Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1871-12-27
AsUGeEsTIvE a STORY

\ pitiable, terribly suggestive story
comes TO US this week from western
city. An old man, the cashier of a
bank, proverbial for his integrity, dies
aud leaves a large, helpless family to
the care of his eldest son, who is offered
his fathers situation at the same low
salary, enough TO olothe, feed and edu-
cate the children decently, but nothing
mDre. The lad wants more. He is gen
erous TO a fault; an exceptionally afFec-
tionate son and brother, loves music,
pictures, dainty living, delights in
every thing, beautiful in nature and
art, of which his stinted, barren life has
been so niggardly. The mean house
his mother shabbily dressed; the meagcr
prospect before the horde of children,
gall and wound him beyond endurance.
Why should other men of c0arser ma
lures than he be enabled to surround
themselves with beanty and grace, and
he and his drag out their lives in hun.
cry, unsightly poverty The argument
is old; it began when the first cultured
poor man looked in the windows of his
inferior who had money.
This lad finally borrows thousand
OF two from the vault one day, telling
himself it is but the altering of figure
in his accounts; that in 8 week he will
replace it,
Very soon the old shabby house
widens and brightens into warm, lux
urioUs home; the longcd for music, pic
lures, exquisite furniture are there; CAV
faces, besides case and plenty; a feast of
high living, from which tho stranger or
the poor are never turned away; BROTH
ers and sisters are educated and we'll
placed in life, looking up to their young
protector with q blind devotion: the
town "a small manufacturing nlace,
where individual affairs are public prop-
ertyl rings with praise from his filial
affection and wonder ut his lavish gen
erosity; yet no investigation is made,
nor suspicion aroused; his wealth is
vaguely referred to speculations in oil,
silver mines, CT, surest basis i'm the
American mind, to luck. AT last the
crash comes, and q defalcatien is dis
covered of nearly half a million dollars.
The embezzlemeut has been going Oh
for more than eight years, and the
money has been taken mainly from
funds belonging to the poor, the savings
Observing women and mill-hands, whose
curses fall heavy Oh the guilty man. In
New York the defaultcr would have
slipped off to Europe very probably, but
common sense, the god OF western peo-
pie, metes out punishment there. in
prompt measure,
The dashing young fellow, with all
his fine tastes and generous impulses,
went last week, with a shaved head
and convict's dress, 10 drag out the best
years of his life in penitentiary, leav-
ing those that were 80 dear to him to
bear THEN poverty and burden Of dis
grace as Les; they may.
Now, such story as this would bo
incredible in any other country than our
own. The blindness, the passive conf /
dcnce which could induce community /
full OF sbrewd business men to suffer
such frauds rs these TO go ou from year
to year unchecked and unsupported are
the surest signs of the slip-shod chance |
foundations on which all our business
relations rest. No officer Of muueyed |
institution in England could show evil I
dencc ola sudden iucrcase ia income