Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-10-06
MEN WIG SUCCEED.
What Is HANS 'Luck?"-Bad Logic-rhe
Searching Eye.

men promoted and others not. BY what
process of selection are the successful
men picked out from the ranksI Take
mercantile life, for instance. Is there
any definite system Of promotion there?
Is there a searching eye that is always IN
the lookout for those who promise to be
capable men? Or is il luck and chance
that cause some men 10 succeed and
other men TO fail or to remain where
they are9
Men rail against ''fate," There are
always some thousands, IL not some
millions, of our fellow creatures who are
doing this, and who blame everything,
from the stars to the weather, for the III
Success in the midst Of which they find
themselves, sooner or later. But were
they not themselves largely to blame for
not getting ONT If a jealous and impair
| tial critic were to examine the records Of
their lives from day to day, would he
not find n very good reason, or plenty of
reasons, perhaps, why fortune had not
smiled on the complainantsl One often
hears that So-and-so is ''down on his
luck Tom is now n thasame humble
position that he held ten years ago, while
Dick is happy in the fayors OF the coy
jade fortune, and Harry, as if to explain
matters, says: ''It's just Toms luck!"
But was it, or is il? What is mans
''luck?" Is rational man going to be-
lieve that every individual has his own
particular moon which rules the tides Of
his life irrespective of his own volitionp
Toms bad luck" and Dicks good
luck, " and Harry's medium luck" may
prove to be. if you examine closely, only
the result of the exertion or the lack of
exertion made by Tom, Dick or Harry in
their course through life. One hears a
great deal of talk about ''self made
men," and, on the other hand, one often
hears it said that there is not the chance
for men to make coed fortunes for them
selves that there was a generation back.
Competition, you are assured, is ''the
life Of trade" but also the death of indi-
viduality.
Says the young fellow of today: The
self made mar about whom we hear so
much promoted themselves. They had
the advantage Of living in a time when
they could take affairs into their own
hands, and they did not have TO depend
as we do upon the good graces Of others.
Look at Horace Greeley as a case in
point. Greeley was his own editor,
printer and compositor, and he pub
lished his paper in meager, i~nconvenient
quarters. Look at Thurlow Weed, start.
ing a country weekly while his family
were compelled to live for days without
tea, sugar or meat-on bread and butter
only, with cold waterl You couldn't
start in the newspaper business in that
fashion today; there is too much
competition; conditions have changed;
capital is. required. And so it is
through the various lines Of business.
You don't find men running small shops
nowadays-that is, you find but few of
them, and the number is growing grad
ually less. This is the day Of big capital,
big enterprises, big everything, and men
cannot start in for themselves as they
could twenty years ago, with anything
like the same chances of success
On the face Of it there seems to be a
good deal Of logic in such a presentation
of the case. But it were idle to let mat
tiers rest here. II it is true that TINA
and conditions have changed, then men
must change with them and adapt them
selves to circumstances. A man must
bear himself well before that searching
eye. After all it is just as true as ever
it was, despite this talk Of ''luck." that
a man is the architect Of his own fort
une. Men are rising today, although
competition is keener than ever it was;
they are making their individuality felt
as their fathers did in the days gone by.
A good deal is said about opportunities
and taking advantage Of them; about
opportunities coming TO some men and
none 10 Others. But, after all, is it not
the most successful man who practically
creates his opportunity by keeping out Of
the ruts, and by handling affairs differ
entity from the methods employed by
other men?
I Is quite true that a young man de.
Sir ,ng to be a money king, after the
fashion of Mr.. Jay Gould, might find il
impracticable to attain his end by begin
Ming in the businhss Of peddling mousse
traps around the state Of New York.
The embryo Aston Of today will doubt.
less find the fur trade m~onopolized, and
the young Vanderbilt will discover that
steam ferry boats, owned and managed
by municipal corporations, are quito
likely 10 shut away from his modest dory
any possible profits arising from trans.
portation. When a westerner got into
New York and made the journalistic
spark fly, he had 10 take advantage Of
every ''modern improvement in the
world Of newspaperdom in order to carry
his point. He could not, like Greeley oil
Thurlow Weed, 60 into a cellar or an
attic and pull his own papers OIL a pres
run by man power, unless he was delib.
erately searching for bankruptcy. HI
had served his apprenticeship in the
humber walks Of newspaperdom; III
had been a reporter and had driven tho
pencil at high speed over many reHms Of
dismal copy" The searching eye is OF
the lookout for just such a man, a mar
who had the pluck to do things in hii
own way and 10 create opportunities
wherever IL Ia possible 10 do so.--BostoI