The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1909-02-11
LUCK.


LUCK.
Sometimes it is Decisive Of Ones
Destiny.
Luck may be defined as those cir
cumstances which man can neither
control nor foresee, yet which in
] fluence, sometimes decides his
fate. Some there are who maintain
that luck is not only great but a
decisive factor in the lives of indi-
viduals and nations, others there be
who will have it that no such thing
as luck exists Neither view can be
accepted by one who takes an I'M
prejudiced look at the world. There
lis such a thing as luck and some
times it is decisive of ones destiny.
But more often man makes his own
destiny, and the troubles which he
lays to a malign fate are due to
his own self-indulgence and short
sightedness. OF course, one may say
that it is bad luck to have such quail
tiles. That is probably true, but
it is farther than we care to carry
the subject. On the surface Of things
which is by odds the most interesting
region Of them, we have stated the
rule correctly.
If one looks over the fields of hui
man affairs we will see here and the1
a case that seems the rank favori-
tism of fortune, but the longer he
gazes the more he will wonder wheth-
er these apparent favors worth havirg
A young man who is left multi
millionair, with neither a trade nor
the need of learning one, is one
of the unluckiest Of men, For, un-
less he is born with a most unusual
measure of foresight and philosophy,
he will find that his wealth marks
him off from his fellows and ilolates
him in a giledd prison, where true
friendless and human fellowship may
not enter. And that is the worst of
misfortune. The common lot may be
hard, but far harder are the fortunes
of him who is separated thorough
ly from the common lot.
i Wellington, you remember once de-
clared that he made luck. He didn't
at least, not in the sweeping. 1t was
luck-that its to say, it was some
thing that he could neither foresee
nor control-which allowed him to
face and beat Napoleons quarreling
marshals and their divided forces, in
stead of having to bear the crush
: ing onset of the united forces of the
. French empire, led by the hero Of Au
sterlitz himself Waterloo was the
luckiest day in the history of a very
lucky nation for if one OF half doZ-
en- unprotected events had failed to
occur Wellington would have been
wiped off the slate by o'clock,
while Butcher, with his saving bat
talions, were yet miles and miles away
: In one sense Wellington deserved his
| success. He knew that the only GER
tain thing about luck is that it is
bound to change; and he held on
t with tenacity that even England has
seldom rivaled, till the change came
and the Prussians. But one cannot
) help thinking that Wellington would
: have shown more modesty, not to
: mention better sporting blood, had he
/ admitted the help given by his allies
} army.
: And, for that matter, we in Anne
RIGA would do well to acknowledge
Z that in many, many ways fortune
has been very kind to us. The fact
7 that Washington lived at the time OF
) the Revolution, that Give died before
) he could take command of the Brit
) ish armies in that war, that Arnold s
? treason came too late to ruin, that
Thomas Jefferson was able 20 push
through the first ten amenmdents
: to the constitution-these are favors
. for any one of which Rome would
have buried the altar of Fortune in
costly sacrifices. Nor must we forget
that the good fortune of having Lin
coin for our war president could not
wholly be counterbalanced, even by
the frightful catastrophe of his death
just when his power for good was
greatest. Of a certainty we have
been a lucky people. 1t would be I'M
, ecoming-perhaps unpleasant-to
inquire too closely into how much of
our luck we made ourselves.