San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-05-01
TWO POINTS OF WARNING
SUGGESTED IN CONNECTION WITH
LOUISA M. ALCOTT'S CAREER.

Why Was So Valuable a Life Cut Off So
EarIy?-Excess of Toil-Expenditure
and Income-The PeriIs of Abundant
Work.
1t is rare to see a woman who, if tried
by her own standard and that of those
Immediately around her, has led nobler
or more completely satisfactory life than
Louisa Alcott. But since we ought never
to be satisfied either with ourselves or
with anybody else, and since one of the
chief uses of the study of fine character
is to discover wherein it could be yet
finer, there is always a lesson to
be drawn from the very limitations
of each career. The finest thought
ever expressed by Howells, think, is
where he suggests that success itself may
perhaps seem very much like failure, seen
from the inside; and there are few emf
nent persons, probably, so sunk in conceit
that they could not afford to others GER
tain warnings as well as examples from
their own achievements. The obituaries
usually miss such warnings; indeed, they
are apt to turn expressly away from them
and think it little UngenerouS to draw
them, the consequence being that such
ton on a monument, and, like that, re-
duce all character to a level of common
place and conventional virtue. There are,
perhaps, but two points of warning, or
even of limitation, that need to be sug-
gested In connection with Miss Alcott's
brilliant career, but each of these is Of
some weight.
First it is fair to ask why this valuable
life was cut off so early-at 55 instead of
SO, this last being her fathers term of
years. Was it not because she burned the
candle too desperately, while his burned
calmly and at times even feebly? Of late
years she has suffered repeatedly, it is
stated, from nervous prOstration and other
disorders coming from excess of work.
She never had any leisure; she was always
overworked. Grant that this evil came
largely from those exacting demands of
admirers and correspondents which have
been more than once pointed out in these
columns, and which make it often hard
for really useful life to prolong itself.
But / suspect there was another reason,
which seldom fails to tell upon successful
authors. The late Mr.. James T. Fields
once told me that he asked Charles Reade,
when at the height of his fame, "Why do
you give us no more of those delightful
shorter tales like Peg Wellington and
Christie Johnstone,' on which your fame
was first foundedY' Because" said
Reade, simply, 81 cannot now afford it."
When he was comparatively poor and I'M
known he could write masterpieces; when
he had achieved fame and fortune, and
acquired the habits shat come with these,
he no longer had the leisure to write them.
1t is the same with health, time, and life
itself. The young girl who earns SIS by
her first published story has an immense
sense of wealth; let her cherish it, for she
will probably never feel so rich again. AS
a rule, if you earn $500 year, you spend
it; if you earn $4,000 year, your stand
ard of expenditures almost invariably ex-
pands to match it; and for the most part,
the more money one earns, the harder it
is to take a vacation. This applies to
those who spend money selfshly, but it
applies with tenfold force to those who