Courier Democrat., 1915-07-15
HOW A SHIRKER
Won SUCCESS
Luck Proves Better Than
Labor In One Case.

This talk" said the lounger in the
country store, "about hard work bein
at the bottom of big fortunes is all
bosh. There's more fortunes started
by savin' than hard work. more by
rascality than by savin' and more by
luck than either. Did l ever tell you
about Tommy Shirk. the LATEST man
in the state? No? Well. I'll give it
to you.
Tommy married Phoebe Cults and
$500. Tom had ten acres O. land that
wouldn't even grow blackberries. He
puttered along tryin' to git somethin'
outen it, or pretendin' to, till half his
wife's money had been eaten up, then
Phoebe said he'd have to find some
way of maxim a livin. Tommy was
a good deal cut up by this and went
off to a corner of his land that was
overgrown with weeds and lay down
to think it over. Gittin' his nose right
down on the ground. he smelied ker-
osen9 At first he thought some uu
had spilled it outen lantern, but on
diggin up the dirt with his knife he
found that oil was oozin' from below
and the furder be went down the moro
of it there was.
''Well, Tom went home and told his
wife that there was oil on the prop
erty. She laughed at him, but he TUX
her to the spot and let her smell it.
Tom TUX his spade with him, an made
a hole an proved to his wifes salts
faction that the oil came from below.
She had $4OO hid away in a stockin',
and in less'n 4 month that money was
goin' outen the stockin just about as
fast as we'll was bein' sunk where
the Oil was ooZn' Mrs. Shirk was
almost crazy. seen they kept borin'
without gettin' oil. but she resolved
to put it all in an take whatever dose
was at the end. One night she handed
over the last dollar and had not struck
OIL
''The next day after dinner Mrs.
Shirk was wipin' the dishes and wet
TIM 'em ag'in with her tears when the
boss come to the door and said:
Mrs. Shirl, we've got down to
where there's oil, but it's not a-fowin'
well. 1t has to be pumped up
1.-The Shirk family was in a more
tantalizin' position than before There
was oil at the bottom of we'll, but no
means O. gettin' it up. II Tom hadn't
been SO cussed lazy he might have done
some pumpin' himself. Weeks passed,
and the family was nigh on to starvin'.
One night a big storm come up, a regu-
lar cloudburst, and when mornin' come
a creek that had run a mile from the
Shirk farm had been turned from it's
channel and was a-runnin' not hun
dred yards from the house. Mrs. Shirk
TUX on, lamentin' that the water must
run right over the oil we'll and they'd
never git nothin' but water outen it,
Tommy, who was a cheerful feller-
them wo'thless cusses always is-tried
to console her, but there warn't no
use, so he said he'd go and see about
it. Perty soon he come back and said
to his wife:
Phoebe, the creek is a-runnin' right
by the well, not over it.
Well, then she answered, If you've
got spark O. energy left you'll go to
work, pump out some oil, sell it and
git us somethin' to eat
81 got better scheme N that he
said.
81 don't want to hear none O. your
schemes the indignant wife answered.
want to see some work.
Wimmen hain't no brains for
schemes said Tom, and he went away.
There was an old water wheel on
the place, to which a former owner Of
the property had dug sluice and had