Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-05-20
DYING at the Top.

L 6Qhll Ql6 uTsL d-JOpf vas 80
mournful exclamation of Dean Swift,
as he gazed on a noble oak whose
upper branches had been struck by
lightning. 81 shall be like that tree
4 shall die first atop" Afflicted for
years with giddiness and pain in the
head, he looked forward with prophetic
dread to insanity as the probable ter
mination of his existence, and after
nine years of mental and bodily suffer
ing, the great satirist, the mighty
polemic, the wit and the poet, died, as
he had feared and half predicted, ''like
poisoned rat IN hole"
Dying at the top" is the disease to
which fearful number of Americans
are to-day exposed. In the high
wrought state of civilization to which
we have attained, hardly any complaint
is more common than that of brain
over-worked. The complaint IS not
uttered by literary men and scholars
only but is echoed by all who are striving
for fame or fortune against eager and
formidable competitors. The lawyer,
the clergyman, the merchant, the
spaculator-all are suffering from over
work; from that strain of special fac
ulties in the direction towards special
objects, but of which comes nervous
exhaustion, with the malsdies conse-
quent'on oYerstimulus and prolonged
fatigue.
1t is in our cities that this evil has
reached the most fearful pass. A person
living a quiet, leisurely life in the
country, can have no adequate concep-
ton of the severe and exhsusting
lsbors to which hundreds subject them
selves in a second-rste city in his
neighborhood, especially in the higher
walks of professional life, nor can the
inhsbitsnt of such city, groan as he
may under his tolls, conceive of the
more burdensome duties of the cores
ponding classes in q great commercial
center. The brain of leading lawyer,
merchant, or business man, is forever
on the stretch. By day aud by night
he can think of nothing and dream Of
nothing, but the iron realities of life.
Anxious. perplexing thought sits on
his brow as he rubs his eyes at day
break; hurrying to the breakfast table,
he swallows his steak and his coffee in
twinkling, jumps up from his chair
almost Immediately, and, without hay
ing spoken a pleasant word, hastens
away to- the courts Of Mammon, to
engage in the sharp struggle for pelf.
There he spends hour after hour in
calculating how to change his hundreds
to thousands; dinner and supper
which he bolts, never eats-come and
go almost without observation; even
night-fall finds him still employed,
with body and mind jsded, and eyes
smarting with sleeplessness; till at
length, far in the night, the toil-worn
laborer seeks his couch, only to think
of the struggles and anxieties of the
day, or to dream of those tomorrow.
Thus things go on day after day, till
the poor bond slave Of Msmmon finds
his constitution shattered the doctor
is summoned, and sends him 10 Europe;
he travels listlessly-he cannot leave
thought behind him; the disease
creeps on apace; the undertaken soon
takes his dimensions in his minds eye;
paralysis seizes him; he lives 8 few
ears orgsnically alive to enjoy the
fruits of his labors; and then descends
to his everlasting rest, with the glorious
satisfaction, perhaps, Of having gained,
for his joyless days and sleepless nights,
larger pile" than any other man on
change. Who will say that such a life
has been spent as God designed? Can
there be a more pitiful failure than
when the means of happiness thus
swallows up the end? Were suffering
to follow instantly upon the heels OF
transgression-w5re the account 70 be
settled with nature daily, few persons
would violate her laws. Unfortunately
for such fanatical devotees Of business
she runs up long accounts with heI
children, aud like chancery lawyer,
seldom brings in "that little bill" till
the whole subject of litigation has been
eaten up. The poor deYotee Of Nam
mon, who thought to out wit her, finds
at last that she is a most accurate book
keeper-that neglecting nothing, she
has set down everything to his credit
and debIed him with eYerything-that
not the eighth part of a cent ha
escaped her notice; and though the
items are small, yet added up, they
show a frightful balance against him
and he finds himself, at forty or fifty
physically bankrupt, broken down
premsturely old man.