Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-08
At the End Of the Rainbow.
CONDITION OR THEORY.
BY Walt Mason.

LATE Kirsmith is laid up again, with
a surgeon in attendance" said the drug
gist. He was chopping UP some fire
wood and managed to slice of most OF
his left leg. He complains that he has
the worst luck of any man in the United
States, but don't believe in luck. Hts
just awkwardness or carelessness that
gets him into so much trouble
In the days of the years of my pill
grimage have heard a good many SUI
perior people say there is no such thing
as luck" remarked the village patri-
arch, land they never have brought
conviction to me. Wise men argue
against superstitions Of all kinds. but
most of them have goosefiesh il a dog
bowls under their window, and they don't
like to walk under a ladder or see a
We used to have a school superiptend-
ent In this town who was almost batty
on the subject. He had no respect for
any man who believed I'm superstitions.
One evening he was walking home with
me and arguing along that line, and
presently noticed him look over his
left shoulder and remark that there was
new moon. AS everybody knows a
man can't do a worse thing Disaster
70 sure to follow. i told him so, and he
ful laugh laughed he. -
THE next day an INDECENT aunt with
TOUR children came to visit him. and
MS cow chOked to death on a turrip,
and his little girl stumbled into bees
nest and was stung in the most scan
dalous way, and he stepped into an open
trapdoor and fell down five miles of cell
lar stairs. / never saw a man more
chastened in spirit than he was and as
long as he lived In this town he never
Ina e.
sane superstitiOns.
If you don't believe in luck how do
you account for the checkered career
OF old Sol GangIing? Nobody can ac-
cuse him OF awkwardness or careless
ness. yet something is forever happening
to him. and he spends most Of his income
TOR arnica and material for plaster casts
It's Just plain bad luck and nothing else.
Last summer he bought an old family
horse that had been driven by clergy
never was a more pious, respectable
horse. All the kids In town used to 60
into the pasture and ride old DObbin
bareback, climbing up on him by way of
his tail, and he never. batted an eye
Sol felt that he was absolutely safe in
buying that horse. yet the first time he
led the animal to the pump for q drink
old Dobbin deliberately wheeled around
and let fly with both heels and hoisted
Sol over the henhouse. and he couldn't
couldn't have happened to any other
man. II 1t wasn't bad luck, what was it?
You remember how We all took q
short cut across the pond last winter
There was distinct path on the ice and
everybody followed it, and some Of the
men who went that way weighed more
than Sol and any fourteen of Sors an
cestorS. Nothing happened to any Of the
heavyweiehts,, but when Sol took that
short cut the Ice caved in and he soaked
around in ice water colder than Mount
Mckinley for a couple OF hours before
We could get him hshed out. He had a
narrow escape from pneumonia and
bronchitis and a, lot more family dis
eases. Yet there are people who will
sit here In this drug store and say there
is no such thing as bad luck!
"A year or two ago some. OF us were
standing In front OF Spink's. jewelry
store. Sphinx had a big wooden clock
suspended over the walk by an iron rod.
That clock had been swinging there ever
since the town, was established. Well,
We milled around, thrasheds out the po-
;litica1 situation, and that clock delib-
:erately waited until Sol got under It and
then 1t broke from Its moorings and
came down on him. and the sauelching
sound 1t made was simply preposterOus.
i forgot how many of Soils ribs were
broken. but he had an awful time for
several weeks.
''Why did that clock wait quarter Of
Sol? Scores OF citizens passed under 1t
every day-nien who deserved punish
.ment far more than Sol ever did-and it
paid no attention to them. It Just wait
ed and brooded through the long, slow
footed years until 1t got Sol where 1t
wanted him, and then 1t let 80. II that
wasn't bad luck for Sol. what was I'll