Daily camera., 1901-10-01
BEING BORN LUCKY.
Fortune Of . Man who
| TunneleA . HILL

The men around the table were tell
ing stories about being born lucky
or vice versa, says the Detroit Free
Press.
And" concluded q 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 western oil district, before prices
doomed. He started to sink his well.
with just enough money on the mort
gage to finish 1t, il he had luck, and
he struck rock before he had gone
20 feet. lie drove away at il and kept
driving for hundred feet. breaking
drills and costing money, till he final
ly threw up his hands. gave the prop
erty to his creditors and killed hun
self. The creditors investigated the
boring and found that my friend had
struck a petrifed 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 well
that was good for 800 barrels day"
There was chorus Of sighs at the
sad fate Of this unlucky one. and q
Philadelphia railroad man began some
thing more cheerful.
II had friend" he said, whose luck
- 81 So
mans whose history we have listened
to with so much pleasure-I mean
sorrow"-the Philadelphia was get
ting mixed.
That's all right" laughed the Chi
cago man. Il know what you mean"
And he made his ;en-s,rike on a
case of boring, just as the other one
did not. Which shows that fortune Is
truly = hckle goddess. Ny friend
Smith. III call him. had luck always
as boy, and as soon as he graduated
be got good job. although he was
not brilliant man al all. Which, how
ever, is no sign. because some OF the
best jobs-tha; pay the best, mean
are he'd by men who get them by luck
and not by genius. He became apro-
moter and schemer later. and went
in for himself. coming out Of every
undertaking with more or less success,
and never losing money. II made no
difference to Smith what kind OF
proposition came beforc'k him; il he
though, there was anything in il. he
did not let i, get away. The one par
ticular instance I have in mind was
the driving of tunnel on south
western railroad. He didn't know any
more abou, that sor, OF business than
. pulpit knows about practical poll
tics, but he thought il was chance
20 make something, and he wen, in
with a contractor. who had only done
ANAL jobs. Their bid WAS so low thp'
tial friends he would have lost it. He
had made considerable money in his
ventures and he put that up also as
his backing. The tunnel was to cost
about half a million dollars and Smith
stood to win $4,000 a, his own esti-
nation, and to lose 100000, accord
ing to estimates Of the contractors
who had put in higher bids. There
was TO be 500 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
let his men to work at one end Of
the tunnel only, for the first month.
Then he expected to put on a night
and day force at both ends. for Smith
was q hustler. However, his luck was
with him, as usual. and it wasn't
necessary to hustle. Before his sap
lpers had gone so feet into the hill, and
they began almost at the face Of
cliff. I'll be jiggered il they didn't
break through into cave 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 so feet of daylight on the far
side Of the hill. There was some work
TO do to put it into shape, but it hard
Ily amounted to any .h;ng. as tunneling
goes, and Smith not on.y made big
thing on his contract dirsct. but the
bonus on extra days was nearly enough
for q modest man to retire from busi-
ness on"
"And yet" said man of years. you
hear people say that there is no such
thing as luck in the making Of mans
success"