Year: 1871




ALEXANDER I. STEWART, of New York,
has just suffered physical prostration
from which it will take him some time to
recover. Mr.. Stewart is yet comparatively
young. But for many years, and especial
ly of late years, he has been intensely de.
voting his mental and physical powers to
his immense business, and, at last, unable
to bear the persistent strain, his system
gave way and he lies helpless, and such a
wreck that his physicians cannot give an
assurance that his health will be re esta b.
lished.


We published yesterday an account of
the departure for Europe of Mr.. John +.
Tracey, 80 long known to the public from
his connection with railroad affairs He,
too, has been subjected to such mental
and bodily strain for the last six years that
the wonder is that he has not broken down
long ago. He goes to Europe. accom-
panied by physician, and it is uncertain
so greatly is he prostrated in mind and
body, whether he will ever resume his
active leadership in railroad affairs again.


There are other men engaged in rail
roads, in banking, in all branches of COM
merce, and in all the learned professions
who are also fastening to like sudden,
and, perhaps, more overwhelming termi-
nation. Every day we read of men, seem
lngly in good health, suddenly falling in
death, or perishing by protracted paralysis,
or rapidly falling into mental decay. So
numerous have been such cases of late
years that people have wondered that
heart disease" to which these things are
attributed, had become SO universal But
the truth is that men in these days never
know when to stop. The richer they
grow the more earnestly they labor the de-
sire and thirst for profit, the excitements of
competition, the intensity Of the spirit of
speculation which pervades every walk of
life these things all hasten the mind and
body TO that point where the strength of
nature fails, and the man, if he does not
die instantly, fingers along with paralyzed
limbs and weakened intellect for the re-
mainder of his life.


All men have more or less of the cares
and anxieties peculiar to human life
That there is a skeleton in every house
hold is proverbial and no man can long
survive a struggle with nature who, in
addition to the ordinary cares of life, as
sumes load of responsibility beyond all
mortal strength, and with overburdened
brain and fevered body, ventures to bat
tie through the world. There is limit
to the power of giants. The burdens
which man may carry when taken separ-





stronger for the labor, if all pressed upon
the brain at once, must produce exhaus-
ton of body and mind. We are all work
ing too fast. We are all laboring as if the
affairs of mankind must be arranged be-
fore we die; we are all toiling as if for the
purpose of leaving nothing for any one to
do after we have gone. There are men
now living who so labor by night and day
that it is reasonable to assume that they
expect in their time to lay every mile of
railroad that will ever be needed on the
continent of America. And the same
spirit is to be found in every walk of life.
We are destroying ourselves, that poster
lty may have nothing to trouble themselves
with.


This unnatural process of destruction,
of course, carries off those soonest whose
services to society are most valuable. But
the great mistake is in supposing that the
men who follow lis cannot get along as
we'll if we leave something for them to do
We make another mistake in supposing
that any one of us is absolutely essential
to the worlds prosperity, or that the world
will miss us week after we have gone
1t is madness, therefore, for men to tax
themselves mentally and physically, to
break down their bodily strength and men
tai vlgOr under the delusion that we are
fulfilling mission or accomplishing any
thing that would not have been as we'll sc
complished if we had never existed
There are but few men engaged in com
mercial and professional duties who, un
der the insane velocity of the present day
are not exceeding the proper limits of la
bor, and who are not thereby inducing
premature decay, and inviting certain, i
not sudden, death in the very hour of thci
wOrk.-ChicGgO Tribune.