The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-10-03
WEARING OUT.


able little sermon to the business
men of our city, taking for its text the
deplorable loss of the late Edison
Keith. There are myriads of bust
ness men in Chicago who need to
profit by this warning, and who can
not safely allow themselves to en-
danger life and health by overtaxing
themselves in the terrible strain and
stress of business affairs in this in
sanely active and dangerously enter
prising city:
There is no compromising the city OF
Chicago for the loss of such man as
Mr.. Keith. While it may be true. that
the business and charitable enterprises
with which he was connected may go on,
as in his lifetime, it must be admitted
that the removal of such force as he
has been cannot but show itself in the
affairs that claimed his thought and
ingenuity.
The city of Chicago has proprietary
interest in such men as he was that they
themselves wholly ignore or fail to ap-
preciate, and while they do not live un-
to themselves alone they use their men,
tai and physical capacities as if they,
only, had the right to overtax their en-
ergies without regard to the claims OF
the public. Mr.. Keith was not an old
man, being SO. but he suffered from the
strain of large and active business too
long; he endured the tension until the
physical system became the subject OF
disease that resulted in the mental dis
turbance that caused his death. The
human organization is not unlike any
piece of delicate mechanism and it's USE
fulness depends on the care that is
taken of it.
One man will carry a watch for forty
years and its usefulness is not impaired,
while another will carry it for ten years
and it is used up, the difference being
due to the care taken of the watch.
Some men are old at so, others are
active and energetic at 80. There is, no
doubt, much due to the differences in
constitution, but far more is due to the
conservation of energy and the cal Q
taken of the body in which the human
mechanism is placed. Mr.. Keith came
from sturdy Scotch stock and physically
he was the picture of health, but the
severe strain he had put upon himself
in his early business life undoubtedly
left their effects upon him that made
the last years of his life burden TO
himself and finally produced mental
condition that made it UNDESIRABLE. Mr..
Keith's great activity, his labor in his
own business and his work in the many
public enterprises that engaged him
was too great to be carried and the end
came with shock to the whole city.
The increasing frequency of cases in
many respects similar to that of Mr..
Keith should serve as warning to bust
ness men to tighten the strain before it
is too late. Not one. at 70 can endure,
either physically or mentally, the exac-
tions OF business life at 80, although
they may, as the result of experience,
be of more value than they were in their
younger days to the success of that bust.
ness. They must not, however. be
broken with toll or worn out with --an-
xiety and care. Relief from the strain
must come before the point has been
reached where removal of the tension
will not produce relaxation. No man
ought to be martyr to his business nor
to his labors for the public, but too many
carry too heavy burden in each and
the result is always disastrous to both.