Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1871-12-29
a Suggestive Story.

y pltiable, terribly suggestive story comes
u US this week from Western city. An old
man, the cashier OF bank, proverbial for his
integrity, dies, and leaves large helpless
/ family to the care Of his eldest son, who is
offered his fathers situation at the same low
salary, enough to feed, clothe and educate
/ the children decently but nothing more. The
lad wants more. lie is generous to a fault !;
an exceptionally afectionate son and brother;
loves music, pictures. dainty living, delights
IN the very things, beautiful in nature or art,
Of which his stlntej. barren life has been so
uiggardly. The mean hou-e-his mother
shabbily dressed-the meagre prospect before
the horde Of children gall and wound him
daily beyond endurance. Why should other
men of clarscr natures than he be enabled To
Surround themselves with beauty and grace,
and he and his drag OUT their lives in hun
gry, unsgltlv poverty? The argument is old;
il began when the first cultured poor man
boxed in the windows of his inferior who
had money.
This lad finally borrOws q thousand or two
from the vault one day, telling himself it Is
but the altering Of a figure in his accounts;
;ha, in q week he will replace it. Very soon
the old shabby house widens and brlghtcns
into a warm, luxurious home; the l0nged for
music. pictures, exquisite furniture are there;
gay faces besides. ease and. plenty; g feast Of
high living. from which the stranger or the
po-r are never turned away; brothers and 7i--
ters are educated and well placed in life, look
in- up 20 their young protector with blind
devotion; the town Ga small manufacturing
place. where individual affairs are public
property rings with prai-e Of his iilial alec
ton ant wonder 10 bis lavish generosity; yet
ul investigation Is made, nor suspicion arJus-
cd, his wealth Is vaguely referred 70 'spccu-
laiilns In OIL, silver mines, OF surcst basis
10 the American mind, 10 luck. At last the
crash comes, and deialcau0n is discovered
OF nearly half million cf dollars. The en-
bezz.ement has been going on for more than
eight years, and the money has been taken
mainly from funds belonging 70 the p1lr.tbe
savings OF sewing women aGd m'il hands,
wh0-o curses fall heavily on the guilty an.
The result. inevitable in the West, follows.
IL New FORK the de!aulter would have slip
ped of 10 Europe very probably, but COM
mon sense, the god of Western people, mctes
out punishment there in prompt measure.
The dishins young fellow with all his fine
tastes and -rucrous impulses. went last week,
20 drag olt the best years of his life in pen
i-cuuIry, leaving those wb1 were SD dear 90
him 70 bear their poverty and burden ct dis
huce as best they may.
Now such q story as this would ho ilcrelI-
Tie 30 ANY other country than our own. The
hnrdne->, the passive confidence which could f.
induce o community fall of shrewd business
men % suffer such frauds o, these 20 q on
from year ID year unchecked and uusGsQcct-
ci are tlc surast isns of the siIF-sh1d chance
foundations ou which all our business reli- .
ti-u- resi-. No or er Of moneycd ius,itu-
ZION iu England could show evidence oi .
sudden increase 10 income without provoking .
rIuq: and jealous inquiry, tha- 1t is other
wi-c here is NOT because the AmerIc ms are .
lees jealous people than the English, but be-
cause gambling ty speculation Is as common
and successful 10 the respectable classes as
umh.ins By cards and dice IN the lower
Bat the Suggestive point IN the story is that
Tie amh.fi of this lads mind. ami the ar-
-ument- by which his principles were taiut-
.l, axe tll ambition ami The ha5iJIal arsu-
men, oi tw,-taird- of -ho c4l-urei poor lads
hat crowd American cities, as generous and
5yclsle as De. Every man in America tries
ID li.- bic son to higher social plane than
i- OWL, o. develop. and development j.
imposed % mean, nine times out OF ten.
,i-.r education, more refined hahi,s Of living
--hatic tastes. not the training of the b1g 10
ac reru integrity of the old Pari,an stock
r tac hlrl-f-;ed honesty of bis Quaker
grandfather. Now beautiful home e14uis-
ne dresses, dainty meals. pictures, travel, the
ac opera, age god things IN their way, hut
hey c.s- money, and the pennies clerk or