New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-11
DOES TT P1Tp

DOES 1T PAY?
The PaH Mall Gazette recently contained a
forcible article urging upon clcrgymen the
necessity of keeping pace with the times by
reading books of science, sociology, etc, if they
would maintain their influence over the more
enlightened part of their hearers. In reply a
clergyman sends statement of facts, in effect
as follows: His parish contains 10000 people.
| His income is $l,250 per annum, of which
| $3.50 go for rent and to pay a lay agent He
| has had no holiday for nineteen years, has bro
ken down from overwork, with paralysis OF the
| spinal cord, being unable to kneel or rise with
out assistance. His regular Sunday work con-
sists of administration of the Holy Communion,
three full services baptisms and the Sunday
schools. This is one of three hundred and
sixty cases, equally hard, to whom tho Church
| had lust refused assistance because others
| needed it so much more. Whose fault is 1t that
these clergymen do not keep themselves ac-
| ouanted with the newest ideas in science, lit
erature and sanitary reform7
| Statistics worth reading might be compiled
| in this country as to the number OF poorer
churches of every sect in it whose curates or
| parsons receive salaries OF from $500 to 81 800
per year, on which they must house, feed,
clothe and educate family y, enter tain strangers
and help to support the Lords cause. 1t is che
thought of the shabby wife, the sickly child,
the pri of provisions, the actual immediate
problem of living, that goes with these men to
their beds at night, or into the pulpit rather
than visions of Gods glory or of Christs mercy.
1t is true that the golly old ministers who
preached to our grandfathcrs were not paid
| 3 h,.r, tl,if
and did it well, yet work and worry did not
bring paralysis of the spinal cord on them.
But they wore hOmespun as did their flock ::
worked in the field, at barn raisings and at
sheep washings pork, corn bread and moasses
were their chief diet, their wives dressed Ill
| calico, and their boys were educated at the dis
| trct school.
Another example. The president of
one of the most powerful corporations in the
country threw up his Office last week with all
| of its enormous emoluments avowcdly to save
his brain in time from the strain of the re-
sponsbility laid upon it and which he felt to
be more than could be borne with safety. The
president of this company, man OF excep-
tional force of intellect, was not 50 wise, and
died in the prime of life, crushed by over
work. Both these men had worked their way
ND from poverty, both deserved success, and
both were defeated by the same. In every
profession or business there is repeated the
same story. Merchants, philosophers, miners,
LAWYERS, publishers, actors, the heads OF char
liable organizations, totter at their daily work
and disappear, followed by the same mystic
rious whisper. Now, there was no talk of soft
ening of the brain or paralysis of the spinal
cord with our grandfathers The leaders of
the Revolution and founders of the Republic
had assuredly as heavy a burden of respon-
sibility and executive management to carry as
our railway directors or Wall street brokers
They had grOsser appetites as a rule and drank
moro h1uor than We Yet they lived into
hale, peaceable old age.
/ What is the fatal weakness, then, with this
generation Medical men assert that climatic
influence has had much to DO with predisposing
Americans to nervous diseases but the real
reason of this universal lack, as we may call
it, of stamina or staying power in brains no W
adays, is the continuous and enormous drain
made upon them throughout life in the edu-
Gated classes. There arc the actual amount
of knowledge which is absolutely necessary to
a we'll bred man or woman and which has in
creascu HlIy lou III inc ldSJ century lHc
fierce competition for place, income, and public
notice; the friction of mental contact with
all races and countries by telegraph and news
paper, which is incessant, though unnoticed,
in its wear and tear on the brain; but beyond
all this is the rapid and startling development
among us of luxurious tastes, wants and habits
of life. From the day that the American child
begins to notice his surroundings his physical
brain is subjected to all of these influences.
If he has any unusual power of intellect or if
he lays out for himself IN ambitious career, he
will succumb TO them the more rapidly, and
will die at fifty instead of three-score and ten.
His grandfather had as powerful a brain as
he and was as ambitious in his day, perhaps.
But his more brief and meagre school training
stimulated and did not exhaust his power; his
way upward necessarily was made by more
deliberate steps his life was largely an out