The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-05-17
Commonplace Lies and Dishonesty.


Henry Ward Beecher. in a recent sermon, said :
Have we a conscience that loves the simplicity
of truth for it's own sake? The customary lie,
the profitable lie-nre they not common in reli-
giou, in business, and in politics? You do not
need to 90 back 10 the old ancient notion of
houOr-infexible truthtulness. Can there be
anything that our boys and girls are more likely
to be benefited by than TO be ashamed of lying in
every form? Take the matter Of honesty. We
arc not q dishonest nation. Is a man striving TO
make 4 competency? L would make it by hon
esty but the question is, suppose he cannot
what then?
ADULTERATIoNS.
a young man, my neighbor, dries his paint.
lie said To me the other day This matter has
got to such a state that the paint men cannot be
honest. My wife saws TO me, why don't you go
to communion? / say I cannot when | know l
have got to cheat the next day. | have to do so,
and my customer know it-and they want me
TO-" The adulteration is 80 per cent. lie tells
me 1t is One-third lead, then zinc, and then va
rieties ground together. That is what they
demand he says. a. sell more that has not
any lead in it than that which has" | ask him,
- Where does that go?" lie tells me, North
and Northwest. Men that buy from me are not
very particular sometimes about having lead IN
it. There is q man who buys a great many times
during the year, and ne Is not particular if the
lead is not in it. He is a good man, worth
S4O0,O 600, is a member of the church, for | know
he teaches a Bible class. Tie comes down to me
and says, My friend, can't you put a little lead
into the paint you sell me?'
$50 thought l would oblige him, and when
| was melting a ton of lead / took a spoonful,
and / put it into his paint, so that then he would
be able to say to his customers. YES, there is
lead in it," daughter. Although this may
seem cxaggeration, it is all the better for it, for
exuggeration magnifes the object so that you can
see better. 1t is not exaggeration to say that
society has carried dishonesty into the organic
structure of its business.
In coffee there is always adulteration. Some
times it is better for the adulteration but it was
thought the adulteration of chiccory was not bad
enough, and roast peas or beans We're added, and
they took old ship bread that had made a couple
of voyages, and put it in. daughter.
How is it with wine? | am not so familiar in
that direction. Laughter. But l hear rumors
about 1t. How is it about all the products that
come into the apothecary shop? hear men say
that lives are lost because of atEalteration in
drugs. and that patients break down because the
chloroform was not what it professed to be, when
used by the physician. Is cloth always what it
processes to be? Is there no cheating in linen,
in iron, in stone, or plaster, in painting, or in
building?
Mechanics have become debauched, and manu-
%facturers have become debauched. There is a
principle Of dishonesty, which is among them
selves recognized, but they do not like to talk
about it to Others. 1t belongs, part and parcel,
To the whole deterioration of the community
when they want more than they render an equiv
nlent for.
PETTY VICES ILLUSTRATED.
When a man wants 20 cents and earns only 10
cents, he cheats. When he wants more than a
fair equivalent for his services, he cheats. No
man is honest who does not wish to give a fair
equivalent for what he takes.
A young man is advancing in life, let us say.
He is ambitious, and so is his wife. He has put
aside 5000 to build a house, and his wife says
s You are not going to build for less than his
house?" The young man replies: why, that
cost $4,000" "Still, you are smart, and you
can get as good a house as they have" So he
says, 81 will" And he plays for an $4,000
house, and he is determined all the while to build
it for 5 $1,000. He applies to the builders. One
man says, &" will do it for 81 800"
I" cannot talk with you" he says. He goes
to another. He thinks he could do it for sc 900,
and finally he goes to a man who agrees to build
it. After a few years he finds out bow he did it.
Do you think Il man of his sense would put
$4,000 into q house, and take So, 600? They
were two sharpers who met, and the mechanic
cheated him.
But who was his teacher and school-master in
the fraud? But the man was extravaganza in
wanting n house more than he could afford to
build. 1t is a crying shame Of multitudes that
they want to live higher than they can live. 1t
is extravaganza which is tempting so many of the
community to fraud. Mechanics say, " We can
not be honest and follow our business A man
said to me-, - You preach, and that Is all but IN
my business you would find it different to preach
about honesty and be honest And l am afraid
it is so. Are not these things which mothers
ought to think of?
A man has a mother who goes shopping, and
she beats down all the goods, and endeavors to
perplex the clerk with taking less money than
the goods are worth. One day a young lady, a
daughter, came home to her mother, out of
breath with delight. She said "As sure as 1
am alive, | went to Jenkins, and there was q
beautiful ribbon for sale. | asked the price of
the lady she said a dollar and a half.
"a clerk, who has not been long there, said,
when [ asked him The price, I believe, is
fifty cents l said l would take six yards, and,
oh, mother, here it isl" And the mother re-
plies 81 am sorry you did not take twice as
That love of bargains, to get something
very cheap, that dishonesty of wanting more than
the worth of your money, Is eating out the sensi-
bility of the community, through the working
men and the manufacturers.
There is a necessity of reform in the simple
matter of honesty, and the school ought to have
some drill in this matter. Where is the cate
chism for teaching this industry? The school
should have something to inspire children with
selfcontrol and patriotism. This is the
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