But the cloud which darkened his sky now was the cloud which had lowered
on all his life,--poverty. He was always fevered by the care and anxiety
of procuring money. Life is expensive to a man occupying such a position
as Murger filled, and French authors are ill paid. A French publisher
thinks he has done wonders, if he sells all the copies of an edition of
three thousand volumes; and if any work reaches a sale of sixteen or
seventeen thousand volumes, the publisher is ready to cry, "Miracle!"
Further, men who lead intellectual lives are almost necessarily
extravagant of money. They know not its value. They know, indeed, that
ten mills make one cent, and that ten cents make one dime, and that ten
dimes make one dollar; but they are ignorant of the practical value of
these denominations of the great medium of exchange. They cannot "jew,"
and know not that the slight percentage they would take off the price
asked is a prize worth contending for. Again, the physical exhaustion or
reaction which almost invariably follows mental exertion requires
stimulants of some kind or other to remove the pain--it is an acute
pain--which reaction brings upon the whole system.
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