THE COLLECTORS' MONTHLY 



i':; 



my competitors and consider my own 

 qualifications, the wonder to me is, how 

 I ever got the place I now occupy, I can 

 only account for it by comparing the fo- 

 rensic career to one of the street crossing 

 in our great thorough fares. You arrive, 

 just when it is clear, and get across at 

 once; another finds it blocked up, is kept 

 waiting, and arrive too late, though he 

 be the better pedestrian of the two." So 

 powerfully does fortune appear to sway 

 the destines of men, that some of the 

 most sagacious of men seem to have been 

 inclined to regard luck as the first ele- 

 ment of worldly success. "Life is to 

 short says a shrewd thinker, for us to 

 waste; its moments in deploring bad luck 

 we must go after success since it will not 

 come to us, and we have no time to spare. 

 In spite of the struggles for success, it 

 must be confessed, that it does not al- 

 ways yield the happiness desired ; it may 

 be said, and the poet has aptly express- 

 ed it, that 



The lovely toy so fiercely sought, 

 Hath lost its charms by being caugnt. 



But whatever the case may be, it is 

 quite certain, that if happiness is not 

 found in success, it surely is not found in 

 failure. Again, while success is necessary 

 to hapiness it must be remembered that 

 it is purely relative term, or in other 

 words, there are many degrees of success, 

 among which the highest are neither at- 

 tainable by all, nor essential to felicity. 

 A man may be a very successful lawyer, 

 though he should fail of becomming Chief 

 Justice of the United States Supreme 

 Court; a successful physician, though far J 

 inferior in skill to the greatest ; or a sue- 1 

 cessful merchant though he may never I 

 accumulate a tenth part of the wealth of I 

 a Stewart, a Girard or an Astor. If you j 

 wish to succeed, says a distinguished 

 writer, you must do as you would to get 

 in through a crowd to a gate all are 



equally anxious to reach. Hold your 

 ground and push hard. To stand still is 

 to give up all hope. Give your energies 

 to the highest employmenc of which your 

 nature is capable; be alive; be patient: 

 work hard ; watch for opportunities ; be 

 rigidly honest ; hope for the best ; and if 

 you fail to reach the goal of your wishes, 

 which is possible in spite of the ntmosl 

 efforts, you will die with the conscience 

 of having done your best, which is after 

 all the truest success to which man can 

 aspire. 



— ♦■ 



Feathered Assassins. 



How the "Road Runners'' of Ari- 

 zona Kill Their Enemies. 



The "road runners" are a species of 

 garrulous, long-billed, long-legged birds 

 of Eastern Arizona. They derive their 

 name from their habit of running for 

 hours along the trail, fearless and con- 

 fident, before riders. They are in deadly 

 enmity with rattlesnakes which rob their 

 nests, and have formed a simple plan for 

 the killing of their enemies. They find a 

 rattlesnake enjoying his siesta; no hard 

 matter, as he sleeps most of his time. On 

 discovering him, the feathered assassins 

 become very silent. They go about with 

 hushed and cautions steps. With bitter 

 zeal they begin the collection of pieces of 

 cactus. 



These are furnished abundantly with 

 thorns keener than steel needles. They 

 make a small but complete corral around 

 the dreaming reptile. He is absolutely 

 fenced in with cacti to a bight of two or 

 three inches. This feat a fact, the road 

 runners throw off disguise and secrecy. 

 They charge about outside the fence clam- 

 orous and flapping their wings. The rat- 

 tlesnake awakes. They revile and scoff 

 at him, and no doubt tell him of outrage 

 done on eggs of ancestral 'road runners. 

 Irritated and possibly somewhat dismay- 

 ed, the Serpant attempts to make oft". 

 He gets to the cactus barrier and assays 

 to cross it. The conspirators outside re- 

 double their yells and wing-flapping. 

 They get around in his front and storm 

 him with insults and epithet. 



As he attempts to cross, the spines, 

 sharper than he thought, wound his 



