The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1890-02-08
LUCKY NED HOYT."

Can Our Boy Readers Explain the Secret
of His Success?
Lucky Ned Hoyt" was the popular
sobriquet of the railway magnate.
"a man." his associates would tell
you, ''of only moderate talents, born in
poverty, with no family or social influ-
ence, yet he had mounted the ladder of,
success rapidly and steadily. Nothing
to help him but luck, blind luckr' ::
Let us look little at the steps of this
ladder up which Ned climbed so fast.
He was the son of poor woman, who
gave him few years schooling, and
then found him place as elevator
boy in hotel. Ned had one aim: to
find work on a railroad, and there to
make his way up. He stuck to that one
idea; he never changed it, he never for
got it. The men who used the elevator
daily found the boy always clean,
always polite and eager to be of
use. He became a favorite, especially
with one, station-master on a railway
leading out of the city. To him Ned,
choosing moment when he was in a
good humor, frankly told his story and
his hope. ''Can you give me work?" he
asked.
''Yes," the man said; sin the yard;
but it will be hard and poorly paid.
Better stay where you are"
''You never can rise in an elevator
above the fifth story" retorted Ned,
laughingly.
lie was set ai handling froi-lt - tte
platform. In q month be q .-acted the
notice of all the men I'm ard by his
unfailing pr0mptness. energy ana good
humOred cOurtesE. His eyes and ears
were always open, and he was eager to
learn the business and the methods Of
the road.
One Gay the IEoight-mas5er needed a
temporary helper in his Office, as one of
the clerks was absent-suddenly i'll. He
applied to the yard-master for substi-
tute, ''if you've got wide-awake young
fellow, not afraid to work"
"Here's your manI' said the yard
master, tapping Ned on the back.
"What luck Hoyt has!'' said his COM
panions, as he went into the Office.
At the end of the week the sick man
returned, but Ned had made himself too
useful to be dismissed from the Office. A
year later small road applied to the
larger one for a man competent to super
intend it's freight department. Nobody
was surprised when Hoyt was chosen.
Ned threw himself into the interests
of the new road with zeal, and intro
duced into its management the meth
DDS of the older systems. At last he
saw an opportunity for grand coup by
which to insure the success of the road,
and his own as we'll. By building a
short branch, it would tap the trade Of
a productive region. He urged this
action upon the directors; the road was
built. In a few years two great rail-
ways saw the vast advantages held by
the smaller limo, and bid high for them
against each other. The short road was
at last incorporated in one of the larger
ones, and Hoyt was taken into its board
of management.
''Blind luckI'' cried the men whom he
had left behind.
But as years passed and HOyt, always
cheerful, energetic and good-humored,
steadily rose TO the chief control or the
road never failing to see and secure an
opening for its advancement or his own,
his comrades began TO suspect that there
was some secret in his success other
than that of luck
Can our boy-readers explain it2-
Youths Companion.