The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-10
CALAMITIEs OF AUTHORS.

Misfortunes Due to Temporary Forget
 fulness and the Confusion of Dates
 and Names-Unlucky Writers Who
 Have Ruined Their Publishers as
 We'll as Themselves.
 Like the painter and the housemaid, the literary man has his ailments, strictly professional in their nature. His is an indoor life, and he is, there fore. in the first place subjected to the infrmities which come from house life and little exercise It is doubtful whether the highest degree of phys ical health and strength can be attain ed by one devoted to literary work. as this is so absorbing In it's nature as to make the professional writer forget or ignore all else in the diligent pursuit of his calling. Chained to his writing desk, his digestion becomes poor, his muscles are weakened so that he is un- able even were he willing, to take ac- tive exercise; his whole system is re- faxed; his nerves are unstrung, and, even if no positive lesion of the vital or gans becomes apparent, he feels that he is "out of sorts" Sooner or later, how ever. the general weakness manifests itself at some particular point, and if he does not go to pieces all at once, like the deacons shay, he breaks down in spots, His eyes are frequently the first to suffer, being greatly overtaxed; he gets chronic dyspepsia, scriveners s cramp attacks his hand, rheumatism, from some accidental exposure, afflictS his feet or his shoulders or his back; from lack of exercise and too much eat ing and drinking he Is seized by the gout. It Is true that some of these woes are also found in other lines of life, but in his they are the direct re- suit of his habits. Milton, Beach, Han del, all were blind from overstudy and work. Carlyle's life was embittered by his stomach, a dozen writers of prominence have been stricken by "wri- ter's cramp" Wordsworth had rheu- matism from allowing a window to re- main open and the cold wind to blow across his feet, while at work Gibbon was a martyr to the gout, while apo plexy and paralysis, from overwork and lack of air and exercise, have slain their scores.
 One of the most serious professional misfortunes of literary men has been the fact that they so often disagreed with the constituted authorities of their place of residence, Freedom of speech and of the press Is a thing of our own day, and not even yet in all countries, is it enjoyed to the extent that it is in this. Until the present century, when a writer took of any subject a view that was not agreeagle to the authorities, they promptly signitied their displeas- ure, and answered his arguments by locking him up, and so giving him leis- ure and quiet to reflect on the error of his opinions. Voltaire had abundant experience of this professional minfor- tune. and after being incarcerated by the French government and by Freder- ick the Great. he grew so foxily wary in his old age that he finally settled down at Ferney, close to the Swiss frontier, where he could, at an hour's notice, flee from one country to anoth- CT in case either became a little too warm to be comfortable. Buchanan, Raleigh. Boethius, Grotius, Bunyan, Selden, all knew or learned what a diff ference of opinion meant, and Robin son Crusoe Defoe was so familiar with the pleasant little way the English gov- ernment had of answering his political pamphlets, that he once said: If a stranger taps me on the shoulder on the street, I at once turn round and walk toward NeWgate, purely from force of habit" Some degree of moral as well as physical courage was re- quired to be a political writer in the days when Newgate, the pillory, the stocks, and the branding irons were al- ways ready for political writers of the opposition party; when ears were crop ped to make man change his views, and noses were split to show opposi- tion debaters that they were in the wrong; but, to the credit of the profes- sion be it said, all the governmental arguments failed to convince, and since the invention of printing, there has never been any lack of writers to roast" an administration that needed such treatment.
 Many authors of note have suffered irreparable loss from the destruction of their papers. Generally, the disast- CT came from accidental fire, sometimes the labors of many years being swept away in an hour. Sir Isaac Newton sustained the loss of a large mass of scientific data and calculating through a fire caused by his favorite dog, Dia-