The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1877-10-12
LEssGy FO.V TIE TINES.

Here is a story whis; n we recommend
to the lesser Morton and Gilinans.
who are not YET found tut. There are
-uch men. who know tbei2selTs5 unflt
for the trust rrpO-ed If. th-m, and YET
20 on robbing others. pursued by a
fearful lookiug-for Of judgment Not
necessarily williams by nature, either.
The recent hard times and the stTug
gle for display and power make temp
tations : rong. and the American c1s
tom of leaving officials unmatched
makes fraud easy. Good reputation
alone will carry a man through forger
les as clumsy a. Gilnan's. aud a swim
lle as gigantic as Morton's, and even
enable him, like the latter gentleman,
when he Is found out, to charm re
spectful reporters with grandiiOquent
declarations OF Temorse. until they
hasten 70 cover up his crime with ad
mirafiOn of the Christian grac-s with
which he ,,iOrued IT, Haven forbid
that we should be hard upon any fal-
len man. But there j. no noIe >ignifi
cant sign Of the corruption of public
morals, and there l. no surer vay TO
spread that corruption among the
ouHg, than the good humored for
bearance which such criminal nova
lays meet from rhe public, their leni-
ency with which their felony il eX-
cused and rebabrized as a misteks.
Half of Mr.. Morto''s virtue was hid
den FROM the public. until his exposure.
when the Philadelphia press lifted il
70 view az Shem did his fathers gar
ments. and walking respectfully back
ward covered him with it. Any keen
witted lad, reading the story a. told
at t.iat tune, would be bewildered to
find where the virtue ended aud the
crime began in such q mans career.
We are apt TO forget the history of
the world in a few years will he made
by JUS such lads.
Nobody. however, can misunder-
stand the meaning of this Kentucky
story. 4 certain lawyer iu Levi,
county WAS appointed Judge of the
Criminal Court, beinga much younger
man than had ever before held the of
flee. He was brilliant, honorable
fellow and sound jur st, thoroughly
competept for his Office except that he
drank hard. The other day, in open
ing court, he was so much under the
iUtiu' nee of liquor as To BE- unable to
transact business. The next day, be
lug sober, he came into court, and in a
lew manly. direct words acknowledge
that he was a victim to vice which
had disgraced him Il AIN unworthy
of the honor and trust conferred upon
me. " he said, land. being un Sorthy nf
my Office, | have resigned it. III, iu-
dicial integrity and official acts are
nlam-less, tha God, am no longer
Judge of Lewis County. May God
keep me- i'll my effort to reform. "
There Was not a sound in the crowded
court as be spoke. NJ Que could look
AZ him aud not know that the struggle
through which he had passed before he
could so humiliate himself, was worse
to bear than death. But there is no
one whose heart would not warm 10 an
offender who is man enough to ac-
knowledge his error, and TO go honest
iy and humbly to work TO regain his
lost place when the Judge entered
the Court" says the paper from which
We borrow the story, ''the public feel
ing against him was that of anger and
contempt; but when he went out,
every man there was his friend, and
ready to hold out helping hand to
him." We have faith in the future of
a man who, having fellen, could thus
make firm ground under his feet for a
new path i'll lie. Both God and man
help those who help themselves in this
fashion.-NeJC York Tribune.