The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1911-09-21
PICKING UP HORSESHOES.

Everyone knows that the horseshoe
is an emblem of good fortune. Most Of
us will stop on the road to rescue one
from the dust. We have a hazy notion
that somehow this discarded equine
| footwear will bring us luck. We nail
it up on the shed door and wal. for the
fairies to begin delivering their gifts
| If it is LETT lying in the road there is
no telling how soon we shall lose
money or break limb or meet some
other calamity.
The old superstitution comes out of a
remote past 1t is part of an early be-
! lief that the horseshoe was a protection
against witches. II is said that for
| this reason horseshoe was at one time
nailed over nearly every door in Lon
don
What value now really inheres in
Dobbin's old shoe that you so carefully
carry home? The value of old iron
that you have saved; the amount that
the junk man will give you for your
treasure less and no more. AS u
guarantee of fortune you may rs well
have nailed up IN oil can or n scrubb-
| ing brush or pine single.
We are led, rs you see, gentle reader,
into Il discussion of the whole subject
of luck, a subject on which not all of
us doubtless will agree. We make
bold to ask whether there really is any
such thing. May we rightly speak of
chance in this universe? Does any
thing ever merely happenY Is the
world run 10y caprice and are we the
creatures of conditions that are without
rhyme or reason?
Ofcourse. the whole spirit of pre-
sent day thinking answers no. If there
is one thing of which modern science is
convinced it is that the universe is one
of law. Every effect is preceded by a
cause Nothing, absolutely nothing,
comes to pass without adequate ground
deep down in the texture of the uni
verse.
And if ala this is true of nature it is
true also of human nature. Chance is
ruled out Of the moral world no less
than out Of the physical. OF course,
we must notice that some meet constant
success in this world while others meet
equally constant failure. Some find
life a long, hard way, while for others
| it is rose strewn. There is a great in
equality in human ,ots.
| All we mean to Claim is that If we
could see deeply enough into any con
dition occupied 10y man we should see
that there is reason for the condition.
| No man is either the favorite of chance
or its victim either because, in the last
analysis of the matter there is no such
thing as chance. Everything that oc-
ours is in accord with law and order.
! 1t is bad theory and bad practice
to sit around waiting for "luck" to
bring us our desires. Success comes to
those who fulfill right conditions. We
gain the prizes for life for which We
are willing to pay in terms Of labor,
sef-denial and persistence. In the old
story Aladdin had but TO rub his mag
| ical lamp to summon obliging genii
who satisfied his every whim. But
that sort Of talisman exists only in
fiction The real genii who brings
gifts to men are named effort, fore
sight and endurance
Where is there a stronger statement
of the general truth than in those New
Testament words, whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap?n 1t is
simply an assertion of the presence OF
law in the lives of men. 1t leaves no
room for chance. 1t bars out the
horseshoe conception Of things com
pletely. 1t asserts that we ourselves
are the fashloners of our own careers.
1t is easy to blame our "luck" for the
| failures that we encounter, We are
tempted to assume that men are like
leaves to be blown hither and yon by
| the chance winds Of destiny. But all
that is wrong reasoning. Each human
being may say with the poet Henley,
| 81 am the master Of my fate" That
puts the ultimate responsibility whore
it belongs.
picl up horseshoes If you will, but
don't expect that they will bring you
| anything more than the market price
| for old iron Churchman,