, 1875-08-29
RALsTQN'S SUICIDE.

in greenbacks at the close.
RALSr0N's SUICIDE.
The suicide Of RA1sros, the President Q
the Bank Of California, is hardly conslsten
with the theory that the bank will be in
condition to pay much to its creditors
Taken in connection with the previous de
mnnd for his resignation, and the evidently
fraudulent statement that the bank had pait
out $1,400, 900 during the day Of the panic
this suicide indicates that the bank is more
hope1essly crippled than has been stated
that it has really fallen Of its own weight
and that RA1sroN has been acting beyond ht
knowledge and without the authority Of hif
associates. It will not be surprising If il
should turn ont that be is defaulter, and
that to his defa1cation the bank owes its fail
ure.
The suicide of the great banker, who, after
strutting his brief term OF ostentatious wealth,
has stepped down and out, though an act OF
cowardice, is perhaps the best thing be could
have done; it has probably saved an i'm
mense amount of trouble, and he has fur
nished by contrast great moral lesson He
undoubtedly thought it was far more honor
able than settling his property in advance
| upon his family, and then going to Europe to
live. He had not the courage to survive his
failure, nor to witness the ruin OF his victims,
and the term courage in this sense is merely
an equivalent for brazen mendacity and de-
fant scoundre1ism- HID he not committed
suicide, he might have offered his creditors,
as DUNCAN, SHERMAN 4 Co. have done, 50 per
cent, or as jar CooKE Il Co. have done, such
dividend as Bankruptcy Court might declare.
RA1s1os was not as brave as these men. He
was not even as courageous as our own B. F.
ALLEN, who never thought Of suicide, though
his financial condition was proportionately
worse than thst of the Californian
Mr. R41sToN was deficient in courage in
other particulars. He did not dare to live
and read in the morning papers whining ap-
peals by whining clergymen, extenuatng if
not justitying the wholesale robbery Of thou
sands of persons on the ground that Of the
other peoples money he had appropriated he
was always willing contributor to build up
GoD's church and to pay ths salary Of COPS
minister, who in preaching the command
ments to his congregation Of bankers, and
speculators, and gamblers, carefully omits
4'Thou shalt not steal RA1sroN was a man
of the world, and he preferred death to be-
ing the victim of such an apology.
Mr, RA1sroN in his lifetime was hospita-
BILE entertainer. His house was home to
whoever was admitted to it. He 1avished the
1uxuries of Life upon his guests; all that he
had or could procure was at their disposal
He did not, however, fill his house
with any one class or profession; his
hospitality Was cosmopolitan He did
not make his house the asylum for
clergmen, to take back with them to their
focks glowing invitations to invest in the
railroad or other stocks and bonds which he
was trying to palm of upon the public In
his prosperity he scorned such an act as this,
and in his ruin-though he had not plum
dered churches or robbed widows and or
phans through the instrumentality Of priests
he lacked the courage, 80 conspicuous in
others, to meet the mattsr-of-fact people
whose money he had taken and lost.
He may have been, and undoubtedly was,
coward but be Was neither hypocrite nor
liar. He had committed crime he shrank
from exposure; he had pride in his fame.
When brought to the stand to give m account
Of his conduct he preferred death by his own
hand than life purchased by perjury, even if
that life was commended as an example to
others by the tears and votive offerings Of
the multitude.
With RA1sroS's death will terminate his
enterprises, public and private. He will
build no mora railroads, open no more mines
he will purchase no more crops nor ship
them on his fleets. He will buy no more
stocks nor sell any more gold He will en-
gage in no politics, and will own no more dia-
monds. Whatever was his when be failed
he left to his victims. His palnces and his
plate, his horses and his mines, he left to be
given to his creditors All he demanded was
the universal inheritance, the few feet of
ground under which to put away. his mortali-
ty. He sought a grave, for he had not the
sublime courage which enables other swiud-
lers in like circumstances to push on to
completion island palaces, while creditors in
all parts Of the world are begging for their
earnings to sustain life.
The world and the law construe flight as
confession Of guilt. This is the true philo-
sophical deduction from fact But, because
Eight ia evidence of guilt, it does not follow
that there is no guilt when thers is no fight.
RALs7oN was unquestionably guilty Of deeds
which under higher public morality would
be deemed infamous and punishable as high
crimes. Such acts are, in some countries,
punished as crimes Had RA1srox lived
in France, it might be inferred that
he had sought in suicide to avoid the
punishment which the law had 80 vigorously
visited upon previous offenders. But tRA1srox
had no such future to expect in this country.
long line OF illustrious predecessors walked
before him. They wore no prison garments;
they we're not clothed in the rags of poverty,
nor were they dependent on charity for food,
raiment, or lodging. They were not Stunned