The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1884-04-03

have given no quarter. This is the more
Notifying because II there is one nation
more than any other under the highest
obligations to make honesty the most
conspicuous trait Of its social and civil
life that nation is surely America. We
need only TO revert TO our ancestors,
Puritan and Huguenot, whose deeds,
principles and self-denials ought to in
cite to us TO everything honest and Of
good report. Their prejudices did at
times, indeed, cause them to swerye
from the line of wisdom and en-
lightened justice, yet at heart they
aimed at nothing less than pure honesty.
The most pertinent question for us
just now TO consider lie, are we aiming ut
the same high mark? Most surely in
our corporate body as n nation we are
not-not If the many generally accepted
facts of late years are the criterion by
which to Judge. Truth compels the adj
mission that we have been falling away
from the true standard of equity and
justice; and in the same ratio We have
sacrificed wisdom to expediency and
self-will. And the most disheartening
thing connected with II is the little alarm
and less shame 1t seems to create among
the professedly honest and moral part Of
the community; for II the alarm and
shame really existed, jealous eye and
heart for the national honor ought surely
to bring it out oftener to the surface in
the form of healthy reproof or indignant
protest. And n continued apathy is in
itself sufficient to bring us to point,
where, like the Neapolltans, we
would no longer wish, nor even
be able to distinguish between right
and wrong, honesty and dishonesty.
Earnest endeavor is called for to arouse
the moral part of our people to juster
sense and knowledge of dishonesty as 1t
really exists; for could they see distinctly
the numberless forms it assumes, and its
skillfully and partially concealed but al
most universal presence, 1t would some
what apall them. They would give
great Difference to the declaration OF
men of unquestioned honesty that 1t is
as much as they can do to stem the cur
rent and compete with smooth-tongued
and adroit rascals who make lying,
cheating and stealing an integral part of
their business Smooth the truth as we
may, the mad haste to acquire wealth
and position, by any and all means, has
been productive of deep feeling Of dis
content and loss OF confidence, and the
deceit, sorrow and suffering, following as
a matter of course, has wrought no little
amount of estrangement. The bad results
of these feelings have only begun TO show
themselves as IN established evil ten
dency; and We cannot be without
anxiety for the future. The false idea
that material prosperity is everything
and is to be sought first, last and all the
time has taken possession of too many.
1t is delusion before which honest
principles give way, and the destruction
of all good will and confidence among
men follow to the point Of unconscious
ness of the fact that There Is n way
which seemeth right unto a man, but
the end thereof is DEATH 1t is n long
time since Solomon obse rived that 'The
prosperity of fools shall destroy them
But there are many who still believe
that dishonest gains may become per-
manent possessions. The history of the
world tells different story. Dishonesty
prepares the way for its disgrace, failing
in the end 10 SECURE either consideration
or wealth."