Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1867-12-21
MISCELLANEOUS.
The Fatality Of Overworls.

1t is said that the financial crash of 1857
killed thirteen Bank Presidents in the city
of New York. They were not all crush ed
to death instantly. Some were, and they
were dug out of the ruins only to be buried.
Others survived several months. They drag
ged their shattered frames about from place
to place. Some crossed the ocean, and
wandered in foreign lands, seeking rest and
finding none. Some lived on a year, two
years, or more, wrecks indeed of what they
have been, "dying at the top,' as Dean
Swift said lie should die, and as he did. -
Perhaps the number thirteen is un exaggc-
ration. Perhaps it should not be stated at
q dozen. But more than that number of
business men, men of finance and standing
on whom great burdens of responsibility
and anxiety rested, succumbed to that storm,
and are now at rest in their graves. At
this moment, many men of high position in
commercial and professional life merchants,
bankers, ministers, lawyers, and some ply
sicians-are travelling in Europe in quest of
repose of mind, relaxation from the cares of
business, who have gone too late. A friend
of ours, recently returned, has mentioned
the names of some he met abroad who are
searching in vain for new lease of life
They are dying at the top. One is from -.
He began in trade in that city less than ten
years ago. He was prosperous from the
start. AS the grain was poured into his
granares, the gold or the grecnbacks flowed
into his Golfers. Riches increased, and he
sat his heart upon them. The more he had,
the greater his greed for more. He gave
his mind to his business all day and most Of
the night He had small time to sleep, and
none to pray. He is now sick and weak.
L.. g xl,, ,lax l., I,
days, he was threatened with softening of
the brain. He is dying at .he top. A New
York merchant is over with his family
They and man servant aud u courier take
care of him, and lead him from city to city
and land to land. They were in Paris in
the early summer, and at German water
! ing place later, and will winter in Italy or
Egypt. He has no pain, and denies shat he
is out of health. But Others have to do his
| thinking, and they lead him "whether he
would or not" for he is only child in their
hands. BY and by paralysis will take him
rs he sits in his chair after dinner. and the
family will bring him home as freight. He
is not dead now, but he is dying at the top.
| Fifty clergymen, perhaps more, have gone
from the United States withic the last six
months, because they were ovcrworked-
or they overworkcd themselves 1t comes
to the same thing. Their people got out of
them all they could get. and asked for more.
They gave their people all they could give,
and wanted to give them more. Perhaps
rs many lawyers, politicians, men in various
departments of active life, have been com.
PEELED, for the same reason, to suspend their
lahors and seek in a foreign land a respite
from that intense application to business
which has threatened them with prema.
ture burial There are more men thus
driven to death in America than in any
! other country. We are the hardest-worked
people on earth. The rush oe mind in this
country is uneyampled abroad. In England
and on the continent of Europe there is
mental competition and activity, and rivalry
and greed, and great industry and earnest
devotion to useful labors, and men accom-
plish great things and aim at more but they
are not in such haste 20 he rich, nor so fierce
in the pursuit of good, nor SO restless il
their ambition. You may see the differenc,
in the street, as men walk to their severa
callinGs. Here they 60 with a rush as i
they were to he ruined il not at the place o
business in time Four thousand merchant
on the same floor in Hamburg present
widely different spectacle from the sam
number in New York. In no city but our
! could an exchange be opened for business i
the evening. Our people are in such hast
to do what is to be done. and are so fearfr
that others will 90 ahead of them in the rae,
that they sacrifice health aud life in the pul
suit of what is often of no use to them afte
they have got ii, for they are then hopeles
invalids or dead men.--New York O6serre