It It Luck? Or Is It Pluck?

So many there aro in cvery community who continually complain that they have liad " bad luck"" that we think it will do no harria to inquire ioto these coinplaints and seo if " luck " is really at the bottom of all the distress and misfortunes auiong thü people. Ir a man signs a note with bis neighbDr and has it to pay he ascribes it to " bad luck." If he purchases a patent right or h u his barns rodded and thereby gets swindlod out of three or four liundred dollar?, he saddlcs it on to luck. If a rnerchant doing business on a small capital is extravagant in his expenses, liviug beyond hia income, or trusts out hls goods wbere he cannot collect his pay and U thereby forced into bankruptoy, "bad luck" is to blamc. If our buildings tak os fire and burn down, with no insurance on them, and we are thereby rendered penniless, "bad luck" has to bear the burden. If a dry season comes on and the farmers' crops fail, "bad luck " isthe cause; if the season is too wet, " bad luck " must bear the blame. If a field is poorly cultivated and five buahels of wheat aro raised where good cultivation might have produced thirty "I al luck " is the cause. If a valuablc cow is suft'ered to get poor through the winter by exposure to storms and lack of food and (shelter, and dies in the spring, the owncr claims he has had "bad luck, and thus it is that our laziness, our negligence, our loases, ourdisappointmonts and sorrows are all attributcd to ' ' bad luck," when the facts are that it is from want of " pluck " that these troubles and losses come upon us. If the person, when asked to sign a noto, had had the " pluck " to say no, he would not have been conipelled to pay his neighbor's noto, with no valué received. Had the farmer had the "pluck" tohave promptly loaded his doublé barrel shot gun whenever he saw thé patent right or lightning rod man coming he would not have been swindled. Had the inerchant had " pluek " to have lived within his mcans, though he was not considered quite so stylinh and " pluok " enough to say no when asked to trust out his goods, he could have paid hts honest dul)ts, and if we hail tho " pluck " to keep our buildings insured in good companieswc should not so often bc complaining that " bad luck " had left, us homelesa. If tho farmer, during dry or wet season would give extra care to tbc cultivation of his ground, plowing deep and thoroughly tilling the land so that the weeds could not get a start, he would find that hi luck would bc a great deal botter. " Luck " lies in bed until nino o'clock n the morning, while pluck is astir bv daybreak and away to business. While " luck " sita idly com])laining " pluck " builds our railroads, our steainboats, our telegraphs, tunnels our mountains, spans our rivers and builds cities on the very utmost verge of dviliz.ition. While luck pays to the poor student, stop hero, pluck tella him to go fbrward and gradúate with honors. Then f we were all to depend more upon " pluck " wo should met with loss disuppointinont and succoed bettor.