Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-01-26
THE RE.rL CULPRIT.

conspicuous and successful than himself;
no worse than hundreds of men who break
every commandment of the Old Tesla
ment and the New, when pleasure or poll
CIV tempts them to do so no worse than
hundreds of men who have The grace TO
conceal what he gloried in making public.
The cool-headed, self h, malicious, sly viii
LAIN who cloaks his depravity under pious
pretentions, and wears the livery of re-
spectabilty while he robs and ruins, is
much worse at heart than the generous,
| ioval, free-living an-of-the-world, whose
conscience is simply undoveloped and not
deadened. and who has so little moral sem
sibility that he feels no shame for acts that
should crimson his check and make him
hide his face from all eyes forever.
Undoubtedly Mr.. Fisk was very bad
man. Many of his acts were unquestion-
ably criminal. His influence was blight
| ing. His example was pcrnicions. Ills
brilliant success threw Il halo over unprin-
cipled courses, and make thousands of
Young men think that check is about the
only quality a man needs in this world.
| He stands as Il sort of apotheosis of brass,
| iltrv and the fact that he amasscd a great
fortune. and made a vast parade, and SEEM
ed to live in a hey-day of enjoyment, and
was talked about by everybody, advertises
the qualities that made him successful and
conspicuous, and tempts others to play at
the same perilious game.
\ very bad man, certainly Yet before
passing final sentence upon him for his
guilty career it may he well to pause mo-
ment and ask. Who made him what he
was? Where did this man come from?
What were his antecedents? He did not
manufacture himself. Men do not pull
themselves up by the boot-strap in this
world. They usually find themselves
what they are and what they remain. They
come upon the stage with Il constitution,
temperaments, tastes, ideas, and ambitions
they have inherited and derived. They
are educated by schools, companions, cir
cunistances. They inbale influences sub
tier than the atmosphere, but more power
full in their effect upon mind and life than
the air on the blood. One-half the men we
meet on the streets are merely results. If
they are bad, the chief blame OF their bad
ness must fall upon parents, teachers,
churches, customs, the civilization which
has entered into their growth, the climate
which has made them what they are And
| if Mr.. Fisk was bad man il is worth the
while to ask, Who made him?
1t needs but little careful thinking and
inquiry to st e that Mr.. Fisk was one of the
more conspicuous represe natives ola class
of men already to- large in american ST.
C ETY. for its good and furthermore, that
he is only more prominent and pronounc-
cd product of ideas, forces, and influences
at work in all our communities. The glo-
ritcation of wealth and wo.ldly success ;
the ambition for pleasure, display, notori-
ETY., office, and power; the culture ol
shrewdness and cunning at the expense Of
conscience and reverence and faith the
sharpening of the wits at the cost of wis
dom; the ieasting Of tho senses by the
starving of taste, affection, and the most
sacred instincts Of human nature-al Gull
inmate in just the style of character that is
represented by Fisk. lie was the fruit OF
the tree VIC have spent fifty years in water
ing and nurturing into productiveness-a
tree covered all over with fruit of the
same peruicious sort. And before we
throw stones at him for he crimes he com
mitted and the crime he was, we should
strike the axe of our reproof ut the roots OF
the tree which bore him.
The real culprit is not this man or that
man whom we have caught in some overt
act of crime, but the state of society which
creates criminals and sends them into the
world fully armed and equipped TO commit
depredationS upon private rights and the
public order. Undoubtedly the indivd-
ual wrong-doer shares in the guilt. lie is
more or less II party to his own degrade
ton. He should be held more or less re-
sponsible for his deeds aud on his head
should fall the axe his own hand has sharp
encd, or the blow his own misconduct has
struck. But he is not the only criminal
Back Of every miserable offender we send
to the penitentiary or swing from the gal
lows into etern ty, stands the real culpri
in Il social condition that is false, Immoral
and corrupt. And instead Of relieving
our conscience by joining in the popular
chorus of condemnation of single conspic-
uous offender, we should aim at the ref
ormation of the real culprit. Make Amer
lean society what II ought to be; furnish il
with good houses, wholesome schools, in
nocent and edifying amusemcnts, relig
ion that is reasonable and which teaches
the obligation and worth of a good life in
this world; give II true idea of success
and maniness fill it with influences tina
are moral and elevating; bring the sun
shine of great faith to bear directly upoi
the hearts and minds 81 all its members
oblitoratlng the foolish, artificial distinc
tons of wealth and class, and making al
alike citizens Of God Almighty's common
wealth of souls, and we shall have no vii
, lains to suffer from and no criminals (
punish. Golden Age.