Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography; Leland, Charles Godfrey, 1824-1903
It was at this time that my brother Henry died, and his loss inflicted on
me a terrible mental blow, which went far, subsequently, to bring about a
great crisis in my health. My dear brother was the most remarkable
illustration of the fact that there are men who, by no fault of their
own, and who, despite the utmost honour or integrity, deep intelligence,
good education, and varied talents, are overshadowed all their lives by
sorrow, and meet ill-luck at every turn. He went at sixteen as _employe_
into a Cuban importing house, where he learned Spanish. His principal
failed, and thence he passed to a store in New York, where he worked far
too hard for $600 a year. His successor, who did much less, was
immediately paid $2,500 per annum. Finding that his employer was being
secretly ruined by his partner, he warned the former, but only with the
result of being severely reprimanded by the merchant and my father as a
mischief-maker. After a while this merchant was absolutely ruined and
bankrupted by his partner, as he himself declared to me, but, like many
men, still kept his _rancune_ against my poor brother. By this time the
eyesight and health of Henry quite gave out for some time. Every effort
which he made, whether to get employment, to become artist or writer,
failed. He published two volumes of tales, sporting sketches, &c., with
Lippincott, in Philadelphia, which are remarkable for originality. One
of them was subsequently written out by another distinguished author in
another form. I do not say it was after my brother's, for I have known
another case in which two men, having heard a story from Barnum, both
published it, ignorant that the other had done so. But I would declare,
in justice to my brother, that he told this story, which I am sure the
reader knows, quite as well as did the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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