Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1873-06-25
From the New York Observer.
LITERATURE AND MONEY.

| Nothing like the want of money
for starting brainsn nothing Ike the
soreness of poverty. for causing the
poets muse to soar nothing like the
looming of a creditors shadow for
drawing the writer's talent out in
full force. One might suppose that
Goldsmith flung his intellectual lew
els among an admiring public because
his mind was sHreharged with bril-
liant ideas and he felt impelled to
burst the bonds of silence, but the
plain fact is he was short Of cash.
Once, when his landlady-the evil
genius OF his earlier veaFs-made an
unusually imperative demand for
rent he sent for DIR. johnson, the
man of porous mind and sonorous
style. johnson found him buried in
bed clothes and perplexity, occupied
solely in emptying bottle of wine.-l
The old Doctor eorked up the bottle
and then proceeded to uncork and
pass judgment upon a certain manu-
script of GOldsmith's, which the au-
thor had kept lying by him for some
time. The result was its publication,
and "Goldyn was enabled to satisfy
the-landlady's demand and see him
self the most popular writer of the
day. Such was the birth Of the |
"Viear Of Wakefield. .Da The best
efforts Of Goldsmithis genius were
forced into being by his peeuniary
needs. fii 90 ;i-iii pr
The same is true Of DIR. johnson,
who poured out of his head to fill up
his pocket. After he had received
his pension he relaxed his labors;
there were no further Inducements
for the pensioner to pen 1t. q H9.'- =
There is no way Of success in our
art, said an eminent painter, Hbut to
take off your coat, grind paint, and
work like digger on the railroad all
day and every day.Y So in Literature,
Good writing means good working.
The poets eve may troll in frenzy,D
but rolls with side glance at the
pocket. Sffa t.l lt.l.IA % E3nS
Horace Greeley, Judging from his
biography, showed himself in type
because he had something tossy sjbut
even lie, in the height of his power.
said lie did not care to work unless
his writings brought back, ,remanera-
ton, Byron began with the inten-
tiun of deriving ne income from his
poems, but he soon outgrew that folly
and the loftiest flights of his muse
took place with an eye to the publish
er's pocket. And We might name
scores of others, in Britain aud our
own country, from the age Of Eliza /
beth TO the present time, who Wfote
largely in the interest Of the bread and /
butter question. Wordsworth charged /
the Edinburgh reviewers with look /
ing where thegains were greatest, and
II the poet himself Gid not write for
money he certainly held on to il most !
tenaciously after it was obtained. 1t
is by no means rare to find agreat au-
thor, in eitherhemisphere, whose pen 1
has wooed and won the dollars with :
greater zest than 10 has the plaudits |
Of the multitude. If Milton sold the {
first edition of Paradise Lost for twen- q
ty-five dollars, Dickens had no such {
intention of cheapening his services
when he Introduced Mr.. Piekwick & {
Co. rhackeray inherited about twen- q
" thousand pounds, which was soon {
absorbed in high living and poor in Q
and the recollection Of 1t 3
was, doubtless, profitable. {
His fortune gone, he picked up the
pen in good earnest, and by so doing n
Derpetuated his name. Sir Walter G
Scott arose one morning and discov- j.
sred that he was half a million in ar a
-ears. He then exhibited a heroism q
unknown before. His faith In bis o
1en was like that of grain of mus n
ard seed II said to that mountain OF b
iebt, "be thou removed" and il was Il
emoved. True, the undertaking cost Il
Iim his lie, bat it only moved his "
Jody into the grave to plant an i'm g
Mortal name in its place. = o-a ioh al
Shakespeare wrote to increase his "
aims as theater mansgefy and cared %
o little for the subsequent fortunes Of as
is plays as TO leave them like unpfo- Il
scted orphans at his death, no pros "
isiOn being made for their preserva- tl
ion. The result is, his dramas have. Ot
escended to US in a state that often tt
affies every attempt of the critic to p