The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1906-01-03
LUCK Versus ENERGY


lorl3lnaI.t
This talk" said the lounger in the
country store, ''about hard work beiI'
at the bottom of big fortunes is all
bosh. There's more fortunes started
by savin' than hard work, more by
rasc1iity than by savin' and more by
luck than either. Did j ever tell you
in tie state? No? Well, I'll give it
to You.
Tommy married Phoebe Cults anG
$500. Tom had ten acres o land that
wouldn't even grow blackberrieS. He
putt1red along tryin' to git somethiL'
Outen it. or pretendin' to, till half his
wife's money mad been eaten up, then
Phoebe said he'd have to find some
way of maxim a livin'. Tommy was
a good deal cut up by this and went
off to a corner of his land that was
overgrown with weeds and lay down
to think it over Gittin' his nose right
down on the ground, he smelled ker-
Osene. At first he thought some I'D
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.
well, Tom went home and told his
wife that there was oil On the prop
erty She laughed at him, but he took
her to the spot and let her smell it.
t,,I- I, ic,s do 10
hole an proved to his wife's salts
faction that the oil came from below.
She had $400 hid away in stockin',
and in leSS'n a month that money was
goin' outen the stOckin' jist about as
fast as well was bein' sunk where
the oil was OoZin'. Mrs. Shirk was
almost crazy. seen they KEEP BORN
without gettin' oil, but she resolved
to 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 up to pay
the money herself, so she gave it to
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
down to smoke his pipe. He went to
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
taro lo'i, @l,o
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
The Shirk family was in more tan
talizin' position than before. There
was Oil at the bottom of well, but no
means o gettin' it up. If Tom hadn't
been 50 cussed lazy be might have
done some pumpin' himself Weeks
passed, and the family was nigh on to
starvin'. One night a big storm come
up-a regular cloudburst-and when
mornin' come creek that had run a
mile from the Shirk farm had been
turned from its channel and was
a-runnin' not hundred yards from the
house. Mrs. Shirk TUX on, lamentin'
that the water must run right over the
oil well and they'd never git nothin'
but water outen it. Tommy, who was a
cheerful feller-them worthless cusses
always is-tried to console her, but
there warnt no use, so he said he'd go
and see about il. Perty soon he come
back and said to his wife:
Phoebe, the creek is a-runnin' right
by the well, not over it.
"'Well, them she answered, If
you've got spark O. energy left you'll
go to work, pump out some oil, sell it
and git us somethin' to eat
az got better scheme n thar he
said.
"I don't want to hear none g your
schemes the indignant wife answered.
I want to see some work
"'Wimmen hain't no brains for
schemes said Tom, and he went away
There was an old water wheel ON
the place, to which a former owner Of
property had dug sluice and had run a
saw. Tommy Shirk was too lazy to