The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-01-29
Genius and Debt.

/ Men OF genius are equally taCie IN running
| into debt Genius has no necessary Connec-
ton with prudenCe or selfrestraint, nor does
it exercise any influence over the common
rules of arithmetic, which are rigld and in.
flexible Men of genius are often superior to
what Bacon calls "the wisdom OF business"
Yet Bacon himself did not follow his own al
wee, but was ruined by his improvidence.
He was IN straits and ditliultes when youth
and in still greater straits and difficulties
when man. His lite was splendid but his
excessive expenditure involved him in debts
which created perpetual craving for mon
ey. One day in passing out to his ante,cham
bers, where his followers were awaiting his
appearance, he said: "Be seated my masters;
your rise has been my fall To supply his
wants Bacon took brides, and was therrup,
beset by his enemies, convicted, degraded
and ruined Even men with especial genius
for finance an grand scale may completely
break down in the management of their own
private affairs. Pitt managed the national
finances during u period of nneXampled ditii
Guilty, yet was himselfalways plunged in debt
Lord Caring, cx-banker, once or twice, al
Mr.. PITTS request, examined his household
accounts and found the quantity of butchers
meat charged in bills was 100 weight week
The charge for servant wages, board wages
living and household bills exceeded e2,3OO
a year. At Pitts death the nation voted $40.
0OJ to satisfy the demands Of his creditors ;
yet his income had never been less than &C.,
900 year; at one time, with the Wardenshlp
of the Cirque Ports, it was nearly $4,000 Il
year more. Macaulay truly says that "the
character of Pitt would have stood higher it.
with the dsintcrestedness OF Pericles and
Dewitt, he had united their digniied fru-
gallty."
But Pitt by no means stood alone. Lord
Melville was as unthritty in the management
of his own affairs as he was Of the money Of
the public. Fox was an enormous over his
financial maxim being that a man need never
want money if he was willing to pay enough
for it. Fox called the outer room at Al
mack's, where he borrowed on occasions
from Jew lenders AT eXorbltant premiums, his
Jerusalem Chamber" Passion for play
was his great vice, and at "a very early age it
involved him in debt to an enormous amount.
1t is stated by Gibbon that on one occasion
Fox sat playing at hazard for twenty hours in
succession, losing 1000. But deep play
was the vice of high life in these days, and
cheating was NOT unknown. Selwyn, allud.
ing to Fox's losses at play, called him Charles
the Martyr
Sheridan was the hero of debt He lived
on it. Though he received large sums of
money in one way or another no one knew
what became OF II, for he paid nobody. II
seemed to melt away in his hands like snow
in summer He spent his first wfe's fortune
of 81 600 in six weeks jaunt to Bath. Ne
cessty drove him to literature, and perhaps
to the stimulus of poverty we owe THE Ri.
vals' and the drama which succeeded it.
With his second wife he obtained a fortune
of 5000, and with $4,000 which he reaiz
ed by the sale of Drury Lane shares he
bought an estate in Surrey, from which he
was driven by debt and duns. The remain.
der OF his life was a series of shifts, some.
times brilliant, but oftener degrading, to raise
money and evade creditors TAYLOR, of the
Opera House, used TO say that if he took off
his hat 10 Sheridan in The street il would
cost him fifty pounds; but if he stopped to
speak TO him it would cost hundred. ueI
was in debt all round-to his milkman, his
grocer, hls baker and his butcher. some
times Mrs. Sheridan would be kept waiting
Tor an hour or more, while the servants were
beating up the neighborhood for coffee. but
ter, eggs, and rolls While Sheridan was
paymaster of the navy butcher one day
brought leg of mutton TO the kitchen. The
cook took 1t and clapped ii in the pot to boil, |
and went up stairs for the money; but not re. |
turning, the butcher coolly removed the pot
lld, TOOK out the mutton, and walked away
with II IN his tray. Yet while living in these
straits, Sheridan, when invited with his son
Into the country, usually went in chaises and
four-he in one, and his son Tom following
IN the other The end was very sad. For
some weeks before his death he was nearly
destitute of the means of subsistence. His
noble and royal friends had entirely deserted
HIM. Executions for debt were IN his house
and he passed his last days in the custody of
Sheritt'S officers, who abstained from convey.
ing him TO prison merely because they were
assured that 70 remove him would cause Els
immediate death.-SGwUsl Smiles.