The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-26
THE EVENING STOR
LUCK VERSUS ENERCY,

| 1uIS Idlk, Sa1Q the Younger IN Ine
country store, about hard work bein'
at the bottom of big fortunes is all
bosh- There's more fortunes started
by savin' than hard work, more by
rascality than by savin' and more by
luck than either. Did I ever tell you
about Tommy Shirk, the LATEST man
in the state? No? Well, I'll give it
to you.
/ Tommy married Phoebe Cults and
$500. Tom had ten acres o. land that
/ wouldn't even grow sblackberries. He
puttered along tryin' to git somethin'
outen it, or pretendin' to, till half his
Iwife's money had been eaten up, then
Phoebe said he'd have to find some
way of maxim Twin. Tommy was
a good deal cut up by this and went
/ off to corner of his land that was
loVergrown with weeds and lay down
to think it over. GittiH' his nose right
down on the ground, he smeIled kero-
sene. At first he thought some I'm
had spilled it outen a lantern, but on
diggin' up the dirt with his knife he
found that oil was oozin' from below
and the furder he went down the
more of it there was.
/ We'll, Tom went home and told his
wife that there was oil on the proper
ty. She laughed at him, but he took
her to the spot and let her smell it.
Tom TUX his spade with him, an made
a hole an proved to his wife's salts
| faction that the oil came from below.
She had $500 hid away. in a stockin /,
anu III less II a 1nOI1ln LndL money WAS
goin' outen the stockin' jist about as
fast a well was bein' sunk where
the oil was oozin'. Mrs. Shirk was al
most crazy, seen they KEEP borin'
without gettin' oil, but she resolved to
i put it all in an take whatever dose
was at the end. One night she handed
over the last dollar, and had not struck
oil. She was too broken I'D to pay
Tom, tellin' him to notify the boss
digger that the funds were all gone
and not to come back no more. Tom
he started, but bein' dreadful lazy laid
sleep and didn't wake up till the men
had gone home. Then he went to the
tavern and spent the money, but he
!; didn't say nothin' about it to his wife
THE next day, after dinner, Mrs
Shirk was wipin' the dishes and victim
EN- ag'in with her tears when the boss
come to the door and said:
. Mrs. Shirk, we've got down to
where there's oil. but it's not a-flowin
well. 1t has to be pumped up.
1.-The Shirk family was in a more
tantalizin' position than before. There
was oil at the bottom of a we'll, but nc
. means o. gettin' it up. If Tom hadnf
been so cussed 4lazy he might have
done some pumpin' himself. Weeks
passed. and the family was nigh on tc
! starvin. One night a big storm come
. lup-a regular cloudburst-and wher
mornin' come a creek that had run Z
mile from the Shirk farm had beer
{ turned from its channel and wa.
! a-runnin' not a hundred yards from
the house. Mrs. Shirk TUX on. lament
in that the water must run right ovel
the oil we'll and they'd never gi
. nothin' but water outen it. Tommy
! iwho was a cheerful feller-then
Wo 'thless cusseS always iS-tried tt
console her. but there warn't no use
so he said he'd go and see about it
Perry soon he come back and said t.
his wife: =.
"'Phoebe, the creek is a-runnin
right by the well, not over it.
Well, them she answered, i
you've got a spark O. energy left you'll
go to work, pump out some oil, sell i
and git us somethin' to eat
: 81 got a better scheme n that hi
said. 5-6
"'I don't want to hear none O. >youl
schemes the indignant wife answered
| I want to see some work
'Wimmen haint no brains fol
schemes, said Tom, and he wen
away.
e'There was an old water wheel or
the place. to which a former owner OF
property had dug sluice an1
had run saw. Tommy Shirk was too
lazy to do any work himself. but M
t hired a man on tick to haul the vince
to his we'll. Then he went home an6
TUX down the pump and TUX it to tht
we'll too He rugged the pump to the
water wheel, which was turned by the
i stream. Jist as the oil begun to flow
lalOng comes MIS-. Snlrk. 1Om Wal
/ lrestin' on his back, with his hat ovel
, his eyes. smokin' his pipe. His wife
mot noticin' the pumpin, and seem
Tom takin' it easy, begun to fire word:
at him. Tom raised his hand without
! teven Iiftin' his hat often his face an6
fpointed at the pump throwin oil.
THAT was the last time Mrs. Shirl
ever spoke disrespectful to her hus
band. She admitted that if he wa:
lazy he had two redeemin' pints-
, luck and ingenuity. Tom connected
!. his we'll with a pipe line that run neal
BY and the oil ran merrily, Shirk
fcharging it up at the market price pei
barrel. His well produced about
twenty barrels day, and even with
oil at so cents a barrel he made about
$40 a day. Bimeby he sunk another
well and got another supply of oil
about as large as the first. The same
stream and water wheel and pump
did the work, and Tom had only. to
make out a bill for $40 where before
he had made out one for $10.
"Tom Shirk still smokes his pipe in
the sun, with his hat over his eyes, but
he usually does it on the porch of a
fine house he has built on the spot
where his cabin used to be- Mrs.
lShirk has come to consider him a
prodigy of genius. and they all git a
lot o. good outen their oil weels. When
they want to go away they jist let the
ipump go on pumpin 1t works as
well at night as in the daytime.
what I means by this yarn Isl:
Gimme the luck and give the other
teller the energy
p0rNTT-U pARaC1Apus