The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1862-04-05
SsPFeSSiuR.S3

Il
We extract tie following. on the modern
sin of the country, from the Lawrence
Congregational Record. of late dale. It is
so full of truth. and SO applicable to the
times, that We give it place in our paper.
It calls '.jaybawking. pressing" ETC.. By
their right names. Let everybody read and
ponder on its truths-and especially those
who are or have been engaged in this dis
reputable business:
| Civil var cannot exist among people
| without iexerting baneful influences. One
of the first effects of such a state of things
is to blind that nice and delicate sense Of
| individual rights, so essential to the welfare
of society. The public mind becomes SO
accustomed to reports of lawless deeds, that
it grows callous even in regard to the rights
of property. The distinction between the
meuDs and the tnun1 becomes in a measure
obliterated. Il is true. this recklessness
respecting rights once held sacred, devel-
ops itself first among the lower grades of
society. Plans of plumber are formed in
saloons, by men notorious for their lack of
moral principle. But by degrees the evil
works its way up. The sin is often palli-
ated on the ground that it is perpetrated
on seeessionists. Many who would not take
part, will still laugh at the crime. A re-
spectacle name is invented. To plumber is
called Pressing"
1t may be right for military authority to
seize and appropriate the goods of the cap
tured. It is lawful to confscate the prop
erty of the enemy, but it is by no means
just, in any sense. for private persons to-
take and use for their own benefit the stock
or any other property of those supposed or
known 10 be rebels. It cannot be too
strongly impressed on the mind of commu
nifty, especially in such times as these, that
pressing is theft; it makes no difference
what the article is.
Some will very readily admit this in the
case of live stock. To press horse. that
is theft; to press mule, that is violation
Of the eighth commandment; but to send
home fine silk dress, or a case of silver
spoons, or little set of jewelry to dear
wife or a very intimate friend, is another
thing. Such packages must not be called
theft, nor even '.preSsimg,' but 'tez press
ing" We do not know how many fami-
lies in Kansas have received such pack
ages. nor how many are wearing such |
articles as ornaments of person, of table or
of parlor, nor how many have them. like
Achan's pressed goods, carefully slowed
away. We do not know how many officers
and PriTates, even protesting to be Chris
tians, have INDUCED in such a practice.
We are not anxious to know. All we wish
to show is, that there is danger at this
point. To press silk dresses, or iewelry,
or silver dishes, is the same in kind as
pressing mules and horses. To take any
article in such a way, and to use it for ones
own family use, is to steal. It makes no
difference whether l press horse or
watch, the act in each case is still theft. If
anything, to press the watch is the meansr
and more coWardly of the two. For in ad-
dition to pressing. l pocket it, and act more
more of the hypocrite. To press silk
dresses and silver dishes, or jewelry, is
worse still, because one thus involves others
in the act. His dear wife or his intimate
friend shares in a common guilt. The wife
cannot walk with her husband in jay
hawked silk dress, except they be agreed;
nor can the family eat knowingly out of
pressed silver dishes without being
agreed; nor can a daughter, wearing
pressed" rings and jewelry, look at a
father or a brother, without being agreed.
Thus all connive at the deed, and become
guilty CT the same act, which in a little
different form they condemn. ''Thou that
preachest, man should not steal, dost thou
steal 20 Therefore thou art inexcusable,
o man whosoever thou art, that judgest.
for wherein thou judgest another thou con-
demnest myself, for thou doest the same
things The only way to do away with
the evil, is to frown upon it epery form. Let
the contempt, let the indignation of honest
men rest upon it. Suffer it not TO raise its
head, either as ''jay hawking" or press
ing" or as sending home to ones friends"
In each of these forms, let it be recognized
as theft, or stealing.