Evening star., 1900-01-27
MEN WHO ARE UNLUcKY
No Use in Denying the Common Expert
ence of Mankind.
There Are Some Individuals Who Ex-
pcrience as Much Luck as Others
Do Misfortune,

"A udl cali certainty DC uEiuCky III tite
proper sense of the word-that is, frequent
ly visited by misfortune for which he is
entirely irresponsible. OF course, in the
| majority of cases the i'll luck is only ap-
parent, the true explanation being some de-
ficiency in the man himself Of which he is
totally unconscious. He knows his powers.
and he is aware of his weaknesses, but he
is not aware of his causes of failure. He
may, for example, be a really able man,
with every capacity for success. except a
certain inability to understand the charac-
ter Of other men or women. That has been
often the deficiency which has ruined kings;
it spoiled the career of Louis XIV, whose
latest adviser Madame de Maintenon, was
a good woman of the Catholic devotee type,
with decidedly inferior brain: and it was
one cause of the fall of Napoleon. whose
subkings and marshals were, with the possi-
bic exception of Eugene Beauharnais, never
men of frst-rate powers. That is usually
attributed to his jealousy of rivals; but he
chose inferior men in civil life, and never
through his whole career had a private
secretary or a controller of his household
who was worth his salt; while of his two
wives one was vain and extraya CANT per-
son without brain, and the other an arch
duchess who had not an idea beyond her
claim to be considered on account of her
birth, and who married her chamberlain.
| In private life the same defect is probably
n,
very able men, and still oftener able wo-
men. being led away in pecuniary affairs
| by persons of imperfect intelligence and
positively untrustworthy character. Or the
able man has habit of procra astination, of
| which he is wholly unaware, which leads
him always to miss the moment of oppor.
| tunity. the commonest of defects in able
yet successful generals; or he is liable to
| the English ''rushes," which lead him into
blunders that all his intimates declare to be
positively ineXplicable."
The ablest human being we ever knew
had way of dressing himself always in
| unconsciousness which twice cost him a
| great career: while another singularly COM
petent man spoiled every chance by tenn
| per which was in reality nothing but whim-
sical, but which caused all employers to
pronounce him hopelessly unreliable We
should say, indeed. that the really able
were specially liable to one of the most
ruinous of all vices or foibles. incurable in
doence, while every one knows a few quite
competent men who never succeeded be-
cause they lost opportunities through an in
difference of which they were total
ly unaware. Still, though we rec
causes of failure. we cannot but ad-
| init that there are men who are genuinely
''unlucky," with whom. that is. the cur
rent or events for some inexplicabe rea-
son always collides, who are always in
Jured in an accident from which others
escape, whose cabs break down when driy-
ing 10 important appointments. whose in
Fcstments which seem most rea asonable are
always swept away, whose relatives are
| bllsters. and whose friends causes of ex-
pcnse. The writer had once an intimate
friend who firmly believed of himself that
the onchance of misfortune always hap
pened to him. and always would happen
and it was exceedingly difficult for any one
VINO knew his history to doubt that he had
reason for his superstition. And the writer
knew well another man-indeed he pub
Hshed an account of his adventures-who
passed some eight times in life through ac-
cidents which would infalliblv have killed
any one else, without a scratch and who
had therefore, Gives belief that he was
destined 70 something-which turned ont an
Illusion We know that there are laws
winch regulate chance. and we know that
there are long intervals when they seem to
be defied. and there is no perceptible reason
why mans life should not be lived within
the influence of one of the intervals,
favorable or the reverse. If he can throw
aces or deuces ten times running Why
should he not come to grief in ten consec1i-
tive incidents of life? There is no reason
pei rceptible Why in the great proyidential
scheme chance should be allowed to enter.
but then there is no reason why insanity
should insanity involving that hardest of
ali Things to conceive, irresponsibility. vet
both do enter. We may humbly wait for
explanation: but we see no use in DENYING
the common experience of m3pkind