The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-06-20
JINXES

"a jnx followed Sarazen, Barnes and Hagen" three American
golfers, two of whom failed to qualify and one who barely scraped
into a qualification tie by a single stroke. "a jinx" is always res
lponsible for a slump in a baseball club. Darn the jinxes, anyway.
Jinx nothing! That's a mere excuse and excuses do not suf-
flee. There isn't any such thing as a jinx that trails a man up
and throws him down no such thing as a jinx in business or sport
or any activity. Forget it kid, forget it. It's mere mush.
The reason a man gets in a game is because he meets a better
man-at least a better man that day or because he doesn't play
mis- own game. The reason a man fails in business is because he
can't match his competition or because he doesn't make his bust
ness the first thing all the time. This jnx stuff is all poppycock.
There's nothing to it.
If you hunt down this alleged jinx it consists of neglect of one
or another kind or of actual inability to match the competition.
1t may mean i'll health of sudden sickness which are not jinxes
but a condition which might or might not have been avoided; it
may mean mediOcrity matched against a higher type; it may
mean a lew drinks daily or the waste OF valuable time from bust
ness; it may mean secret dissipation of one kind or another; may
mean rotten morals so far concealed; may mean all manner of
things good or bad, culpable or not that make for defeat; but
this asinine conception that some ghostlke ink trails men in
business or sport to trip them up at critical periods is all moon
shine unless it is actual "moonshine." There's no such animal.
The best men in the world at golf or business get beat now
and then; and the best men know why. They can tell you if they
would. They know it isn't a jnx. Those best men can look back
and see where they lost it days and days perhaps before the match.
Nine times out of ten a man is his own jinx.
You'll get beat now and then. That's right and proper. You
want to win all the matches but if you can win half and a little
more you ought to be satisfied. Anyway you'll have to be. But
you can't break even unless you concentrate on every stroke in
every match and play it out to the last stroke. That's how Hagen
got into the match over thereon the last stroke. And mind a
game is never lost until the last stroke has been played in sport
or in business. Always keep that in mind. A coward loses to a
game mah just DIS liz morse Id quits III II SCreIcn loses % Che
courafe of slower one who runs it out to the last lap with every
ounce of strength and gameness. When you think of jinxes think
of that. Usually the other fellow or the other horse carries the
) ink right with him.
There are too many jinxes. Hard work has become a ink
Thrift has taken on the attitude of a jinx. Perseverance, early
rising, late working, sweat and overans are bothered badly will
inXes. Which suggests that most jinxes are born of laziness
desire to live easily, self conceit, dread of responsibility, care
lessness and the horde of jnxes that are not jnxes at all bu
that trip up those that keep company with them.
- Sure, Sure boy, you'll get beat, perhaps often, sometime
X you'll have quite a stretch of it but it isn't a jnx. Not by a darne
> sight. It's you. And of course the other fellow.
h After all there will be something patriotic about the Fourt