Music Trade Review

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V O L . L. N o . 12
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Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 1 Madison Ave., New York, March 19, 1910
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$ 2E OO°PER VEAR E
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ECENTLY, while conversing with a man who has not made a startling success of life from any
viewpoint, he referred to a well-known personage, and in closing his criticism added: "He has
been a mighty lucky man."
I asked him in what way so-called "luck" had showered her smiles lavishly upon him and he
said: "Well, look what he was twenty years ago and see where he is to-day. Everything that he has
touched seems to have been successful."
It seemed almost useless to explain to this man what I knew concerning the alleged "lucky" career
of the man to whom he alluded.
I knew him twenty years ago when he was a traveling salesman and T knew that he possessed the
qualities within him which make men.
He did not think about "luck."
He just kept right on working, emulating the bulldog—got his work by the throat in a death grip
and never let loose until he had conquered.
That was the kind of man this fellow was.
He was of the type to whom Heine referred when he wrote: "Ideals take possession of us—
master us and force us into the arena where we must fight for them."
This man did tight for them and he never knew when he was beaten. He never had a knowledge
of it if he ever was. He never waited for "luck" to stroll his way.
He just hung on and never paid heed to the hard cuffs and kicks that he was receiving.
He fought to keep away from the undertow which was pulling thousands of young men in out
of sight.
He realized that in this big world of ours fight means something and "luck" does not come to the
man who pines and skulks away from the skirmish lines at the first rattle of musketry.
No! No!
Luck does not favor the man who possesses no grit.
Such a man is at once out of the game if he ever was in it.
This gentleman, like many others, seems to feel that "luck" is lying around for special people
upon whom to bestow favors.
The quicker any young man gets this idea out of his head the better it will be.
Luck is another name for hard work.
Show me a man who has amounted to anything in this world who has not worked for it.
The man who wins is not looking for soft places.
He is looking for danger spots where good fighting counts and he is the man who will win out
every time.
Tt is true tbat we see some men climb the ladder of Fame rung by rung, vaulting over other men
who perhaps in our opinion possessed more intelligence, and yet if we could go deeply enough into
the characters of these men we would find some fundamentals there which were simply overwhelming in
their dvnamic force.
Sometimes men may be crude—ma}' not possess the polish and the charm which the world appre-
ciates and which perhaps is part and parcel of the higher civilization, but they have a bulldog tenacity
and crude intelligence—a subtle something which makes the best kind of an asset, for they vault lightly
over every obstacle which confronts them and never once halt until they reach the point where all paths
of glorv must ultimately end.