Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-06-03
HARD LUCK HIS STORY:
WORLDS STAR OPTIMIsT

WORLDS STAR OPTIMIST
Chicago Tribune: The most opti-
mistic man i'm the world has register
ed at small West Side hotel and is
looking for work.
1t is such small hotel and ii is
so located that il barely escapes
being ten, twenty. thirty" lodging
Ihouse-but il might have been worse.
| The optimistic man has been preSi-
dent of Il state university, he has been
chief of the United States weather
bureau. and head of the Astronomical
department of the University of
Michigan. and lately he has been
working in a lumber camp. and again
| in ship yard-but il might have
been worse.
| Now. being more than 80 years old,
and with his course run in his chosen
profession. the American Mark Tap
ley is trying to begin a business ca
reer. That is his ambition. At pres
ent he is looking for work and trying
to sell mining stock.
| Mark W. Harrington * the optimiS-
tic man. For twelve years he was an
instructor in the University of Mich
gan and was head of the department
| of astronomy when he left. From
this position he was appointed to that
of chief of the weather bureau.
where he served until President
! Cleveland'S election. Then he was
elected president of the Washington
State University at Seattle. where he
served until 1897.
| Since then he has been "browsing"
| a no la, removed from,
his position N the Washington State
University after an election in the
state. That closed his career as an
educator.
Soon he neededmoney and went into
Il lumber camp to earn it. He work
ed there until his health gave out.
Then he went to Il hospital.
After he had reganed his health he
tried his luck again in ship yard.
At the manual tasks of n common
laborer he worked until a beam fell
ON him. Then he went back to the
hospital.
! At various occupations he tried his
luck and now he is i'm Chicago looking
for work for persons who want to
buy mining stock.
| Luckily providence gave me an OPP
timistic disposition he said yester-
day. so it does not matter. Other
wise l might not have been able to
stand it. But it might have been
worse
| The optimistic man does not drink.
lie smol>es-a pipe. because il is eco
Inomical. He has blue eyes and a
smile that seems frozen-or, rather.
fastened-to his face. He secured
his academic education at Northwest
ern University and finished at the Uni
versity of Michigan. He speaks a
number of languages and reads even
more.
THE universities do not want Il man
who is over 80 years Old he said, in
leXplaining why he does not try to Sc
cure a position in some school. I'm
fact, no one seems to want man
over 50.
But my affairs seem to he picking !
up. Things have not looked brighter
for many years. There has been no
time when l would not rather do
manual work than borrow from my
friends when | had no prospects of |
paying them back
When things do not look bright. even |
to the optimistic man, he hunts a |
park and watches the people.
II can find n great deal of amuse-
ment in Lincoln park, for Instance
he said. Il like TO watch the people |
and the animals
He also has his generous fund of |
information as solace, and when he /
gets back to the small hotel in West /
Madison street he can light his pipe, |
sit in the window with the dodgers"
all around him-and think.
During his service as head of the
weather bureau Mr.. Harrington was
sent to Hamburg as the official rep
resentative of the United States to
congress of meteorologists. His fav-
orite language is Spanish. He would
rather talk about languages than
about his hard luck which he
never calls hard luck.
The work the optimistic man is
doing just at present-selling mining
stock-is what he calls absolutely
labor but it is some
thing. Something else will turn up
pretty soon or else his stock deal will
prove a success. The optimistic
man is sure of that. He is a lineal
descendant of Mark Tapley. Colonel
Sellers, and Micawber. l.