The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-10-03
THE GATEWAY TO RUIN.


of defalcation and consequent ruin of banks
and business firms would tend to the con-
clusion that crime of particular classes
runs in waves or cycles. Every day adds
some new name to the roll of the unfath-
full stewards who have betrayed the trust
reposed in them and filched or squandered
the funds which they should have guarded
as sacred trust. From bank presidents
and cashiers, and superintendent of great
commercial and industrial establishments,
who have had the handling of mil
lions, down to clerks and bookkeepers,
with comparatively insignificant respon-
sibilities and proportionate opportunities
for peculation, the same sad, shameful
story of broken faith and prostituted honor
has become deplorably common. In
almost every instance, too, simultaneously
with the exposure of the derelictions comes
the statement that the delinquent was
person Of unblemished character, occupy
ing a high position in the community and
enjoying the confidence and esteem of all
who knew him. He is distinguished from
the ordinary thief in the fact that he has
not availed himself of the first opportunity
to appropriate the money of others, but for
months or years has passed unyielding
through temptation, and kept his con-
science clear of the stain of dishonesty
And when the terrible revelation comes
too often bringing with it ruin and misery
to many who had reposed unbounded con-
fidence in the culprt-there is an outburst
of amazement at the discovery that the
man who bore such plausible exterior
and whose daily walk was apparently so
exemplary, was all the while knave and
a thief. The explanation of the phenome-
non is, that in the great majority of cases
the deceiver was not willfully and of pre-
conceived purpose dishonest. Had he been
SO he might have secured at one stroke
sufficient to satisfy him and fled to some
safe retreat. Most of these defaulters
have first yielded to some great tempta-
ton in a manner which they did not intend
to be dishonest-they have compromised
with conscience and appropriated that
which did not belong to them with the full
purpose to replace it. Often some urgent
temporary need has brought pressure
which has overcome their scruples, and
they have helped themselves to forbidden
fruit with tie full anticipation that turn
in the tide would enable them to replace
what they regarded merely as loan before
the day of reckoning should expose the I'M
warranted transaction. With some the
hope of gain, the yearning desire to raise
themselves to a station of greater affluence
or comfort, has tempted them to invest the
funds entrusted to them in stocks or other
speculations, hoping to replace the amount
taken from the profits of the venture.
Perhaps loss instead of gain has followed
the risk, and thus instead of restitution a
furthur draft has been necessary in order
to make another attempt to recover the
loss and avoid exposure. If success at
tended the second venture it only sharpen
ed the tcmptation-and thus, step by step,
vibrating between hope and fear, some
times up and again down-the victim of
the weakness that could not resist the first
temptation has been dragged down to hope
less ruin, exposure and disgrace. To some
the temptation has come through extrava-
gance or false prde--a desire to keep up
with the style of living of more atfluent
associates. Perhaps the family of the
bank cashier has moved in the same social
circle with those of the wealthy stockhold-
crs and depositors whose money he was
daily handling. Extravaganza has been
yielded to with the intention of retrench-
ment in the future But the extravaganza
has brought debt and the pressure of
creditors has goaded him into the first step
in the defaulters downward career. The
wealthy bank president has bean dazzled
by the possibility of turning his thousands
into millions by speculations on the stock
exchange. All he needed, he has thought,
was the temporary use of portion of the
funds so conveniently at hand. He never
meant to steal-only to borrow-but the
wrongfully appropriated funds have been
swallowed up in the vortex of speculation,
and his honor, his peace and all his earthly
hopes have gone down with them. 1t is
easy to point out the way of temptation,
but, alas, for poor weak human nature, it
is not so easy to avoid it. The greed ofgain
is passion almost universal and the yearn-
ing for comforts and qualifications beyond
immediate command is inherent in our
common nature A philosopher has said
that many self-vaunting pharisee has mis-
taken full stomach for invulnerable hon
esty, and certain it is that many man is hon
est only because he has never been tempt
cd. To be content with what we have-to
look without envy upon the qualifications
of those in more affluent circumstances-to
live within our means and to forego every
qualification until we have honestly earned
the means of its acquirement-these are
the only safeguards against temptation.
Their practice may be difficult, but the
terrible lesson of the wrecks of honor, hap
piness and peace daily presented should be
powerful to keep the feet of the tempted
out of the very entrance to the path of
Il