The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-12-19
The Leading Vice.

The leading vice Of the day is dis
honesty. Other sins are abundant, but
this is in excess Of all. The recent and
still prevailing monetary disturbance
has brought many hidden things of
darkness to light, and exposed frauds
that had been a long time i'll progress.
The average conscience is less sensitive
on the subject of financial trusts than
ON that Of other obligations. Men i'll
high places and in reputable social posi-
tons cheat and defrand, and enrich
themselves by many artful tricks, with
out losing caste. They are reckless in
business, rushing into speculatlOns with
q perfect abandon, and caring little for
their own promises, or for the wreck
and disaster which they intiict upon the
country.
Money is the great necessity, and all
means are legitimate by which it can be
secured. Neither can people afford to
| wait for slow accommodations, OF to gain
a competence by industrious toll. A
desire for riches and a repugnance to
hard work go together; and some royal
road, some short cut, must be found to
the coveted possessions. The wise man
has said that money answereth all
things" Almost every temporal good
it will buy, from the highest luXurieS to
the merest necessities and comforts of
life. AS the world goes, it commands
respect and influence, and is nor hon
Ored than virtue or talent. Style is q
social necessity. The houses people
live in, the clothes they wear, the en-
t~ertainments they give, are matters of
first importance. Nearly everything,
from high political Office to the honor
and general Difference of society, is to be
bought. The temptation to get money
by doubtful, and even by fraudulent
means, was never greater IN this
try than at the present time. 1t will
purchase more, and do more for char
acter, reputation and pleasure, than in
the days when honor, principle and in
tegrity were regarded as the essential
passports to public favor and social
recognition.
Conscience, for some reason, would
seem to be less tender in its Judgment
on questions of monetary obligation
than on most other points in morals.
Men fall in business, but manage to coy
eT up and save enough to make them
selves comfortable, while widows and
orphans, whom they owe, suffer for the
barest necessaries Of life. Merchants
hold on to the cash balances of their
customers somehow, planters who have
pledged crops to their factors for advan-
CeS send their cotton and sugar else
where, and banks involved and bank
rupt by bond speculatiOns shut down
upon their depOsitOrs and refuse to pay
the money intrusted to them for safe
keeping. There is borrowing without
much prospective ability to pay, and
with no serious intention to do SO unless
perfectly convenient. Moral RESPONSE
bility, beyond what legal processes can
nnfnTRn 10 nc To1U 0Hn1IffnT I1toTn
thOrOugh-gOing honesty, and transpar-
ent uprightness such as leads q man to
"swear to his own hurt and c%hangenot,"
and to regard his debts as unpaid until
they are paid, is a thing most rare.
The times demand a revival on this
specific subject of honesty in business,
and a conscience with reference to
monetary trusts. Christians are ad-
monished to "prOvide things honest in
the sight of all men," and they are COM
manded " to do that which is honest"
LOOseness in business affairs and in
matters of debt brings reprOach upon
the cause of Christ. It is q painful fact
that men otherwise blameless. and some
times prominent in the churches, are Of
ten guilty of carelessness and q culpa-
BILE negligence in reference to their debts.
They are reckless in going in debt, and
quite too Indifferent and forgetful when
the time of payment ONES We have
known those who seemed to have en-
lightened and right eOnscienees on all
other matters who were apparently
without any moral sense about meeting
financial obligations. Their lives were
without stain otherwise, but their char
acter and influence we're seriously dam
aged by this most fatal blemish.
The churches, in their ministry and
laity, have suffered and do suffer from
this cause. Money is sought to be made
by gambling, by dealing in whiskey, by
the dishonest COrnerings and cOmbina-
tiOns in trades. and speculations, and
money owed is not paid, and even the
obligation is repudiated. Withlow and
perverted views of integrity in the
world, and in the expedients of business,
it is perhaps not strange that the aver
age Christian practice should have de-
clined. The teachings and discipline
of tho churches should be specially di-
rected to this evil of dishonesty, and
the general deterioration of conscience
upon the subject of financial trusts.
The churches should at least purge
themselves, and deliver a clear testimO-
ny for honesty, Let them, at my rate,
realize the magnitude of the evil, and
vigorously labor to arrest it.
GRANGE MOvEMENT.-Last evening
there was a meeting at room B. St.
Charles Hotel, composed principally of
planters from the parish of St. Mary,
to make inquiries in regard to the
feasibility of Immediately organizing
Oranges in their parish and in South
western Louisiana. The meeting was
entirely satisfactory and harmonious,
The head of the Order in the State,
Mr.. II. W. L. Lewis, whose postofice is
Osyka, Miss, has been sent for, and he
will be in the city probably to-day, to
put the ball in motion in Southwestern
Louisiana. He will doubtless visit
Attakapas, and extend his trip to
OpelOusas, Preparations are being
made to establish Oranges in st. Landry
as soon as an officer of the Order can
be sent there for that purpose. Meas
ures will doubtless, be taken to organize
the whole State in the interest Of this
great industrial association during the
coming year.
The following gentlemen COMPOSE
the committees which were recently
appointed at q meeting of planters.
held in the parish of St. Mary, all of
whom participated in the meeting last
night:
On Transportation-C, H. Walker.
Rene Macready, T. Topper, Henry j.
Sanders, s. NJ. TarletOn, Thomas I,