Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1880 — Overwork—The Breakdown. [ARTICLE]

Overwork—The Breakdown.

I met a man some time ago who used to travel in business, and almost passed his life upon the rail. He came home one evening, and walking across his dining-room, he staggered like a drunken man. Uncharitable people wWo did not know his habits might have thought him intoxicated. He sank on his chair all the rest of his life. He was completely paralyzed in his lower limbs. The incessant traveling on the rail had at last proved too much for his nervous system. Hence the collapse; and I have a strong impression that other collapses might be traced to a similar source. I knew of a lawyer who was in a great rush of business. He liked his fees; but like all men who succeed, he liked business thoroughly for its own sake. He was unable to refuse business; and indeed, to refuse business is the hardest trial which can happen to any professional man. His mistake was, that he did not provide himself with adequate assistance. The ill-treated brain took to softening, and then all business came to an end. I knew of a man who was enormously wealthy. In addition to the constant employment which his own vast property gave him, he was trustee for ever so many widows and orphans and charities. He wbrked hard at accounts till the small hours in the morning. A boy clerk at fifteen shillings a week might have done it. all for him. dint he preferred •• doing his own work himself,” and accordingly he had to quit this inferior existence, where such a condition of things is not always possible. One of the best known men in the country once told me that he was going to take a six weeks’ holiday at the seaside. I was rejoiced to hear it. No man better deserved or more required such a holiday. Then he told me that he was going to take his new book with him to the seaside, and hoped to have it ready for publication by the time his holiday was over.. I expostulated with him. I explained that he was only exchanging one kind of hard work for a still haraer kind of hard work. But he took the advice of what is often a man’s worst counsellor—himself. His book was successful, but he never knew of the success.— London Society.