Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-11-01
BRAIN WORK IN PARIS.
Ihe Terrible Condition OF journal.
lists ana Authors.

lists ana Authors.
When brain work is not the no.
blest of all the professions, it is the
yilest of all the trades. Despair,
envy, hatred, destitution, vice, and
madness are at the end, sometimes
in the middle of this contemplate
career, in which popularity robs
glory, in which money is the only
aim, in which debauch becomes an
incentive, and drunkenness a muse.
Look at that miserable young
fellow over there, with his contorted
features, yellow cheeks, grimaclng
mouth, and yagabond eyes, He
was born to walk free aud joyful
behind a plow, and proudly SOW the
seed of the next harvest. In the
evening, at the farmers fireplace,
he would have eaten the bread he
had earned during the day. Every
step, every movement of his would
have vivifed something. And now
look at him in this vast city, press.
ing day and night his poor head
between his two hands to squeeze
out of it tales and adventures for a
hungry crowd, who devour him to.
day and take to somebody else to-
morrow, if nothing more can be
got out of him.
For more or less extended pc
riod of time he will make Henri
cites marry Arthurs, will make
husbands catch lovers, will poison
some of them, and send others to the
guillotine, keeping, Of course, the
sensational interest duly alive till
the end of the chapter or the feuil-
Teton. He will sell everything in
succession: love, Jealousy, tears,
history, scandal, slang, satire, NOR
ais, laudation, insults, politics, sem
timent, obscenity, religion-in a
word, everything out Of which
manuscript can be made, at from
two to five cents a line, according
to the momentary taste of the pub
lie or the tendencies of this or that
journal. When he shall have eaten
up his own contents, he will live
upon the contents of others. He will
patch up old comedies and novels;
warm up the arras of past centu,
ries. He will swallow whole libra
ries and secondhand book shops.
He wants ideas, anecdotes, witty
sayings, pleasure, money, and no.
toriety. No time to be lost now !
He must get celebrity. Once cele-
brated, he is quoted. Once quoted,
he is rich. The journal goes to
press, the theater cannot wait, and
there is no time left to get up any
thing. What does it matter? Two
or three men of us will put our
selves together and spend nights at
work. And the bodily force, where
is it to come from? We will take
strong black coffee. And the in
spiration? We will take absinthe.
Go on, human brainsl Throw
out sentences, lines, pages, and vol
umes! Swell yourself like sponge
and squeeze yourself like lemon,
till you dry out and out, till lunaoy
and paralysis take possession Of
you, till besottedness strikes you,
and death comes to finish the
whole. Meanwhile, we will enter
the home Of this celebrity. What
I'VE find there is disorder and indi-
genoe; an old mistress, of whom
he made his wife in moment of
lyrism or exhaustion; some un-
happy children already dressed in
black and crying, without much
knowing what about. The air of
the room is still full of Yesterdays
tobacco smoke. He liked smoking,
so much, poor fellow! He was
often told that smoking was bad
for him, but he was unable to give
it up. OH what jolly days had
been spent in this room at the time
of the little so-and-so!
A number Of friends escort him
to the cemetery; possibly sight
seeing or sympathetic crowd will
Join them, for the deceased was
much liked. He used to be so
Jolly at timesl A lot of anecdotes
are told Of him; speeches are de-