“There is, eh!—how much is it worth?”
“Well, I don’t know, but I’ve dug out ten thousand dollar’s worth a’ready, and I expect to get a great deal more.”
“The d——l you do?”
“Yes—good bye, Squire.”
Report says that this was the only valuable piece of land the defaulter ever bought, and that this was all the money he ever got back again, from all his investments. I have even heard it whispered that this same Yankee was one of the speculators concerned in making the large sale to him, in the first place, and that the “throwing it in,” was but the cast of a die, to bind a profitable bargain, trusting to their ingenuity to get it back again; and, having cheated him at any rate, whether they should get it again, or not.
DOCTRINE OF CHANCES.
A mind as cool, even, as the defaulter’s, could hardly retain its just balance, under such accumulations of misfortune, and accordingly, we find him sometimes afflicted with gloomy forebodings of the future, sometimes brooding over the disappointments of the past; and always taking that course that will lead him deeper into difficulty.
Whether it is right or prudent for a man involved in embarrassment to attempt to relieve himself by a single coup de main, may be a very fruitful theme for those who like to calculate the doctrine of chances; but, in my opinion, a chance, which may be operated upon in so many ways, as may the rise or fall of property, or the success of speculation of any kind—and, instead of being governed by any such natural laws as may be supposed to belong to chance, wherein the aggregate results must be always the same, although we do not know before hand how they will come up particularly, is overruled and affected, more or less, by the changing opinions and volition of almost every one in the community—deserves not the name, even of chance, and, in my opinion, involves the certainty and necessity of failure. And, although such a thing hath been as success in this way, yet all my experience goes to show me, that the “chance,” so called, is not as one in the hundred. The fact that a man is embarrassed signifies, also, that he is unable to control his affairs, and, if he cannot control them in the state they are, their expansion, out of his legitimate course, will not help him much.
TRUE SECRET OF SUCCESS.
I believe every successful man will tell me, that the secret of his success has been, the preserving this ability to himself; and my own experience has shown me, that whenever the case is otherwise, one not only has the caprices of chance against him, but the caprices, cupidity, and contrary interests of his fellow men, to contend with, and the sooner he comes to a stand, the better for himself, and his friends. These reflections are not suggested by a default, when viewed in any other light, than as a pecuniary embarrassment; and, in this particular, they are alike applicable to all embarrassed men.