Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-09-18
HONOR AND HONESTY.

IfeSldehG L lCkafd, IN q recent ar
ticle concerning the steady increase
of crime, as shown by the figures of
the tenth census, says:
Parents have thought more of MAX
ing their children skillful accountants
than men of stalwart honesty; their
conversation has savOred more of cash
than of character; their counsels have
led more frequently to shrewd bar
gains than to sterling integrity; so
that boys who mean to be filial find
themselves the victims Of instruction,
and enter into q business life with
little strength and less power of re-
sistance. Independent before his
majority and before he has real knowl.
edge Of what true independence is, or
strength to use its privileges Alright,
the youth cLerishes O. confidence in
himself and in his moral purposes that
is un warranted by his experience, and
falls prey to temptation. The better
counsels that may at times have es-
capped his fathers lips, the earnest
prayers that have flowed from q
mothers heart, are forgotten in the
FoiNNg oOClCG1 IlltJt SuIlOullIo Illlls AS
he has baniShed from his mind all
thoughts of home the warnings of
those who are less to him than father
and mother are unheeded. Billed
with confidence in his own Judgment,
he first invites temptation, then dares
it, and is shared and bound before he
is aware that what he had called
strength is fatal weakness. The home
failing as a source of high moral pur-
pose, parents look with lenience upon
their sons misdeeds, indirectly en-
courage vicious practices, and condone
offences, until the elders become in
volved in the crimes of their children.
There is a great deal of truth and
good sense in these reflections. The
trouble with parents, honest and
honorable themselves, is they do not
consider the surprising importance
of impressing upon the child at the
earliest age possible that untarnished
moral honor and untiinching hon
esty, even when it seems to hurt to
be absolutely honorable and honest,
is the highest human glory that
man can attain in this world; that a
clean, square hand in business and
out of business is not only right I'M
der God but the highest and best
policy before men, for character, as
has been said time and again, is the
only real fixed capital a man ever
accumulates; all else may float out
to sea and go down in utter wreck
save the sound, sweet character
that stands for the hard conquest of
watchful effort and upright aspira-
ton of years. That is capital that
when once won is not lost when
banks burst, when crops fail and
stocks fall. Such men may not al
ways achieve great riches, but they
are always useful and get more of
real happiness in the long run than
those who follow the will o. the
wisp false lights Of brilliantly sue
cessful rascals in business. Parents
sins are those of omission, when they
fail to denounce rather than defy
any sort of success that is won by
moral indirection or chicanerv. To
speak of successful fraud admiringly
as smart" because the sWindler es-
capped with his spoil, when stupid
rascal would have been caught in
the net of the law and been drawn
into the penitentiary, is to under
mine and unscttle the moral sense
of child, is to educate him into
that frlghtfnl and dangerous phil
osop)ly of morals which reduces all
human error and evil dong down to
a single SIN, the sin Of being caught.
To speak enviously of the riches of
other men, to admire and covet the
opportunity TO be extravaganza, to
talk before child so as to fill his
head with the thought that without
riches there is so little honor and