Arizona silver belt., 1901-08-08
BEING BORN LUCKY.
= Benefits Illustrated by the Good rortune of . Man Who
 Tusneled n Hiil.

The men around the table were tell ing 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 left,and buy lot in a western oil district, before prices boomed. He started to sink his we'll 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 al il and kept driving for hundred feet, breaking drills and costing money. till he final ly threw up his hands, gave he prop. erty to his creditors and killed him self. The creditors investigated the boring and found that my friend had struck petrified tree, upright in the earth and had bored for hundred feel righi into it. They moved the drill only four feet to the right and within two weeks had tapped q well that was good for 300 barrels a day
 There was a chorus of signs al the sad fate of this unlucky one, and a Philadelphia railroad man began some thing more cheerful.
 'l had q friend he said. whose luck was just the reverse of the gentle mans whose history we have listened to with so much pleasureI mean Sorrow"-the Philadelphian 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 case of boring. just as the other one did moi. Which shows thai fortune is truly iickir guGCess. My friend smith, TT call him, had luck always as a boy. and as soon as he graduated he got a good job. although he was not n hrilliSn; '2s8 --ssll. Which. how ever is no sign, because some of he bcS, jobs -that pay the best. mean are he'd ny men who get them ny luck and not by genius. He became a pro moter and schooner later, and went in for himself, coming out of every undertaking with more or less success. and never losing money It made no difference tu Smith wha1 kind of proposition came before him: if he thought there was anything in il, he did not let it gel away. The one par ticuiar instance l have in miud was the driving of tunnel on a south western railroad. He diGn't know any more about that sort of business than a pulpi, knows about practical poll tics. but he thought it was a chance to make something and he went in with a contractor, who had only done small jobs. Their bid was so low that if smith hadn't had rich and infiueu- tial friends he would have lost it. He had made considerable money in his ventures and he put that mp also as his hacking The tunnel was to cost about half s=-.-.au dollars and Smith stood to win S5O.uOo at his own esu- nation, and tu lose $1u0.OO0. accord ing to estimates of the contractors who had put in hi-h bids There was 10 be SlOO day bonus for every day ahead of time that the tunnel was completed. and forfeit of the same amount for delay.
 Well he got everything ready and set his m"- ' ..ork at one end of the tunnel only, for the first monrn. Then he expected to put on nigh, and day force at both ends, for smith was hustler However. his tuck was with him. as usual, and il wasn't necessary to hustle Before his sap pers had gone 50 feet into the hill. and they began almost al the face of --..-. "l' L- fingered if they didn't hress 'h .--f-1 -.ve 4O feel high and 20 wide and running that size half way through the hin. II got down small again for hundred feet and then widened again and ran big 10 within 30 feet of daylight on the far side of the hill. There was some work to do to put it into shape, but it hard ly amounted to anything. as tunneline goes. and smith not only made big thing on his contract direct. but the bonus on extra days was nearly enough ness on."
 And yet" said man of years, you hear DpOplp say that tbpPe is no sueh