The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-01-06
HEROIC WORK OF WRITERS.
Notable Instances Of Nartyrdom to
the Completion of Set Tasks
in Literature.

derolSm OF the STUDY presents no bet
ter example than the story of Gen.
Grants autobiography. The Personal
Memoirs" yielded his widow $500, 900.
In 1884. the year before his death, the
ex-president found himself bankrupt
through the failure of a brokers' firm
In which he was partner and face to face
with the prospect of dying penniless and
leaving his wife destitute 1t was at
this terrible crisis that he began to
write the story of his stirring career for
a firm of publishers. But the cup of
his misfortune was not yet full.
A cancer formed at the root of his
tongue. and the gallant soldier, already
doomed to death, was compelled to write
day after day, suffering constant and
severe agony. He completed his colos-
sal task just four days before the mer-
ciful end came, having thus performed in
his study and in his bedroom an act of
heroism which has never been eclipsed
on any field of battle.
Scarcely less heroic were the strug-
giles of two American historians. Will
liam Henry Prescott and S. Francis
Parkman. In broken health, Parkman
tolied on for years and completed his Sc
rles OF volumes relating to colonial his
tory. Prescott was almost totally blind
for years while prosecuting his re-
searches.
Another notable case is that of Prof.
Finsen. the discoverer of the light
cure for lupus, who died so recently.
For the last 20 years of his too short life
he suffered from painful diseases of the
heart and liver. to which dropsy was
superadded, and it was only by daily self
denial and the strictest of dieting that
he was able to live at all.
Yet for all these years, living in the
very shadow of death and in constant
suffering, he stuck bravely to his great
life work, even studying his own dis
eases with the keenest attention and
writing articles on them for medical
journals. The last two or three years
OF his life were spent lying on his back,
unable even to be carried to his beloved
institute few yards away. and yet the
lion-hearted scientist never relaxed for
single day his gallant fight for his fell
low men against disease.
The heroism Of the Danish professor
reminds one of similar brave battle
waged by an English professor, John
Richard Green, the historian. against
disease and pain. 1t was in 1869, when
the disease which had assaulted him for
many years finally Frustrated him, and
when the doctors gave him no hope of
living more than six months that Green
set to work to write his famous Short
History of the English People" Day
after day he toiled at his task, holding
desperately on to life and in a state of
ceaseless pain and exhaustion and so
brave was the mans spirit that he &C
tua)}y prolonged his life for five years.
Even he was bound to confess: II won
der how in those years of physical pain
and dependency could ever have writ
ten the book at ALL"
Mrs. Browning, too, one remembers,
wrote most of her beautiful poems "con
fined to darkened chamber, to which
only her own family and few devoted
friends could be admitted. in great weak
ness and almost unintermittent suffer-
ing. with her favorite spaniel as her
companion"
Sir Walter SCOTS heroic struggle with
misfortune and failing health during the
closing years of his life u.s. perhaps, too
we'll known to call for more than mention.
After the commercial crash came which
left him crushed with debt and shattered
health. he set to work with wearied
eyes and worn BRAIN and toled for
years. often as much as ID hours day.
until the end came and with it the lift
ing of all the burdens. including that of
his debts, every penny of which his mon
umental toll paid.