 1t turns to gold or glory at ouI
/ touch.m
Yes, II Is better to be born lucky than
rich, but that is poor consolation to the de-
| jected unlueky ones who stand outside the
door of fortune, unable 10 turn the lock in
their fingers, try as they may. For even q
| CLEAN Of luck they would be thankful, but
none comes to them. II they call on an in
huential magn ate, who may put them in the
way of climbing the ladder, he is not a home
gone on his holiday, laid up in his bed
somehow or other quite invisible. They
shoot their arrows with care and thought. bui
not one ever hits the bulls eye; there is al.
ways something against them, the wind 4
/ unfayorablc, or the arrow snaps asunder in
the air. After a time they collapse: it's nc
use trying, they say, and so they give in
| like Capt Cutie, very much ''beaten abou
the head" Philosophers would declare tha
they are cowardly. So they may be, but I
requires an extraordinary amount Of courag,
TO struggle perpetually against tremendou.
odds, and all the time to be haunted by the
idea that an unforeseen accident NAV cause
them TO be worsted, and give the advantag,
10 a rank outsider, who has the magic gift o
luck What poisoned Carlisle's life, anC
made him moody and bitter, was the Ions
time of probation which he had to pas
through, totally unsppreciated by the public
the very presentation copies which he sent (,
the Edinburgh literati were not even ac
knowledged; and his best thoughts rIdiculeC
and seofIed at. As one Of his friends re
marked: ''What Carlisle wants is a littl,
ITv,aa ~
shine be might have snarled less and been
more hopeful teacher. Goldsmith smarteC
terribly under the sting Of failure. 'sTtC
public, - he exclaimed, "never do me jus,
tice; whenever write anything they make
point to know nothing about it," And in on,
OF his letters to his brother he SAYS: ssYou
can not conceive how much eight years o
Disappointment and anguish, and study hav
worn me down." To add 10 all this, h
had the annoyance Of seeing DIR. Beattl
lauded to the skies for his essay on Truth
interviewed by the king, feted, iattered
given pension Of e200 year, and honore,
by ID. Z. /. degree at Oxford. No w0nde
that Goldsmith exclaimed, in the fullness o
his heart, Here's such a stir about fellow
that has written one book, aud have writer
so manyI' While Goldsmith only chafed q
his want Of success, % such fiery spirit a
Chatterton's failure worked like frenzy OF
the brain, and death seemed better than life
What makes the unlucky ones peculiarly
sore is that several times they have been JUS
on the point of gaining their object; thel
had it almost grasped IN their hands, whel
suddenly 1t was snatched from themi Tn
winning post was in sight, they felt the crow
OF laurel on their brow; the roar Of applaud
ing multitudes seemed just about to bur;
! on their ears; when, presto all was changed
they were again shunted back-in anon
the ruck once more-while the cold chill {
disappointment erept, like lee, TO their heart:
London Standard.