The herald., 1893-07-18
GENIUS AND WEALTH.
BRIGHT MEN SOMETIMES MANAGE TO
SAVE THEIR EARNINGS.

DAVE FlEtn EfNntNttN10s
Members of the Literary Profession Are
an Exception In the Great Field of Brain
workers, For Few Great Writers Have
Ever Amassed Fortunes.
The accumulation Of an estate OF near
ly 100000 by the late Edwin Booth Is
suggestive of the large profits made by
an actor of great eminence. 1t is also an
indication that the popular impression
that dramatic genius, and artistic genius
generally, is incompatible with the keep
ing of money is not justified by the facts.
Mr.. Booths fortune must have been
gathered almost wholly during the last
20 years of his life, or since the failure
of the theater which he established for
himself in 1859 at the corner of Twenty
third street and Sixth avenue. The cir
cumstance that it consists Of personal
estate only, with the exception of place
at Newport, suggests also that 1t grew
altogether out of his professional gains
during that short period, and it indicates
how great those were and how prudent
he was in their management.
In this prudence, however, he was not
extraordinary among actors. Edwin
Forrest, with whom he competed for the
popular favor at the beginning of his
successful career, left large fortune
also when he died in 1879. Charlotte
Cushman, whose dramatic career was
simultaneous, and who died in 1875, left
a very handsome estate Mr.. Henry
Irving, the distinguished English actor,
is q man of fortune, and many of the
men and women of the stage are now
the possessors of wealth or of a compe-
tence which renders them pecuniarily
independent. The great mass may spend
as they go along, taking no thought for
the morrow or having no faculty for
accumulation even when they have in
comes large enough to afford an oppor-
tunity for its exercise, but it is the same
with the run of other people, of men Of
affairs and professional men.
The genius for making money and the
genius for keeping it are apart and dis
tinct. If they always went together, the
decrease in the poverty of the world
would be enormous, but proportionately
they seem to be unitedin men of artistic
genius as often as in those without that
great gift of fheaven, if not oftener. Near
ly all the artists of high distinction at
this time, in music, painting, sculpture,
architecture and the drama, have ac-
cumulated fortunes, which in many
cases are large. They are receiving in
comes which justify extravaganza, but
they are not wasting money more than
other successful men, they are not more
likely to acquire habits of dissipation,
and apparently there is not less practical
sagacity among them.
An art which may not be SO conducive
to great material prosperity is the liter
ary art. Very few writers, no matter
how great their distinction, have ever
got rich out Of writing, and at the pres
ent day the number who have done SO is
SO small that we could include them all
in short list. Fortunes like that of
Edwin Booth and those of the illustrious
painters, sculptors, musicians and archi-
tects of this time are almost unknown
among the men of literature. The in
comes of the great body of writers best
known to the people are meager as COM
pared with those of the others. They
are much less than the incomes of law
yers and physicians of parallel profess
sional eminence.
AS things are, if man wants to get
rich, literature alone offers him poor
show for the qualification of his am
bition. He may get along very COM
fortably, but the chances are against
his accumulating fortune like Mr..
Booths out of his professional gains, no
matter how clever his art, how saving
he may be and how extraordinary his
business sagacity. That is why Mr..
Walter Besant and his colleagues arc
finding so much fault with the publish
ers. They think that the publishers are
getting rich at their expense; that the
author furnishes the fuel, and that the
publisher warns himself by the fire
while the author stays out in the cold.
But what other remedy is there than
that the author should be both the
writer of the book and its manufacturer
for the market?
He must unite both profits in himself
or take for his manuscript what the COM
petition of trade will give him. If he
have not combination of qualities and
aptitudes, enabling him to be both man
Of business and writer, he must pay
for his defects. The picture is done when
it is painted. The book requires the ex-
penditure of labor, capital and enter
prise upon it after it has been written by
the author, and without that expendi-
ture it is worthless.
Hence, when fortune comes to literary
men, outside of 10 or Is in a generation,
it comes to editors who get both the
writing and q manufacturing profit, but
these, too, are few. The capacity to
make successful newspaper is rare, and
like all rare gifts it is sometimes richly
rewarded.-New York Sun.
Good Memory.