Connecticut western news., 1886-08-25

| Again, I have to remark that in our .esti- mate of the misdoings of people who have
 fallen from high responsibility and useful | ness we must take into consideration the con-
 out of ten man who goes astray does not
 intend any positive wrong. He has trust 1 funds. He risks part of these funds in in vestment. He says; ''Now, if I should lose
 that investment have of my own property five times as much, and if this investment
 should go wrong could easily make it up: | could five times make it up." With that
 wrong reasoning he goes on and makes the ] investment, and it does not turn out quite so 1 we'll as he expected, and he makes another
 investment, and strange to say, at the same | time all his other affairs get entangled, and | all his other resources fail, and his hands are I tied. Now he wants to extricate himself. He | goes a little further on in the wrong invest
 ment. He takes a plunge further ahead,
 for he wants to save his wife and children, | he wants to save his home, he wants to save
 his membership in the church. He takes one | more plunge and all is lost. Some morning g | at 10 o'clock the bank door is not opened, aud
 there is Q card on the door signed by an off, | cer of the bank, indicating that there is | trouble, the nam, of the defaulter or the de-
 frauder heals the newspaper column, and | hundreds of men say: Good for him. | hundreds of other men say: Pm glad he's | found out at las5;' hundreds of other men | say: "Just as told you;" hundreds of other
 men say: "We couldn't possibly have been | tempted to do that-no conjunction Of cir cuulstan 'es could ever have overthrown me" | tion but no pity. The heavens full of light ning but not one drop of dew. If God | treated us as society treats that man we would all have been in he'll long ago! Wait | for the alleviating circumstances. Perhaps
 he may have been the dupe of others. Be | fore you let all the hounds out from their kennel to maui and tear that man, find out if he has not been brought up in
 commercial establishment where there was
 wrong system of ethics taught: find out whether that man has not an extravagant wife, who is not satisfied
 with his honest earnings, and in the tempta- tion to please her he has gone into that ruin into which enough men have fallen, and by the same temptation, to make procession of many miles. Perhaps some sudden sickness
 may have touched hs brain, and his judg-
 ment may be unbalanced. He is wrong-he
 is awfully wrong, and he must be condemned,
 but there may be mitigating circumstances.
 Perhaps under the same temptation you might have fallen The reason some men do
 not steal S2oO,000 is because they do not get
 chancel Have righteous indignation you temper it with mercy. But you say: T am so sorry that the innocent should suffer-" Yes, I am too--sorry for the widows and or
 phans who lost their all by that dedication.
 am sorry, also, for tn, business men, the
 honest business men, who have had their
 affairs all crippled by that dedication. I
 am sorry for the venerable bank President to
 whom the credit of that bank was a matter of pri le. Yes, am sorry, also for that man who brought all the distress sorry that he sacrificed body, mind, soul, reputation,
 Heaven, and went into the blacknsss of dark ness forever.
 You defiantly say: s'I could not be tempted in that way" Perhaps you may be tested after awhile. God has very good memory. and he sometimes seems to say: "This man feels so strong in his innate power and good ness he shall be tested; he is so full of bitter
 inve ective against that uufortune ete, 1t shall be
 shown now whether he has the power to
 stand.n Fifteen years go by. The wheel of fortune turns several times, and you are in a
 crisis that you never coal1 have anticipated. Now all the powers of darkness come around,
 and they chuckle, and they chatter, and they
 say: Aha! here is the old fellow who was
 bragged he couldn't be overthrown by
 temotat;on, and was so uproarious in his
 demonstrations of indignation at the defalca-
 tion fifteen years ago. Let us sec God lets
 the man go. God, who had kept that man
 under His protecting care, lets the man go and
 try for himself the majesty of his integrity.
 God let ing the man go, the powers of dark
 ness bounce upon him. seq you some day
 in your office in great excitement One of two
 things you can do Be honest, and be pauper-
 i.ed, and have your children brought home
 from school your family dethroned in social
 influence The other thing is, you can stop
 little aside from that whi h is right, you can
 only just go ha f an inch out of the proper path,
 you can only take little risk and then you
 have all your finances fair and right. You
 have large property. You can leave for
 tune for your children and eudow college
 and build public library in your native
 town. You halt and wait, and halt and wait
 until your lips get white. You decide to
 risk it. Only few strokes of the pen now.
 But oh, how your, hand trembles, how
 dreadfully it trembles! The die is cast.
 By the strangest and most awful con junction of circumstances any one could have imagined, you are prostratel.
 Bankruptcy, commercial annihilation, ex- posture, cri ne. Good men mourn and devils hold carnival, and you sse your own name at
 the head of the newspaper column in whole
 you are reading the anathema in the repor- toral and editorial paragraph, it occurs to
 you how mu h this story is like that of the defalcation fifteen years ago, and a clap of thunder shakes the window-sill, saying: "With what m assure ye mete, it shall be measured to YOU again."
 You look in another direction. There is
 nothing like an ebullition of temper to put a
 man to disadvantage. You, man with
 calm pulses and a fine digestion and perfect
 health, can not understand how anybody
 sh ould be oaosized in temper by an infinitesi-
 nal annoyance You say: II couldn't be
 unbalanced in that way" Perhaps you smile at provocation that makes anoth ar man
  durability. You say with your manner,
 though you have too much good ta ste to say with your words: "I haze a great deal mora
 sense than that man has; 1 have great deal
 more e1uipoise of te nper than that man has i; I never could make such puerile exhibition of myself as that man has made"
 My brother, you do not realize that that man was born with keen nervous orgauiZa- tion; that for forty years he has been under 8 dep,e t tn5 process; that sickness and trouble kalnlnO what | of original healthfulness; that much of his 1 time it has been With him ke filing saws: | that his nerves have come to be merely | tangle of disorders, and that he is the most 1 pitiaale object on earth, who, though he IS | very sick does not look sick, and nobody | sympathizes. Let ne see. Did you not ! say that you could not be tempted to | an eoullition of temper? Since September 1 you come home from your summer watering | place, and you have inside, away back in | your liver or spleel, what we call in our day
 malaria, but what the ol folks called chlls l and fever. You take quinine until your ears
 are first buz-ing beehives and then roaring 1 Nie 5aras. You take roots and heres you take | everything. You get well. But th, next day
 you feel uncomfortable, and you yawn, aud
 you stretch, and you shiver an1 you con- | sumo, anl you suffer. Vexe1 more than you
 can tell, you can not sleep, you can not eat,
 you can not bear to see anything that looks
 happy, you go out to kick the cat that is
 asleep in the sun. Your childrens mirta | was once music to you; now it is deafe1lng.
 You say: Boys, stop that racket" You ] turn back from Juneto March In the family
 and in the neighborhool your popularity is
 s5 per cent of. The world says: "What is | the .latter with that disagreeable man! 1 What woe-begone countenance! l can't | bear the sight of him." You have got your
 pay at last--gct your pay, You feel just as
 the man felt-that man for whom you had
 no mercy, and my text cones in with mar
 vicious appositeness: With what measure ye
 me5e it shall be measured to you again"
 In tho study of society l have come to this
 conclusion-that the most of the people want tn ha pnnl huA they do H. Ot exactly know