Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1874-05-27
The Cost OF Sham.

By aud b.. perhaps. VIC shall get !
beaten into our heads that sham, eonsid
cred from a purely business point o fview,
doesn't pay indeed, Is the poorest OF al
possible Investments.
1t Is high time we did. IL this Nil
river homicide sets the American public
thinking on the subject, tue dead will moi
have died 10 vain. A reservoir Is bull
on the cheap aud aimsy plan. 1t bursts
kills $50 people. and eevasiotes four vii
lagos. Isn't it pretty plain figuring that,
IN this case. sham hasn't paid ASIDE
from the lives los,--and human life il
these days has a msney value. measur'
able in dollars and cents. as corporation:
are beginning to find Out-a good many
hundred thousand dollars worth of prop
erty. accumulated BY the labor aud thrift
of years, has been wiped out in a very
few minutes. Isn't the failure Of the res.
ervoIr's owners to see that il was honestly
and substantially built in the FIRST instance
a pretty plain case Of penny-wisaom and
pound foolishness?
And this is bat one case out of hun
dreds and thousands. Ii is 4 %lamentable
and alarming fact that sham work OF all
sorts has become very common with u OF
late wears I; so common as TO be accepted
by too many of Us as matter of course.
Every intelligent man sees the fact /;
every thoughtful man deplOres it. For
sham is merely a shorter word for dis
honesty. 1t is at once a lie and a theft.
But the children have got hold of a law
of the universe when they say in their
games that cheating never rrospers. 1t
may seem to prosper for a while. Wit
ness Jim Fisk witness Tweed witness
Oakcs Ames witness dozeus and scores
OF men who have fourished for a season
on the street But the prosperity that is
built on fraud, is built GU sand ohe day.
the food comes, there is a crash, aud
that is the eui. The sham reservoir
gives way the sham house tunbles in /;
the sham frc-proof city shrivels to ashes /;
the sham values collapse the sham bank
breaks the shan steamship. Christian or
Otherwise. is found out. Carlyle was
right Lying is not permitted in this uni
Tae Almighty has set his canon
il. 1t is as bad political econ
omy as it is bad morals The worst off,
is. that a part Of the penalty always and
unavOidably falls upon the innocent.
1t is time there was a general revolt
against this costly and cruel shoddysm
which is sapping the prosperity and cat
ing out the morality Of the land. 1t is a
hopeful sign, aud Of good omen, that so
many Influential newspapers should take
occasion Of the Mil river affair TO direct
attention to ii. Sham building,
sham engineering, sham inanciering,
sham statesmanship-we have already
tolerated them a good deal TO long.
Some of them may perhaps be reached by
legislation but we must own 10 have
very little faith in the statute. by itself.
as preventive or remedy. We.
would prescribe instead education-ihe
'ducation Of sound, wholesome, agrees
We public sentiment that will hit the
read of a sham wherever it sees il /; the
,ducatron Of the child at home. the boy
1t school, the young mar at college or at
he work. bench, to honesty and thorough.
less and s2lf.respect that will not suffer
even to desire any reward that he
las not fairly and honestly earned. The
iynptons OF the disease bloich aud pin:.
he the whole face of our society, but IFS
Is in the individual character ; no
adical cure can be effected until the rem
is applied there. At present, The
American young man TO often desires
ibOvc every thing else to acquire riches
You must have a pride in your
work" said Caleb Gath, "and in learning
o DO it well and not be always saving,
this and there's that-if | had this
n that 10 do, | might make something of
t. No matter what a man is. / wouldn't
i've two-pence for him ,--whether be was
he prime minister or the rack hatcher,-
T he didn't do well what be Undertook to
TO-" The great need of the country. to.
lay, is generation of young Caleb
iaths.- Springfield Republican.