New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-11-11
VALUE OF A GOOD NAME.

People misled by the shining example
Of successful theft are apt to despise tn
humble acquisitions of honest industry
He who robs purse from the public i
applauded, and inspires thousand til
robbers and knockers down" of thei
employers money. The time usual,
comes in the cycle of moral events tina
the man who relies upon his superior
astuteness to outwit and rob others O.
their earnings comes himself to disap
pointment and ruin. The pious Jay Cooke
overwhelms the confding ckrgymen with
the intelligence that their place of sum.
mer resort is closed and their deposits
| merged in a mass Of insolvency from
which they can not be separated. In his
selfish aims at ACKNOWLEDGEMENT thousands
of innocent laborers are involved, rail-
roads are suspended, mills are closed,
clerks and porters' are idle and their
families pinched with hunger and cold.
| The crafty and illiterate Drew, the fell
low in intelligence and culture OF
John Harper, the owner and grower
| of race horses; Vanderbilt, the sordid,
Isselfish and arrogant, who allowed the
blind and credulous Mr.. Greeley to lose
thousands from the patrimony of his now
orphaned daughters, loaned in good faith
to the son of Vanderbilt. Fisk, the prof
lgate pretender, has gone to an insol-
vents grave; his colleague and murderer,
Stokes, has gone from felon's cell to a
convict's labor. Tweed, who plundered
the people of millions in the name of
Democracy, is arraigned as criminal at
the bar, while Cakes Ames, who perpe-
trated similar iniquity to- the injury of
the Republican party, has only escaped
the punishment of man by appearing be-
fore bar where hired attorneys can never
appear, suborned witnesses are never
heard and bribed jurymen are unknown.
All these last agents of human iniquity
are securely locked up beon. Such are
few instances of the short celebrity of
craft and crime.
Every generation must have it's own ex-
perience. We have had ou1s. Every
generation, like every individual, becomes
convinced by this experience that honesty
is the highest wisdom, as it is the surest
passport to happiness. To the names i'm
minent for the mischief of these exam
pies We are now happy to add one from
the many proving the capital value Of in
tegrity. The firm of Clafin & Co. was
recently numbered among the failures of
New York. 1t will be remembered that
while the banks and merchants had
agreed to sustain this firm by contribu-
tons Of money and credit, the firm declin-
ed to accept the evidence of commercial
confidence and resumed without it. Per-
haps the following notice Of the well
tested probity of the firm will account for
the unqualified and complimentary conf
dence manifested by their fellow mer-
chants. The New York Tribune says
A leading fnancier and intimate friend of
Co., if afforded a fair accommodation by
those having claims against them, would be
enabled to meet every dollar Of their obi
cations with interest. The action Of Mr. |
Clat1in in 1857 WAS q sufficient guarantee
that the creditors would not suffer BY an |
accommodation. When the crash came in !
that year the firm of Clafiu, Mellen & Co. |
suspended payment, like hundreds of |
Others. meeting of the creditors WAS |
held and the proposition was made by /
committee, to whom the terms of settle |
ment were referred, that tho firm should
give its notes for seventy per cent running
from three to six months; when these were
paid, if the firm was able it was to give
notes for the remaining thirty per cent.
Then, when these were paid interest was
to be paid on the seventy per cent and at
terms were deemed to be very liberal to-
ward the creditors, and the greater
number unhesitatingly acceded to them.
A few, however, demanded seventy per
cent in cash. Their claims against the firm
were purchased by the speaker and others
at this figure. and the settlement was made
On the terms proposed by the committee.
The firm resumed business and the cred
tors were paid in full, with interest. More
han this. Mr.. Clafin procured list Of
hose who had sold their claims for less
han their face value, visited them. and paid
he difference, with interest. He paid in
his manner to persons who had no legal |
LAIN against him $4,000. When remon-
trated with by bis friends for paying those
Who had no legal claim against him, and
Who had acted in an ungenerous spirit to- |
ward him when he most needed sympathy |
md aid, Mr.. Clatiin replied that he did not
wish any man to be able to say with truth
hat he had lost dollar by trusting to his
mercantile honor.
This scrupulous policy to obligations is
lmost without a parallel. 1t has brought
IS reward. We do not notice that SIM
lar proof of sympathy or confidence has
zen given Messrs. Jay Cooke and imi-
ators, while the detestation of all honest
atriots will follow the political knaves
Tho proftssed faith they never knew for
n opportunity to rob and dishonor those
-ho trusted them.
FRYING INTO OUR AFFAIRS.