The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1876-08-27
MornInp Star and Catholic Messenger.
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$50 oPIFANs SUNDAY. AUGUST 81 1916.
IMPROyLDEHCE OF GREAT MEN.

The folly of some men renowned for
-reat wisdom is conspicuous in every coun-
srv Their foolishpess is made manifest in
cnmmon affairs of private life, even when
the world is ringing with public applause
for the1exbibition of profound wisdom in
public affairs,
axnenditure Characteristic of our Daniel
Wehster is we'll known. He was always
receiving large sums as income, and yet al
,gavs involved in debt. He could take care
of the affairs of the nation, but not of his
own.
Lord Bacon was anotker instance of SIM
liar improvidence. Bacon himself did not
follow his own advice, but was ruined by
his improvideuce. He was in straits and
difficulties when youth, and in still great
er straits and difficulties when man. His
life was splendid, but his excessive expea-
diture involved him in debt, which created
perpetual craving for money. Bacon took
bribes, and was thereupon beset by his en-
emies, convicted, degraded, and ruined.
= Pitt managed the national finances dur
ing period of unexampled difficulty, yet
was himself always plunged in debt. Lord
Darlington, ex banker, once or twice, at
Mr.. Pitts request, examined his household
accounts and found the quantity of butch
ers' meat charged in the bills at one han
dred weight week. The charge for GER
wants wages. board wages. living and
r.
Pitts death the nation voted Gao. 600 to
satisfy the demands of his creditors; yet
his income had never been less than G6000
a year, and at one time, with the warden
ship of the Cirque Ports, it was nearly
$4,000 year more. Macanlay truly says
that the character of Pitt would have
stood higher if, with the disinterestedness
of Pericles and Dewitt, he had united their
digniied frugality."
But Pitt by no means stood alone. Lord
Melville was as unthrifty 10 the manage
ment of his own affairs as be was of the
money of the public. Fox was an enormous
over, his financial max i'm being that man
need never want money if be was able to
pay enough for it. Fox called the outer
room at Almack's, where he borrowed on
occasions from jew lenders at exorbitant
premiums, his Jerusalem Chamber" Pas
sion for play was his great vice, and at
very early age it involved him in debt to
. an enormous amount. 1t is stated by Glib
son that on one occasion Fox sat playing at
hazard for twenty hours in succession, los
ing flO,00O. Bat deap play was the vice
of high life in these days, and cheating was
not unknown. Selwyn, alludiDg to Foxs
losses at play, called him Charles the mar
tyr.
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 it, for he paid nobody. 1t
in Summer. He spent his fret wife's for
tune of SIG. 600 in a six weeks jaunt at
Bath. Necessity drove him to literature,
and, perhaps, to the stimulus of poverty
We owe "The Rivals" and the dramas
which followed it. With his second wife
he obtained a fortune of $4,000, and, with
els, 900 which he realized by the sale of
Drury Lane shares, he bought an estate in
Surrey, from which he was driven by debts
and duns.
The remainder of his life was series Of
shifts, sometimes brilliant, but oftener de-
grading, to raise money and evade oredi-
tors. Taylor, of the Opera House, used to
say that if he took off his hat to Sheridan
in the street it would cost him ESQ, but if
he stopped to speak to him it would cost
him &1OO. He was in debt all round-to
his milkmau, his grocer, his baker, and his
butcher. Sometimes Mrs. Sheridan would
be kept waiting for an hour or more, while
the servants were beating up the neighbor-
hood for coffee, butter, eggs, and rolls.
While Sheridan was paymaster of the
navy, butcher one day brought leg Of
mutton to the kitchen. The cook took ie
and clapped it in the pot to boil, aud went
mp stairs for the money but not returning,
the butcher cody removed the pot-lid, took
out the mutton, and walked away with is
IN his tray. Yet, while living in these straits
Sheridan, when invited with his son into
the country, usually went in chsises and
four-he in one, and his RON Tom following
In the other. The end of all was very sad
For come weeks before his death he was
nearly destitute of the means Of subsist-
ence.
His noble and royal friends had ent;relv
deserted him. Executions for debt were in
his house, and he passed his last days in
the custody OF sherjffs' officers, who alb
stained from carrying him to prison merely
because they were assured that to remove
him would cause his immediate death,
When Cowper's "John Gilpin frat ap =
peared, it was not success The public
were insensibIe to it's wit and humor, and
it is quite possible the poem would have