Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-06
FAILURE.
No Cast-Iron Rule Can Be Laid by
Which Men May Succeed.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
pragmatical man who pretends to solve
all problems of the universe with the COM
pleteness and precision of mathematical
demonstration recently wrote book in
which he assembled on one hand all the
qualities which result in success, and on the
other all the defects which must mean fail
ure In life Good health, industry persever-
ance. a certain cast Of mind, a certain re-
ligious attitude and other conditions were
named as the price of success. Ill health,
the lack of tenacity and of education GER
tain defects of mental vision and the fail
ure of the individual Ito adjust himself to
the universe were the conditions precedent
to failure.
These foolish explanations and conjectures
by charlatan writers, who pretend to ex-
hibit some sort of scientific method In their
discourses Of life, suggest the folk tale ex-
planning how the came to be salt.
well-disposed wizard, be it known, gave to
worthy but desperately poor man a GER
tain wonderful little automatic mill some
what like the common coffee mill of the do
mestic kitchen. When the owner made the
command to the mill to grind soup or fish
or anything else the little wonder began to
turn out the product with great rapidty,
and would continue until the crack of doom
to produce unless the owner should say,
"Hocus- pocus, STOP
In the course of time the owner, having
got everything his heart could desire. sold
the mill to a rich combination of foreigners
or. as we should say now, a syndicate,
whose members took the mill aboard ship to
go to their home. On the way there was
need Of salt, and the mill was commanded
to grind out the salt. When a huge pile of
owners commanded the mill to stop; but.
while they could think of "hanky panky,
stop" and many other mystical words, they
could not think Of "hocus-pocus, and as
the salt began to weigh the ship down to
the water line the people were obliged to
toss the mill overheard Thus from that
day to this the sea has been salt.
AS a scientific explanation of the sadness
Of the sea this appears not to be wholly
satisfying, but it is as good as the scientific
formula which any human being can give
as means Of arriving at success, as salts
Tying as most of the explanations that can
be offered for the failure Of many men in
life. In truth, the failure Of some men can
only be explained by saying that they do
not know how to succeed. Tenacity. health,
strength and courage are powerful aids In
any human enterprise. and Joined with in
telligence and character they WILL in the
vast majority of cases. result In distin-
guished success: but, nevertheless, many
who appear to have these qualities fail for
some ineXplicable reason to reach the goal.
Indifferent health, not quite SO much in
dustry, a little lower degree Of persever-
aHce, an lHlelilseiice apparently Inucn loWer,
a reebler courage and a quite inferior edu-
cation oftentimes bear along the possessor
on the current, aided by every favoring
gale, past his more worthy competitor. 1t is
pretty certain that laziness, Indifference
rank ignorance, stupidity and feeble resolu-
ton will almost inevitably fail; but 1t is
idle to blink the fact that among men of
like rank in the realm of intelligence and
strength of character there is an inscruta-
BILE difference in respect to what has been
called the faculty of success, and In addi-
ton there Is the play of chance.
OF thirty-seven prospectors in a gold and
copper bearing district of the west, twenty
nine were wholly unsuccessful during one
season. Among the unsuccessful were four
or five men acknowledged to be superior in
training. skill and experience In the mining
business to any of the rest of the thirty
seven, and among the eight who struck
leads or found ore the most worthless and
drunken tramp literally stumbled upon the
richest find :