The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1871-01-27
For the EMPoH1A NEWS.

| For the EMPoRIA NEWS.
MR.. REPORTER: Reading your notice of a
child claiming poeketbook his own that
was dropped by lady at the festival, at Ban
croft Hall, on Friday evening last, sat me to
thinking. My reflections, such as they are, I
send to you: How much is that child to blame +?
| In all human probability il was but the act OF
a moments impulse. He saw the person pick
up the pocketbook. The thought may have
flashed through his brain, might as well have
this as the finder, and without giving u
| thought of the wrong doing, when asked if
the pocketbook was his, he answered yes.
That he did wrong, very wrong, we all know,
but as before said, hastily and thoughtlessiy.
Let him at once If he has not already done
SOY repair the error by restoring the book to
its owner, and thus show that it was not with
wicked intent that he did as he did. But
suppose for the sake OF the argument that the
child did wrong Intentionally, which / do
not for one moment believe, is not the public
responsible for it!
Let us examine into the state of society and
see If we, the public have not by our remis-
ness or culpable neglect in eondemnfng vice as
1t deserves, been instrumental in bringing
about this state of things. Do we not every
day read Of the rascality practiced upon their
employers by some cashier, director or presi-
dent of some great corporation, in which the
resources of the institution seriously Grip
pied, and in which the thief or robber, after
compromising with his employers, is received
back into society with outstretched hands,
provided, he came back with them well filled.
Is 1t not the same thing with clerks and cash
ters Of our stores? Do not their employers
compromise with them and let them 20 instead
of making examples of them, and thus show
that the way of the transgressor is really hard?
Are they not at once received into the bosoms
of our very best families, provided, they cone
with their pockets well lined, particularly if
we have any manageable daughters to dis
pose of. Once again look at that man who
with the cunning and adroitness of a fiend,
and with 4 superabundance of tears and lam
entations, works his way into the good graces
of another, until that other almost forgets
home and kindred, and IN the benevolenee of
his heart resolves to leave no stone unturned
to advance the interest of the being, whose
dupe he is, only when the proper moment ar
rives to be robbed in exchange. What says
society to this? 1t Is true all Of these wretches
are despised and held up as 4 warning; but in
public they are met as friends and aquaint-
ances, and nearly all unite to do them reyer-
ence. '.As the twig is bent, so inclines the
tree.'' Is it any wonder then that our chill
dren with these examples of the degeneracy
OF their fathers and mothers constantly before
their eyes, should initiate small scale the
examples of their elders? I, for one, think
not. 1t is only strange to me that we are not
more frequently called upon to write such
things. Its scarcity goes to show the utter
fslsity OF "that by nature all are corrupt"
Education, not nature, in ninety-nine cases
out Of the hundred makes the criminal. Let
L
The more successful the villain, the greater he
should be loathed. No matter if he ''dresses
in fine raiment and fares sumptuouslv every |
day." avoid him as you would pestilence and |
your children will do the same.
JUSTICE.