Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-08-08
ROGERS LUCK.
n. h. Adds in The Areoaaut]

| II. II. Adds in The Argoaautl
| Rogers luck was proverbial among his -
soeiates Il was luck unmitisatsd and I'M.
| varying II fortitude and buoy ancy 81
spirit were at all instrumental in placatins
tie Fates little Roger patient endeavoe
and sweetness Of temper might long sincs
have, disarmsd the mAlsSolsnt axhifafs Of
destiny. To every fiout and frown Of Fort.
une be turned his quaint whimsically alert
countenance lighted with . brave and cheer
full smile. From every tumble on The alp
perry ways OF enterprise he lifted himself
blithely, bearing aloft the oriaamms Of his
| orange-colored hair, stifdy erect in accepted
| cre=tfashion. II gooi blood does not whtne
| any more than lie, then little Rogers might
have laid claim to whatever grace comes
with that strain; for no plant or lamenta-
| ton ever escaped tho plucky little fellow
He never objurgated the luck. He always
found some practical perfectly matter-of-
course reason for the failure Of his ventures
and he no sooner bowed to defeat in one in
stance than he rallied TO renewed effort in
some other direction
Swayed by his natural bias, Rogers had
elected at first TO tread the unstable paths OF
journalism But his critical turn was too
work i, too finished" his superior in
Office declared; "he edits copy out Of
all its original semb!nnce. Too stilted
too carefully turned" He went
with the Independent American Top
ographical AMI Atmospherical Sur
vey, which, it may be remembered. pens-
trated TO the interior of the provincial pos
sessions Of certain foreign power lying on
our borders All the world remembers how
that expedition was Iheaded of" by arbitra-
ton of the jealous home government Next.
a consulship was gotten up for Rogers, by
friends of his gallant pugnacity. But bis
Quixotic course in regard to o family Of
American adventures, stranded at his port,
very nearly involved Us in q war. and
Rogers was recalled Then he tried the
stage; but his determined prediction Tor
tragedy was at loggerheads with his comical.
homely face and grotesque outstanding hair:
50 one more avenue narrowed to the vanish
ing point.
Il was when his resources were at their
lowest ebb that he conceived the idea OF
going rs rod man with q surveying rarty
under contract for Mexico. No less exigent
situation would have let him consent to 60
away from home and Caroline Howard. but
the lowest depths OF his depletei scrip
yearned for the reported aboundiug shekels
OF the Montezuman lands; and 30, after
many mutual pledge with the lady OF his
heart, poor little Rogers tore himself away.
The young man was not devoid OF a certain
self-con, ciousness and he rather plumed
himself upon freedom from false pride and
sinsleaess of purpose. as exsmplified in his
acceptance Of his exalted position
Il remember" he said to Strain. the chief
of his marty, looking through the arch OF the
Pierced Rock as their steamer lay off Cape
San Lucas: Il remember once, when Rich
ardson and were down in Tulare county.
We ran across two Of our old schoolmates.
who were 'toting' chains for the survey on
Page and MIXERS ranch They were the
valeIictorians Of their years, too. Do You
know. never admired those young fellows
| half SO much as when they loaned there on
our wheels. in overalls and sunburne1 straw
hat, snatching How goes itF while they
waited word from their boss And now
you're my boss, old fellow; you may as well
respect my Independence"
@Oh, that's all right" said Strain, little
| disiainfully; a mans a man for q that
The question is, how will Queen Caroline
take it! OF course, you told her your liner
The fact is-no," said Rogers, ruefully;
for Strain was q more or less distant rela
tive Of Caroline Howard, and the tone was
| significant Il told her should Join your
party, but without specifying my ofioe. Oh,
Caroline's a girl Of gold! She's superior to
such small preJudices.'
"Humphi' quoth Strain, her cousin.
OF all Rogers impractical projects, this
last one was the worst While they were
getting their bearings at San Cuales. all
went well enough But from the day they
took the field. Rogers mishaps began He
was the willingest soul that sver lifted hand !,
but frail physique was against him, and
labor that may be endured very tolerably
under northern sky becomes quite pre-
posterously out of the question in topic
latitudes, where the labor is handi-
capped. too, by all the spiny, briary appen-
dases that mother earth's face there is dec
GRATED wi.haL Alas, the Notifications Of
50 nit were birter. To a race giving
servants to its servants the performance Of
office, like Roger is explicable only by the
assumption of inferior caste; AMI so, not
withstanding the unfailing consideration OF
bis comrades, Rogers found himself rele-
gatsd too often TO q mental status 1t was
not strange that hs began to fail in health;
the wonder was that he endured SO long Tho
party worked their way across the Hacienda
del Carrizal and the valley OF Rio Ruidoso,
and camped in the sandy bed Of a ditch, un-
der the sycamores and cottonwoods. at
Santa Catarina. And tia very night they
came, Rogers, lying down exhausted for a
nap before supper, awoke raving with de-
lrium. wherein vein Of pathos ran through
the abSuriities
Poor devil.' said ors OF the engineers,
coming from an inspection OF the patient.
bad ftx- horl 1ry,.S liz
very soul seems to be ebbing out through a
hole that some girl pointed out in his boot
Lock here, Strain, do you suppose that's a
fact. Was any girl ever so despicablei
know tine sex is given to brutality, but that
seems too hard u thing to believe-even of a
woman
-iet us charitably set it down to Rogers
fever said Strain, dryly. remembering
perfectly well the incident that wrought
sick man up TO fr.nzy. Now, what ara We
to dor We can't take Rogers on with us; We
can't stop hero. he is not able to be sent back
to the coast This snap will go all tho harder
for his resistance. He ought TO have been
in bed a week ago"
Its rather pity he ever came, isn't iti"
said Kelley: "the company could have got n
peon for 3 reals day, instead Of paying
Rogers So month for doing the work
much worse
81 guess the company can stand the ex-
pense.' said Strain, sharply. Good night
No, I'll net trouble you to help me watch
with Rogers. III ask Boyd to sit up with
me You'd better turn in"
None of the psrty-except, perhaps, the
frugally-minlei kelley-slept much, full of
Rogers extremity. What with their bag.
gard. anxious faces, and their travel worn
aspect Of general decentralization, it was lit
tie marvel that Celso Ruiz sunk his two
inch rowels into his horse. on catching sight
OF the strangers as he came vending home
from dancing at the fiesta Of pretty peon-
eta over at San Pasqual The harder he
rode the more determined and ferocious in
retros pect appeared these foreign faces.
Rogers himself was hardly more insanely
excited than was Calso when be
dashed into the plasita among a group Of
his nates-herders, poems. husbandmen-
scarcely less ignorant than their beasts Of
the field Now. Don Eulalio Cordoba, the
haciendado, officistei Is his own mayor
domo. and he had besn absent over night ON
an errand TO one OF his outlying sheep
campo Hence. IN tie sams spirit that had
moved Celso afield. gala-msking. Donata
and Rudecinds and Ventura, kitchen.
women. had stretched their young mistress
license u attend the wake OF Donata's
cousins husbands aunt's baby. In conss-
queIce. il was now two hours pat the time
at which that young mistress usually took
her morning Chocolate. and her maids, dis