Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/510

 their attitudes toward inferiors, Schurz and Godkin were, in dealing with men of their own kind, about equally positive and tenacious. Because friction in the conduct of the Post could not be avoided, Mr. Schurz withdrew from all connection with it, in the autumn of 1883. Yet with few if any even temporary exceptions, Mr. Godkin and Mr. Schurz treated each other with the courtesy due their high moral and intellectual qualities, and maintained friendly relations to their last days.

Once more free from routine, Mr. Schurz's thoughts reverted to the promised biography and the cherished history. The one had made but little progress and the other none at all. Besides the editorial tasks of these two and one-half years, the multifarious distractions of life in New York had interfered with literary plans. As he was a distinguished citizen qualified for active and intelligent participation in the musical and the artistic, as well as the political and the social, activities of the great city, the calls upon him were increasingly numerous and exacting. He heartily enjoyed the indulgence of his various tastes and associations, but of course had to pay the penalty in loss of time needed for work in a few chosen fields.

If he had possessed an independent fortune, he would earlier have found more time to devote to literature. But the production of literature, and most of all historical literature, is unremunerative. Although both thrifty and industrious, probably he never felt entirely comfortable financially for a whole year unless he was adding to his income by labors that were not wholly those of a man of letters. Politics may have aided him in journalism and on the lyceum stage; but his salary as Senator and later as Secretary was inadequate to the needs of the extensive social obligations of his position.

About the time when his withdrawal from the Evening