Port Royal standard and commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-02-03

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Gate the national debt. On the same
basis $50 would be required from every
person to iquidate our State debt. Add
to these the debts of counties and towns
and the amount would be appalling !;
vet we 90 on carelessly adding burden
to burden. The whole system is purely
legal, but it can scarcely be termed
either scriptural or moral.
Following this, we notice the system
Of bankruptcy. It has few terrors for
men of business. The bankrupt to be
places his property mostly out of his
hands legally, and then takes up with
the legal process and when his affairs
are settled he is congratulated upon the
result. Corporations pay their dividends
and double salaries. while the owners
certificate of stock is so much waste
paper. And what corporations do in
dividuals do under cover of the law. A
case just entered in New York is in
point liabilities, $l43, 600; assets,
$125 worth of wearing apparel, claimed
to be exempted under the law. One
man can legally carry on business until
his assets cover only five cents on every
dollar of liabilities. Another can legal
ly borrow thousands of dollars to-mor.
row and fail just after. In the sight Of
God thief is o thief it matters not
how, it matters now where or whom.
Thou shalt not steal
Fourthly, speculation or stock gam
bling. Speculation, robbery, despair,
prison-these are the steps on the down.
ward road. The mania reaches this side
of Wall street. Respectable papers ad-
yertise the names of brokers whose
advice can clear 81, 200 upon every 800
invested, subject to call upon the Stock
Exchange. The terrible scenes of "Black
Friday" did not break the fascination OF
the ten thousand dreamers of wealth !;
nor did it put stop to the spurious
companies, legally equipped but pure
frauds. The number OF men who, dur.
ing the last few years, have gained
wealth on Change, approximating to
their expectations, we are told could be
counted on ones fingers. But the enor-
nifty of the evil leading to poverty can
hardly be appreciated. The par value
of the sales at the New York Stock Ex-
change reache, considerably above twen-
ty-two thousand million dollars annually.
Speculations which in former times
swept over the street like a monsoon
now produce mere ripples. But all this
is legal, and the vultures sometimes are
among the seemingly devout worshipers
of Christ, that Christ who. twice IN
his lifetime, cleared His Fathers house
of the men of traffic as heartless as their
followers of to-day. Honest business
men need our heartiest sympathy since
they have to cope with the dishonest
who are shielded by the law.
But what of the man who is IN haste
to be rich9 The crown he aspires for is
of gold. and can be won only here. 1t
must be left with the body. The racer
is born for two worlds; yet as he hurries
forward he gauges his acts by human
statues. He keeps the gains legally got
ten from those whom God will defend.
He hears the curses of those whom ne
has defrauded, but whose only appeal is
to a God of eternal justice, and not to
the tribunal of man. He hasteth to
be rich, but poverty shall come upon
him. What though he gain the crown
and wear it for few hours? When he
shall lay it one side and enter another
existence, where shall be his hope ?
"The love of money is the root of all
evil, which while solue have coveted
after, they have erred from the faith
and pierced themselves through with
many sorrows.
We must come back to the old time.
We are to be judged by our motives:
Fraud is O sin; neglect of the Divine
law is a sin; and it is high time that the
Christian church shall recognize this
fact. We need frmer public sentiment
which, being stronger than the law, shall
keep back from destruction those who
unwittingly are tempted thither.