New-York tribune., 1871-12-13
4 ,SUEGRSTITE S1ORY.

A ptiablc, terribly suggestive story comes
to us this week from Western city. An old
man, the cashier of bank, prOverbial for his
integrity, dies and leaves a large, helpless fam
lily to the care of his eldest son, who is offered
his fathers situation at the same low salary,
enough to clothe feed, and educate the chill
dren deccntly, bnt nothing moro. The lad
wants more. lie is generous to fault: an
exceptionally affectiOnate son and brother /;
loves music, pictures, dainty living, delights
in the very things beautiful in nature or art,
of which his stinted. barren life has been 80
niggardy. The mean hOuse-his mother shah
billy dresscd-tho meager prospect before the
horde of children, gall and wound him daily
beyond endurance. Why should other men Of
cOarser natures than he be enabled to sur
round themselves with beauty and grace, and
he and his drag out their lives in hungry, un-
slightly povertyf The argument is old ; it be-
gan when the first cultured poor man looked
in the windows of his inferior who had money
This lad finally bOrrows thousand or two
from the vault one day, telling himself it
is but the altering of figure in his ac-
counts; that in week he will replace it. Very
soon the old shabby house widens and bright
ems into warm, luxurious home; the longed
for music. pictures, exquisite furniture arc
there; gay faces besides, ease and plenty; q
feast of high living, from which tho stranger
or the poor are never turned away; brothers
and sisters are educated and we'll placed in
life, looking up to their young protector with
a blind devotion; the town "a small manufac-
turing place, where individual affairs are pub
lie property rings with praise of bis filial
affection and wonder at his lavish generosity;
yet no investigation is made, nor suspicion
aroused; his wealth is vaguely referred to
"speculations in OIL" "silver mines," or, surest
basis in the American mind, to "luck" At
last the crash comes, and defalcation Is dis
covered OF nearly half q million of dollars
The embezzlement has been going on for more
than eight years, and the money has been
taken mainly from funds belonging to the
poor, the savings Of sewing women and mill
hands, whose curses fall heavily on the guilty
man. The result, inevitable in the West, fol-
lows. In New-York the 2efaulter would have
slipped off to Europe very probably, but COM
mon sense, the god Of Western people, metes
out punishment there in prompt measure.
The dashing young fellow, with all his fine
tastes and generous impulses, went last week,
with shaved head and convict's dress, to drag
out the best years of his life in penitentiary,
leaving those who were 80 dear to him to
bear their poverty and burden of disgrace a.
best they may.
Now, such o story as this would be incredi-
bic in any other country than our own. Tho
blindness, the passive confidence which could
induce community full Of shrewd business
men to suffer such frauds as these to 20 on
from year to year unchecked and unsuspected
are the surest signs Of the slip.shod chance
foundations on which all our business relations
rest. No officer of o moneyed institution in
England could show evidence Of sudden in
crease in income without provoking prompt
and jealous inquiry; that it is otherwise here
is not because the Americans are less jealous
people than the English, but because gambling
by speculation is Is common and successful in
the respectable classes a. gambling by
cards and dice in the lower. But the sug-
gestive point in the story Is that the ambition
of this lads mind, and the arguments by
which his principles were tainted, arc the am
bition and tho habtual argument Of two
thirds OF the cultured poor lads that crowd
American cities, as generous and lovable as
he. Every man iu America tries to Lift his
son to higher social plane than his own; to
"deVelQp him ~ and ieyelOpmcnt il aipD0sed