Year: 1874

There arc .omo people who arc neve


in luck. II they were not born under Al


unlucky star, il was because wandering
comet, yet more balclul was IN tho rs
cendeDt. They made at the beginning


some one of those intinitesimal errors
which in the course of a lifelong caIcula


tiou widen out into the logarithmic fig
ures; they came into the world behind
time, and have always been in search o
it. and never catching up; they were
born just too late for legacy. they died
just too late for the life insurance which
happens TO expire first. Their piece oi
bread Is sure to fall, and always on the
butlered side; their dear gazelles are
sure TO die; if they think they can play
comedy, compelling fate thrusts them
into TRACED; they would like 10 write
poetry. but are obliged to make living
by plain prose; it they had chance in
an oil-well. ii runs nothing but mud and
water; il they have silver mine. it
turns out false lead; if they dabbIe in
stocks il is only TO bum their fingers; all
their bulls are beard. all their swans are
geese; there are seven Fridays in every
week OF their lives, aud all of them are
black Fridays. so black that they are blue
On the wedding journey Of these worthless
nobody has = slipper to throw alter lhem 4;
horse shoes never DO lie in their path {;
let them get up ever SO early in the morn
ing TO catch their worm, an earlier bird
has been before them. The blind beggar
on the corner always sees them. when
their pockets are empty aud L charming
girl Is their companion, before he sees
anybody else The confidence man always
selects them FOR victims; if they travel,
they are tho Jonahs OF the journey: if
they stay at home. it is 10 see the folly of
not having gone abroad their brothers
never learn to swim. and sail round the
world in safety they learn every Trick Of
the water. TO drown in their own bath
tub; regardless OF the economics, other
people may put upon bacon in the engine
fires and sit on the valve. and nothing
happens; but these will not only be
blown up by the steam OF their own tea.
kettle, but will have TO eat their greens
without bacon. No contagious disease
goes a begging for the want OF them 10
take il, and always at the most inauspi-
cious season; their good crop and their
neighbor's fampe never come together;
il they make u corner in cream, there is
always thunderstorm on hand TO sour
Il; in short. whatever they do. they will
have reasons To wish thew had done the
other Thing they are so invariably out Of
joint with the times and seasons OF pros
pcrity. that il fools cap be thrown in
to crowd where they are, theirs is the
head il falls on, while they are led to de-
clare if they had been born hatters, other
people would have been born without
heads and they are thankful for but one
thing in tho world. and that is that they
were not born a pair of twins.


1t may have been TO this strangely in
fclcitous class that those women OF the
French Revolution belonged, who. when
one tyrant went down, and before an
other came to the top, were taken from
the prison to the guillotine by mere rout-
inc For such 4 fate rs that would seem
something To DO avoided neither by wit
nol learning, and only 10 have come
through natural alienation from luck or
OF ill.luck at all, certainly these and such
as these are the only ones who can claim
any striking disagreement with it.


But the wretched individuals who pride
themselves on being SO invariably un'
fortunate. arc always. as the saying is,
down on their luck. They never attrlb-
ute any OF their mislortunes to their
rashness or their procrastination, 10 their
Incidence or their medllesUmeness, 10
their pusilanimi,y or their ovcrplus of
pluck, 10 their indebtedness or TO the
element omitted in their combinations
they neither reproach Others nOr them
seIves-it is always and merely their
, luck Luck is the divinity that shapes
their ends; and is we will accept u new
reading of the old passage, is the divinity
that shapes our end rough.hew them how
they will "Just my luck" is tho shib-
bole,h they use on all occasions, ill
other people adopt their own views oi
themselves, and leave them out of their
schemes and out Of their parties, rs per-
sons with whom it is not best TO attempt
fine undertakings. ill the unlucky ones
cry out against their treatment rs a fresh
manifestation OF the injustice of PrOvi'
dence, and against themselves as nothing
but the fools OF loltune.


II has sometimes occurred 10 us that a
possible reason for many of the woes of
these poor creatul es is that they are com.
pletely out Of time and place. They dc
not teong TO this generation or TO thi:
era; they were unluckY at the outset
that they reached this planet some thou
sand years alter all their kindred souls
had passed away. They belonged 10 the
times of the augurs; TO the times when
adventures were undertaken by the direc
lion Of the smoke of sacrifice or the posi-.
tion OF the enlrails OF animals; TO the
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