The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1858-04-21

and the shield of the commercial impos-
tor, he obtains credit borrows money;
opens splendid establishment en-
ploys dozen dashing clerks; marries
4 belle, who must be attended by train
of liveried menials; rents a first class
house on the most fashionable avenue /;
receives on deposit the earnings Of
laborers and seams.resses drives a
splendid span Of blooded horses gives
dinners. evening parties, and birthday
balls; buys box tickets at the theatre :;
heads the list whenever a compliment
tary benefit is rendered 10 a favorite
actress occupies a from, pew at
church never offers less than hnn-
dred dollars at donation party spends
the summer at Newport or Saratoga /;
announces his intention to visit Paris
and London the ensuing spring; bor-
rows, and borrows. and borrows. till he
can borrow no morc-and then there is
astar!liny rumor that failure has oc-
CURED, involving in ruin hundreds of
industrious and economical people. The
telegraph sends the astonishing intelli-
gence all over the country editors con-
suit their dictionaries for words to utter
their regret and astonishment; CONNER
cial men tender their sympathy. and ex-
press renewed confidence in the intey-
rity of their unfortunate brother and
the cheated poor again commence their
weary journey at the bottom Of their
steep and rugged path Of life. The
author Of all this wasteful extravagance.
and all this glittering falsehood. and all
this pompous liberty, and all this snob-
bish admiration. and all this undeserv.
ed sympathy, and all this piteously alb
used confidence, absents himself from
public assemblies till the nine days
tempest has blown over, and then comes
forth 10 seek some Few field Of opera
ton and play the same game over
again.
The shivering beggar who steals
web Of flannel is promptly arrested and
punished. No sympathizing crowd fol-
lows him to the grim entrance Of the
solitary and dreaded abode of counter
feits. thieves. and assassins. No sor-
rowful paragraph reluctantly tells how,
in an evil hour, he committed the un-
fortune deed. And yet how small does
his poor offense seem al,ngside of the
enormous crimes of tn, wicked and
reckless vayabond who steals the value
Of many thousand webs of funnel:
W o. though he never earned the daily
food of a starveling dog, yet often
in a single nights licentious
riot, more than a whole years wages Of
IN industrious man who beggard hun
dreds of families whose humble dwell
ings he was not worthy to enter; and
who, a bankrup. debtor. yet wasting the
substance Of others with the most
shameful extravasance, and covered all
over with the recent stains Of treachery,
is.lsei,ood, fraud. and extortion, goes
of the stage which he disgraced, not
only unpunished. but with the sympathy
Of most whom he did no, rob ?
Every principle of honor tells us that
no man should peril another when ruin
is even probable. He should pause at
once, and brave the danger which his
own folly has brought upon him. The
plain rules of common justice exempt
the innocent from the punishment of
the guilty. When man wiIlfullv in
vites ruin which he might otherwise
avert, and treacherously involves ansus.
pecting men in it, the public conscience
must be sin hardened if it does not pro.
nounce him an infamous criminal. and
The law which does not treat him as such
must lack justice as much as he likes
virtue. Why should merchant or a
banker every day DO with impunity
what would forever ruin the reputation
IF farmer or a merchant? 1t is good
hat disgraces should constantly attend
Upon ba conduct in farmer but
why should it not also constantly attend
upon bad conduct il merchant -
When farmer, through extrav 'gance
,r nismanagement. bee mes bankrupt,
ne is called swind'rr and cheat but
when merchant, through even worse
conduct, fails in business. his bankruptcy
s charged to the account Of financial
How strange that
oroadcloth or homespun should so
,hanye the complexion Of crime
The merchant is constantly exposed
o loss by uncurrent bank notes so is
he farmer. He may be ruined by
'educ,ion in the price Of produce SO
nay the farmer. He may be hard press
ID by his creditors so may the farmer:
He may be cheated by his debtors; so
nay the farmer. He may BE- reduced
o poverty by sickness. by fire. by food;
10 may the farmer. On the right hand
md on the left, before and behind. he
5 exposed to evils. and the farmer is
exposed to the worst effects of rain and
irouth, and to the ravases Of untimely
rosts and destroying insects. After
summing up the whole matter. we find
hat for every danger to which the
me is subject, an equal danger besets
he other. We insist. therefore, upon
he right to try them both by the same
and the conduct which. in a
armer. would be dis sra:ed. cannot be
overlooked it, a merchant. Let busi-
less men, as they call themselves. imi-
ate the plain simplicity and the honest
produce of farmers. and there will be
IN end to the disheartening list Of as
'iynments aud failures. 1t is no part Of
heir duty to initiate the manners Of the
fops Of London and Paris. to
'quander the annual products of a farm
It the benefit of lewd actress, to sleep
III day and speuI the night amid riot
md dehauchery, to frequen, the assem-
olies of men bloated with gluttony,
lropping with wine, and reeling in OBJ
scene dances. No man has right to
spend more money than his ordinary in
.oma and ha who suuandarS tho aorp. |