Arizona silver belt., 1901-09-12
BEING BORN LUCKY.
Fortune of Man Who Tuanelea Hill.

tng stories about being born lucky or vice versa, says the Detroit Free Press.
 And" concluded Chicago drum mer who had been telling of an un- lucky friend of his, what did he do at last but gather together what lit tie money he had leftrand buy a lot in western oil district, before prices boomed. He started to sink his well, with just enough money on the mort gage to finish it, if he had luck, and he struck a rock before he had gone 20 feet. He drove away at it and kept driving for hundred feet, breaking drills and costing money, till he tinal- g threw up his hands, gave the prop erty to his creditors and killed him self. The creditors investigated the boring and found that my friend had struck petritied tree, upright in the earth and had bored for hundred feet right into it. They moved the drill only four feet to the right and within two weeks had tapped a we'll that was good for 300 barrels day"
 There was a chorus of sighs at the sad fate of this unlucky one. and a Philadelphia railroad man began some thing more cheerful.
 "i had a friend, he said, ''whose luck was just the reverse of the gentle mans whose history We have listened to with so much pleasure-I mean sorrow"-the Philadelphisn was get ting mixed,
 That's all right" laughed the Chi cago man, "l know what you mean"
 And he made his ten-strike on a ease of boring, just as the other one did not. Which shows that fortune is truly tickle goddess, My frien, smith, I'll call him, had luck alwaN as boy, and as soon as he graduate he got good job, although he was not a brilliant E2sr -tall. Which. how ever, is no sign, because some of the best jobs-that pay the best, mean are held by men who get them by luck and not by genius. He became pro- moter and schemer later, and went in for himself, coming out of every undertaking with more or less success, and never losing money It made no difference to Smith what kind of a proposition came before him; if he thought there was anything in it, h, did not let it get away. The one par ticular instance l have in mind wa the driving of tunnel on a south western railroad. He didn't know anl more about that sort of business than pulpit knows about practical poll ties, but he thought it was a chance tu make something, and he went in with a contractor. who had Oniy done small jobs. Their bid was so low that if smith hadn't had rich and infiuen- tiaI friends he would have lost it. H. had made considerable money in his ventures and he put that up also as his backing. The tunnel was 10 cost about half million dollars and Smith stood to win S5O0OO at his own esII- nation, and to lose SlO0.GO0, accord ing to estimates of the contractors who had put in higher bids There was to be SlOO day bonus for every day ahead of time that the tunnel was completed. and a forfeit of the same amount for delay.
 Well. he got everything ready and set his me" '~ work at one end of the tunnel only. for the first monJn. Then he expected to put on a nigh. and day force at both ends, for Smith was hustler. However, his luck was with him, as usual, and il wasn't necessary to hustle. Before his sap. pers had gone 30 feet into the hi,l, and they began almost at the face of .-..--, 'rl he fingered if they didn't hroSh ta5ar>a.a4 -.-..-5 -.ve 40 feet high and 20 wide and running that size half way through the hill. It got down small again for a hundred feet and then widened again and ran big to within 90 feet of daylight on the far side of the hill. There was some work to do to put it into shape, but it hard .y amounted to anything, as tunneling goes, and Smith not only made a big thing on his contract direct, but the bonus on extra days was nearly enough for a modest man to retire from busi- ness On."
 And yet" said a man of years, you hear people say that there is no such thing as luck in the making of mans success"