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From a 1922 issue of The American Magazine:
How Charlie Taught Me To Laugh at Failure
So-called misfortunes test a man’s wits and sharpen his courage — as I have found out a few times for myself
by W. S. Rogers
It was a steel-cold morning, and we were standing on the sidewalk beside what had once been our factory. The roof of the crazy old building, which the underwriters would not insure, had fallen in during the night. The red-hot stove had finished the job. Not a stick was left.
“Don’t you know that everything I have on earth is in there?” I went on, indignantly: “My drafting instruments, my tools, my other suit — they’re all gone, and there isn’t a penny of insurance.”