South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-10-12
BY GEORGE j. KNAPP.

cumstances which man can neither
control nor foresee. yet which infu-
ences. sometimes decisively. his fate.
Some there are who maintain that
luck is not only a great. but a decisive
factor in the lives OF individuals and
nations; others there be who will have
it that no such thing as luck exists.
who takes an unprejudiced look at the
world. There is such a thing as luck,
and som times 1t 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
further than we care TO carry the sub
ject. On the surface Of things, which
is by odds the most interesting region
OF them, we have stated the rule cor
rectly.
If one looks over the field of hu-
man affairs. he will see here and there
a case that seems the rank favOritism
of fortune, but the longer he gazes
the more he will wonder whether
these apparent favors are worth hav-
ing. The young man who is left a
multi-milliOnaire, with neither a trade
nor the need Of learning one, is one OF
the unluckiest of men. For, unless
he is born with a most unusual meas
ure of foresight and philosophy. he
will find that his wealth marks him off
from his fellows and isolates him in a
gilded prison, where true friendliness
and human fellowship may not enter.
And that is the worst of miSfOr-
tunes. The common lot may be hard,
but far harder are the fortunes OF
him who is separated too thoroughly
from the common lot.
Wellington, you remember. once
declared that he made luck. He didn't;
at least, not in the sweeping vain
glorious meaning OF his phrase. 1t
was luck, that is to say, il was some
thing that he could neither fOresee
nor control-which allowed him to
face and beat NapoleOn's quarreling
marshals and their divided forces, in
stead of having to bear the crushing
onset Of the united forces of the
French empire. led by the hero of
Austeriitz himself Waterloo was the
luckiest day IN the history of a very
lucky nation, for if one of a half a
dozen unpredictable 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 de-
served his success. He knew that the
only certain thing about luck is that
il is bound TO change, and he held on
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
and refrained from slanderiag his
army.
And for that matter. we in America.
would do we'll 10 acknowledge that in
many, many ways fortune has been
very kind TO Us. The fact that Wash
ingtOn lived at the time of the ReVO-
luton. that Give died before he could
take command of the British armies
in that war, that Arnold's treason
came too late TO ruin, that Thomas
Jefferson was able 10 push through the
first 10 amendments 10 the constitu-
tion-these are favcrs for any of
which Rome would have buried the
altar OF fortune in costly sacrifices.
Nor must we forget that the good for
tuLe OF having Lincoln for our war
president, could not wholly be cOun-
terbalanced, 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 unbecoming-
perhaps unpleasant-to inquire too
closely into how much of our luck we
made ourselves.
The man most frequently thought Of
when luck is mentioned, is Napoleon.
Yet there was never a man whose
successes and failures could so easily
be traced 10 imself, his genius and
his folly. y Neon was really two
men in one. first young, sober, "A
hard work ng 3 MUS. the other a con-
ceited, self-indulgent. gifted gambler.
Each deserved just what he got. In
his earlier days Napoleon took no
chances that genius and study, and in
credible effort could rule out. In his
FIRST Italian campaign. for instance,
though he had much less than d
fourth the total number a. troops sent
against him. in all but two OF his
Il pitched battles he OutEumbered his
enemy on the field These two were
Arcola and Rivoli. Joubert's corps
marched all night 10 get 10 the last
named battlefield. fought all the next
dav and marched all the next night