Luck
[Note - This is not a fancy sketch. I got it from a clergyman who was an instructor at Woolwich forty years ago, and who vouched for its truth.]
It was at a banquet in London in honour of one of the two or three conspicuously illustrious English military names of this generation. For reasons which will presently appear, I will withhold his real name and titles, and call him Lieutenant General Lord Arthur Scoresby, V.C., K.C.B., etc., etc., etc. What a fascination there is in a renowned name! There sat the man, in actual flesh, whom I had heard of so many thousands of times since that day, thirty years before, when his name shot suddenly to the zenith from a Crimean battlefield, to remain forever celebrated. It was food and drink to me to look, and look, and look at that demigod; scanning, searching, noting: the quietness, the reserve, the noble gravity of his countenance; the simple honesty that expressed itself all over him; the sweet unconsciousness of his greatness - unconsciousness of the hundreds of admiring eyes fastened upon him, unconsciousness of the deep, loving, sincere worship welling out of the breasts of those people and flowing toward him.
The clergyman at my left was an old acquaintance of mine - clergyman now, but had spent the first half of his life in the camp and field, and as an instructor in the military school at Woolwich. Just at the moment I have been talking about, a veiled and singular light glimmered in his eyes, and he leaned down and muttered confidentially to me - indicating the hero of the banquet with a gesture:
"Privately - he's an absolute fool."
This verdict was a great surprise to me. If its subject had been Napoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon, my astonishment could not have been greater. Two things I was well aware of: that the Reverend was a man of strict veracity, and that his judgement of men was good. Therefore I knew, beyond doubt or question, that the world was mistaken about this hero: he was a fool. So I meant to find out, at a convenient moment, how the Reverend, all solitary and alone, had discovered the secret.
Some days later the opportunity came, and this is what the Reverend told me.
About forty years ago I was an instructor in the military academy at Woolwich. I was present in one of the sections when young Scoresby underwent his preliminary examination. I was touched to the quick with pity; for the rest of the class answered up brightly and handsomely, while he - why, dear me, he didn't know anything, so to speak. He was evidently good, and sweet, and loveable, and guileless; and so it was exceedingly painful to see him stand there, as serene as a graven image, and deliver himself of answers which were veritably miraculous for stupidity and ignorance. All the compassion in me was aroused in his behalf. I said to myself, when he comes to be examined again, he will be flung over, of course; so it will be simply a harmless act of charity to ease his fall as much as I can. I took him aside, and found that he knew a little of Caesar's history; and as he didn't know anything else, I went to work and drilled him like a galley slave on a certain line of stock questions concerning Caesar which I knew would be used. If you'll believe me, he went through with flying colours on examination day! He went through on that purely superficial "cram," and got compliments too, while others, who knew a thousand times more than he, got plucked. By some strangely lucky accident - an accident not likely to happen twice in a century - he was asked no question outside of the narrow limits of his drill.
It was stupefying. Well, all through his course I stood by him, with something of the sentiment which a mother feels for a crippled child; and he always saved himself - just by miracle, apparently.
Now of course the thing that would expose him and kill him at last was mathematics. I resolved to make his death as easy as I could; so I drilled him and crammed him, and crammed him and drilled him, just on the line of questions which the examiners would be most likely to use, and then launching him on his fate. Well, sir, try to conceive of the result: to my consternation, he took the first prize! And with it he got a perfect ovation in the way of compliments.
Sleep? There was no more sleep for me for a week. My conscience tortured me day and night. What I had done I had done purely through charity, and only to ease the poor youth's fall - I never had dreamed of any such preposterous result as the thing that had happened. I felt as guilty and miserable as the creator of Frankenstein. Here was a woodenhead whom I had put in the way of glittering promotions and prodigious responsibilities, and but one thing could happen: he and his responsibilities would all go to ruin together at the first opportunity.
The Crimean war had just broken out. Of course there had to be a war, I said to myself: we couldn't have peace and give this donkey a chance to die before he is found out. I waited for the earthquake. It came. And it made me reel when it did come. He was actually gazetted to a captaincy in a marching regiment! Better men grow old and grey in the service before they climb to a sublimity like that. And who could ever have foreseen that they would go and put such a load of responsibility on such green and inadequate shoulders? I could just barely have stood it if they had made him a cornet; but a captain - think of it! I thought my hair would turn white.
Consider what I did - I who so loved repose and inaction. I said to myself, I am responsible to the country for this, and I must go along with him and protect the country against him as far as I can. So I took my poor little capital that I had saved up through years of work and grinding economy, and went with a sigh and bought a cornetcy in his regiment, and away we went to the field.
And there - oh dear, it was awful. Blunders? Why, he never did anything but blunder. But, you see, nobody was in the fellow's secret - everybody had him focused wrong, and necessarily misinterpreted his performance every time - consequently they took his idiotic blunders for inspirations of genius; they did, honestly! His mildest blunders were enough to make a man in his right mind cry; and they did make me cry - and rage and rave too, privately. And the thing that kept me always in a sweat of apprehension was the fact that every fresh blunder he made increased the lustre of his reputation! I kept saying to myself, he'll get so high, that when discovery does finally come, it will be like the sun falling out of the sky.
He went right along up, from grade to grade, over the dead bodies of his superiors, until at last, in the hottest moment of the battle of ------- down went our colonel, and my heart jumped into my mouth, for Scoresby was next in rank! Now for it, said I; we'll all land in Sheol in ten minutes, sure.
The battle was awfully hot; the allies were steadily giving way all over the field. Our regiment occupied a position that was vital; a blunder now must be destruction. At this crucial moment, what does this immortal fool do but detach the regiment from its place and order a charge over a neighbouring hill where there wasn't a suggestion of an enemy! "There you go!" I said to myself; "this is the end at last."
And away we did go, and were over the shoulder of the hill before the insane movement could be discovered and stopped. And what did we find? An entire and unsuspected Russian army in reserve! And what happened? We were eaten up? That is necessarily what would have happened in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. But no, those Russians argued that no single regiment would come browsing around there at such a time. It must be the entire English army, and that the sly Russian game was detected and blocked; so they turned tail, and away they went, pell-mell, over the hill and down into the field, in wild confusion, and we after them; they themselves broke the solid Russian centre in the field, and tore through, and in no time there was the most tremendous rout you ever saw, and the defeat of the allies was turned into a sweeping and splendid victory! Marshal Canrobert looked on, dizzy with astonishment, admiration, and delight; and sent right off for Scoresby, and hugged him, and decorated him on the field, in presence of all the armies!
And what was Scoresby's blunder that time? Merely the mistaking his right hand for his left - that was all. An order had come to him to fall back and support our right; and instead, he fell forward and went over the hill to the left. But the name he won that day as a marvellous military genius filled the world with his glory, and that glory will never fade while history books last.
He is just as good and sweet and loveable and unpretending as a man can be, but he doesn't know enough to come in when it rains. Now that is absolutely true. He is the supremest ass in the universe; and until half an hour ago nobody knew it but himself and me. He has been pursued, day by day and year by year, by a most phenomenal and astonishing luckiness. He has been a shining soldier in all our wars for a generation; he has littered his whole military life with blunders, and yet has never committed one that didn't make him a knight or a baronet or a lord or something. Look at his breast; why, he is just clothed in domestic and foreign decorations. Well, sir, every one of them is the record of some shouting stupidity or other; and taken together, they are proof that the very best thing in all this world that can befall a man is to be born lucky. I say again, as I said at the banquet, Scoresby's an absolute fool.
Comments
this story doesnt give the name of the hero of whom is..
this story doesnt give the name of the hero of whom is "much celebrated." I think the clues in the story point to Nicholas the 1st in the Crimean War. I want to ask all of your opinions on who the character the speaker talks about is.
interesting...
interesting...
his name is scoresby...
his name is scoresby...
Narrator is Mark Twain himself, and is telling the..
Narrator is Mark Twain himself, and is telling the (flashback) story of man named Scoresby who has "Luck" beyond all his clumsy situations. The minister is telling us the story through a second version of a man who has heard the story, Mark Twain himself. Mark Twain is the narrator. Great story
A cheap story. It seems more like an organized set of..
A cheap story. It seems more like an organized set of dialogues. It has no attracting action, no obvious plot, and no tangible characters. It has a vague theme which may be like this: "Many illiterate men have achieved their fame through luck, and society and the people and the heads have accepted them, which means that all the mentioned names are stupid." Thats the theme of that cheap story called "LUCK". Never judge a story by its authors name.
this story was very out thier i didnt really enjoy it, the..
this story was very out thier i didnt really enjoy it, the fact being it showed no enthusiasum, no actual character to follow. all in all i thought it was very intelectual in the stroy of luck but they could have used a charactors name. i agree intierly with this guys/girls response.
i really dont understand this story
i really dont understand this story
The story is immensely enjoyable because it is obscurely..
The story is immensely enjoyable because it is obscurely ironic throughout. Is it just Scorebys luck or Reverends self deception?
I enjoyed the story.Its funny. Its amazing. How lucky can a..
I enjoyed the story.Its funny. Its amazing. How lucky can a person be?
I thought the same thing; is it luck or the reverands..
I thought the same thing; is it luck or the reverands perspective?
Did "Scorseby" intended to disobey orders or if did he trully got his lefts and rights mixed up?
Did he really get promoted out of pure preference or was it because of his honesty, integrity and hard work?
Was it luck that saved his life and took his superiors or was it his ability?
These are the things well never know, that perhaps only Scoresby knew. The only thing definite is that everyone is absolutely sure about what they believe about Scoresby, and their beliefs only soldify as Scorsebys record of acheivement gets longer and longer; Nobody questions their own judgement; and no matter what anyone believes, or what the truth is, his actions have proven to be extraordinarily valuble to the country.
Doesnt seem particularly good. Details could be left out..
Doesnt seem particularly good. Details could be left out and the story intact, so they are distracting. Meanwhile, there isnt much information about the reverend, to give us ability to judge him --- and whether hes just jealous or unable to see skill (or correct)?
Reminds me of the Peter Sellers movie about the guy who does well out of sheer luck and assumption of others of his normacy, even though hes mentally less than all there. Bet it based off this by Twain.
Its confusing why this reverend went along but did nothing to stop any blunder, which was his entire goal.
It has several unique and interesting ideas in it, which are creative. Wish it was better developed as a story.
It appears some here have not read much of Twain�s work...
It appears some here have not read much of Twain�s work. He writes like a story teller speaks.
Sometimes his Midwest riverboat words and phrases are hard to understand but Twain tells �yarns� for the common man rather than stories for the intellectual or English major.
Remember too, much of Twain�s work was written for newspapers at a time when much of the nations people were nearly illiterate.
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