Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1881 — Unlucky People. [ARTICLE]

Unlucky People.

A genuinely-unlucky man will .entail as much misery upon those who are dependent upon or associated with him as a genuinely-wicked one. They can never be relied upon. Their speculations turn out ill when those of stupider men succeed. Their inventions are just a little anticipated by those they never heard of. Their books or plays do not become popular. Their crops are sure to be injured by the floods or the tornadoes ; their vessels to be wrecked or burned; their houses consumed within the twen-ty-four hours after the insurance policy had expired, or the day before they had resolved to take one out. Judges are sure to rule adversely to their interests ; juries always bring in verdicts against tnem. Their letters are certain to go astsay; their baggage or expresss packages to be lost or stolen. It is they who are always looking for their missing knives, and are constantly wondering where their hats or their umbrellas have gone to. The money they put into their pocketbooks, or the pocketbooks they put into their pockets mysteriously disappear. Even when they desire to be prudent, and, with considerable sacrifice and pains, buy their potatoes, their coal and other stores in advance at reduced rates, the prices of the succeeding winter invariably fall below what they have paid. They are to be dreaded as Jonah was dreaded. The boughs of the trees they climb always break; the boats they row or sail always capsize. The train they take is by no means to be expected at its terminus on time, and, even if late, should cause gratitude that it got there at all. Or, if they are not the victims, they are the authors, of all sorts of involuntary mischief. Altogether, shrewd old Rothschild was wise when he counseled his sons to “ avoid unlucky men.”