Mohave County miner., 1888-10-20
THE CURSE or ovERwoRk.
How Americans Abuse Themselves in ths
Wear and Tear of Life.

Wear aud Tear of Life.
We have heard great deal about the
nervous wear and tear OF American life.
and every one Is familiar with the warn.
ing that we are living too fast and must
p,ly serious penalty. Yet we continue
to Ego the pace, and the visiting foreign
or continues To hold up bis hands In
sliazement n. the breathless rapi1ity Of
American life Scientists lay the blame
largely to our dry, bracing atmosphere,
illustrating their theses by the more
powerful effects of alcohol here than in
England Sociologista talk OF our material
conditions, Of the development OF new
country. aud the necessity OF confronting
pressing materilh problems which stitnu
late the race foi Fortunes race offering
such FREQ .conp,,tition and 40 many i'm
menss prizes rot restricted by class or
caste. that participation Is almost un
avoidable AltaGagh every American In
''as good as" any other. yet every Ameri
can Is stimulated by a burning desire to
show himself q little better-to win special
success Isl his chosen field The result Is
hand TO hand competition, fereer, prob
ably, than in ilny other country In the
world Americans have not yet learned
how TO rest, and the effect Is noted as men
drop out exhausted from the professions
or from businetB while yet In the prime Of
life Often this attracts no attention
But we have recently had some concrete
illustrations of the evils Of the terrible
tension Of American life in certain phases
which ought not 10 pass unnoticed
These arc examples of self abuse In a
field Of work where excess Is peculiarly
Characteristic Of Americans. This coun
try, with its great natural opportunities,
and it's sudden changes and developments,
offers peculiar Invitations to speculation,
| and the colossal fortunes made within the
| last twenty years are ever before the eyes
OF men as Stimulus. There Is specuia-
| tion everywhere; but Americans have
been called, not without reason, a nation
Of speculators New York and Chicago
are the centers, and in intensity the hot,
| feverish life Of their exchanges Is not
| equalea In the bourses Of Paris, Berlin
or Vienna, or the Stock Exchange Of Lon
| don. Now ard then fortunes collapse,
and the public wonder but Of the mon
who fall exhausted in the race the public
as rule hear little.
Yet 1t 10 worth while 70 consider the
moral II three recent cases. In Chicago
q wealthy speculator began to show signs
| Of excessive mental strain. All his
thoughts, dreams and speech were Of tho
market His notions became strange; ht
made wild oilers In tho Exchange; ht
threw away his money in disastrous ven
lures; and finally the truth was discovered
insane from overwork. Here in New
York, not long since, we were told thai
even Jay Gould was obliged to seek res
upon his yacht in order to avert the con
sequences Of mental over exertion alit
sleeplessness Within the fortnight tw,
members Of the Stock Exchange hav,
fallen out Of the ranks OF one OF them
now in an insane asylum, his brothe
said "He has overworked himself. Th'
, physicians call 1t form Of brain paralysis
accompanied by emotional insanity an,
occasional paroxysms. He knew that h
was overtaxing himself, yet he persistet
In coming 10 business. II was case o
an unintentioaal course towards insanit,
or suicide" OF the other broker, hil
physician says: 1T was case of over
work and consequent nervous prostra
ton" Yet this man was already mil
lionaire. ~
IL Is surely not necessary to insist upor
the moral of such breaking down of mel
In the prime Of life. Such practical warn
ings should have some effect, yet 1t viii
be long time before the lesson is learned
And it will be a long time, too, befor
Americans learn to understand the evil In
huence Of the present system of specula
ton 1t is gambling, and nothing else
In which lives are often staked and lost
Frank Leslies-