6 THE TOXER LECTURES. 



meridian of life, aud find themselves confronted with l^rain work, 

 and with duties and responsibilities to which they are unequal, be- 

 cause for them they have had no preparation at all. 



The occupations of the members of the Forty- Eighth Congress, 

 as given by the Congressional Directory, were as follows : Lawyers, 

 197 ; manufacturers, 24 ; journalists, 22 ; farmers or planters, 19 ; 

 merchants, 16; bankers, 11; physicians, 6 ; mining capitalists, 5; 

 mining engineers, 3; railroad managers, 3; clergymen, 2; army 

 officers, 2 ; stenographers, 2 ; architect, 1 ; pharmacist, 1 ; railroad 

 ticket agent, 1 ; hatter, 1 ; zoologist, 1 ; and unclassified, 8. 



The legal profession furnishes by far the largest number of Sen- 

 ators and Representatives, and of others holding public i)Iaces ; and 

 among these are to be found our brightest political luminaries. 

 Even legal studies, however, do not necessarily fit men for public 

 position ; in special instances, they rather unfit them. It must be 

 borne in mind also that the terra " lawyer," as applied to those in 

 political station, is often a mere fiction, those holding it often being 

 men half-trained, or not trained at all, who have assumed the legal 

 role by the easy methods which prevail throughout our land. A 

 lawyer or editor, a banker or merchant, a farmer or planter, a manu- 

 facturer or railway magnate, a physician or j? readier, finds himself 

 in Congressional halls by virtue of wealth, or local fame, or fortuit- 

 ous circumstances, and absolutely without any appreciation of or 

 fitness for the labors and responsibilities of his new calling. Am- 

 bition, self-esteem, and the instinct for praise impel him to strenuous 

 exertion to compensate for his deficiencies, an effort which leaves 

 him sometimes a mental and physical wreck. 



Whether they have entered public life in youth or middle age, 

 and whether prepared or not, mental overwork is particularly dan- 

 gerous to men beyond the prime of life. Of the sixty cases, break- 

 down occurred between twenty-five and thirty years in 2 cases ; 

 between thirty and forty in 14 cases; between forty and fifty in 

 18 cases; between fifty and sixty in 17 cases; between sixty and 

 seventv in 9 cases. 



