Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-10-17
ENERGY VERSUS LUCK
The Ignorant Superstition which Prevails
I'm Regard to the Latter.


The Ignorant Superstition which Prevails
I'm Regard to the Latter.
"Give man luck and throw him into the
sea-" is, perhaps, one OF the oldest sayings
extaut al over the world, for we ind its
equivalent In every language spoken. 1t il
pity we are not all gifted with this fort
innate grace; If we were we need never
trouble at any time. But it happens, how
ever, says the London Standard, that the so
called lucky ones are very few and very
Tar between; and yet, to note the observa-
tons OF everyday life, one would imagine
that the contrary were the case-that is to
say, If we may judge from the fact that
everybody asserts that every body else is
lucky except himself. a. never knew such
luck as that man has,r says Jones of
Brown, and Brown of Jones remarks that
Jones has the very DEVILS own luck
every thing he does turns oat wellr' and
stlll ttey may be both in the same boat
struggling against impending adversely, or
calmly gliding along the stream of COM
parative prosperity.
II is merely the outcome of an uufathom-
able discomfort that pervades all, or nearly
all human creatures-that semi-iealous
feeling of each others nelghbor that finds
lodging An every breast. Now, risking the
wrath OF the superstitious and the believ-
ers In omens ard odd numbers, we firmly
maintain that there is no such thing as luck
at all Perseverance and circumstance are
the secret of all success, and, as nothing
succeeds like success, luck is the natural
sequence of perseverance. 1t is mainly the
hckers and lazy people who perpetually
rave about lack of luck, forgetting that, if
there be any virtue in this tantalizing tails
man, 1t is very like the philosophers stone,
and requires considerable amount of
delving and diving TO secure.
Shakespeare gives evidence that he was
not free from this peculiar failing. In the
''Merry Wives of Windsor he makes that
genial and obese old rogue s'Falstaffn saw
to Dame Quickly" "GoOd luck lies In odd
numbers. They say there is divinity in
odd numbers-either in nativity, chance or
deathr This idea is, OF course, founded On
the Pythagcrean system, "All nature is a
harmony; man is full chord, and all beyond
Is Deity, so that nine represents Deity
And thus A major chord consists of a funda-
mental or tonic, its major third and its Just
fifth Seven notes complete the octave,
and nine is Deity. The odd numbers being
the primary notes Of nature, it is easy TO
see how they came to be considered the
great or lucky numbers, but then the luck
belongs exclusively TO the numbers and not
to the application thereof, as is the popular
impression.
But to enter into or properly explain the
positions and qualities of odd numbers
would paralyze the great Euclid himself
So, to return to our luck. If there be such
an uncanny thing, how is it that never since
the creation has one man ever been known
to credit his success in life to luckl His
downfall, yes, to bad luck; his rise and
progress to luck, good, bad or Indifferent
Never. If any one had the temerity to sug-
gest such a thing the notion would be
secuted as not only preposterous but i'm
plous. The answer would be something like
this: My success, sir, which you vulgar
ly attribute to luck, has been achieved by
sheer hard work and determination and
what have earned / deserve" And in
most cases it would be right
Certainly there are at times fortuitous
circumstances that make man successful,
whether he will or not, but then such is not
luck, it is pure accident And as we are all
liable to meet with disagreeable accidents,
so are we all likely to meet with agreeable
ones. Only we never own it, supposing we
think so. We go on declaring that at is
better to be born lucky than rich" and vet
we are quite incapable of explaining what
we exactly mean. In the commercial sense
and 1T is only in the commercial sense
that we think upon the suhject-if we are
rich, we don't want luck, and if we are
lucky we re rich. Lord Beaconsfield saws
in "Venetia:" "Luck, is he who has neither
creditors nor offspring, and who owes
neither money nor affection-after all the
most difficult to pay of the two" This is Sc
cynically true that not soul believes it.
Faith In the charm Of the horseshoe is
held sacred to this day, in town and coun-
try, by ignorant persons; but we do not
hof 4larv v,,sI Al
protection against witches, as was once
the custom. 1t is supposed to rather bring
good luck than to avert any evil MANY
otherwise sane individuals will stoop to picl;
up shoe in the street, and others would
rather deliver up all their goods and chat
tells than walk under a ladder There is
more common sense in this latter idiosyn-
cracy than may appear at first sight. One
does not run so great risk of receiving q
paintpot or a brick, that may be on the
journey from the roof TO tho pavement, out
side the range of the ladder as Immediately
under it. This is about the only supersti
ton that is worth preserving
Generally speaking, logical people discard
the conceit of any thing coming to pass
through mere "luck," though numbers on
the surface profess unshalxable belief there
in. As a rule, those who complain about
their bad luck are those who complain about
any thing-those who expect fortunes to
drop into their laps without any exertion on
their part to obtain them. People are fire.
quently heard TO lament they are down on
their luck, and then they absolutely do sit
down on their luck and stay there. Most
things come to the man who works. but very
few to the man who calmly sits down and
waits. Nothing upsets superstition as much
as common sense. There is no such quality
as luck, except it be in very unknown
quantity. People have had luck when they
can not take the rough with the smooth; ;
when they wear out the smooth and forget
that it ever existed. Good luck means good
intentions well carried out; and, after all,
the only lucky man in the world is he who
Is lucky enough to get what he deserves.