Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1903-01-21
CHAPTER "

Nv was the healthiest and alto
gether the finest child that
ever came into the world, the most de-
sired, the best loved. And whimsical
nature exacted the smallest possible
price Of pain for him.
Yet permit me to reconsider that
statement In the light of better phi
losophy. There are those who say that
in adversely one need not shout for the
awakening Of the gods nor in the day
of superabundance dread 1t; that moth
ing comes which is not earned. 1t may
be that n young mother reaped no more
than the Just reward of consistent right
living from her earliest girlhood. How
ever that may be. the fact remains
that all things went incredibly well.
Behold Dorothy. rs pretty as ever and
not day older. tripping about the
house with song; behold the boy,
healthy as young lion and roaring,
when he roared. for his own good
pleasure and not for any Ill.
Hackett prophesied great things of
him, believing that his exploits would
some day necessitate revised edition
of our Psychic Facts" work that
was then complete except for the last
section. which Hackett wished to en-
title THE Real Facts" despite the
imputation upon the accuracy of the
preceding portions.
AS to his hopes of young Donald my
partner spoke only once in the pres
ence of the bows parents.
You'd have thought had accused
him of being cross eyed" said he to me
In describing the incident. and there
after we discussed the subject strictly
In private.
Our book eventually went to the
printer, but Hackett never saw it in n
binding. He was stricken with an i'll
ness which rushed on to fatal ter
mination in such haste that it seemed
all over in a day. and was standing by
the grave of nay Oldest friend. After
ward could hardly bear to look at the
book upon which we had labored to-
gether. left everything to others. 1t
had small success and was soon for
gotten. though recent events have led
the publishers to print some thousands
of copies from the old plates. The work
Is full of unfounded belief and equally
unfounded doubt. am proud only of
the former, which was mostly Hack
ett's. A natural. honest, seemingly
baseless belief is probably founded up
on the knowledge of the ages and the
souls sympathy with infinite wisdom,
but your doubt is likely to he your
own. and you should he the more mod
est in the expression of it.
Pardon this depression about .Psy-
chic Facts" The psychic fact with
which this present record principally
concerns itself Is Donald Donaldson,
ar. ard from this point onward shall
ttick closely 10 him. 4 have given q
view of his parents because that was
absolutely necessaryato an understand
ing of his nature and of the events in
which he took part. shall now very
briefly sketch his youth. which was
unmarked by any incident out of the
ordinary.
He was healthy baby and sturdy,
active schooiboy when the years had
brought him onward to that stage of
life. Mentally lie wus too quick to re-
quire diligence. The tasks IN the Tun-
bridge schools were easy for him, and
he led his classes without effort. 1t
must be remembered, however, that no
other pupil had equally good home
training. His mother was Il teacher,
both by nature and by instruction. He
might have advanced more rapidly I'M
der her care alone, but the public school
is part of our creed in Tunbridge. II
any school in the town had not been a
good place for Donald we should not
have taken him away. We should
have made the school better.
While upon this subject will quote
a curious remark that once heard
little girl make to another in Don's
hearing and somewhat In the way of q
taunt:
Don Donaldson always knows what
the teachers going to ask him. He
guesses it before recitation and hunts
1t up in his book"
/ questioned the little girl, but could
not learn that she had any basis for
her belief except Donald's proficiency
in his studies and vague tradition
that he could guess things" 1t was
impossible to discover any specific in
stance worth mentioning. In the
sports of boys he was very successful,
but any boy will be SO who grows up
ahead of his years. From the time
when he reached school age he was al
ways growing more rapidly in height
and weight than the average. More
over, he played with tremendous.ener-
gy and concentration. He was fond Of
rough games, but neither suffered inju-
ry nor inflicted it. Indeed he presently
began to be known as lucky" and If
were to select one attribute of his
which never deserted him and seemed
always to make its impression upon his
associates would choose his luck"
For luck is personal quality. It
means, as n rule, no more than an in
stinctive accuracy OF judgment, the
power that makes bird fly south in
the fall, though he knows nothing Of
the danger which he is escaping, hav-
ing never seen a winter.
If you tell me that it is rational supe-
riority which enables boy to thrust
his head into football scrimmage in
place where it will not encounter an
other boys fist or his skull or his feet
and 10 keep on doing this all through a
season of the game, shall laugh at
you. Yet it is well known that injuries
are not equally distributed; that nei-
Their the strong nor the prudent es-
cape them; that the boy who doesn't
get hurt is the one who has the faculty,
the natural gift, the instructive guild
ance, the luck. And the world is q
great football game, full of flying fists
and feet.
So when say that Donald was lucky I
decline to be accused of superstition or
of fatalism That which all of us be-
lieve in, though some of us affect to
doubt 1t, the thing called luck as per-
sonal asset, is neither ordinary good