The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-08-12

fallen from high respe stability aud useful
ness we must take into consideration the con-
junction Of circumstances. In niue cases
out OF ten man who goes astray does not
intend any positive wrong; lie has trust
funds. He risks part of these funds in in
vcstment He says; snow, If l should lose
that Investment have Of my own property
five times as much, and il this investment
should go wrong could easily make 1t 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
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
tied. Now he wants to extricate himself. He
goes q little further on in the wrong invest
ment. He takes 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 aud all is lost. Some morning
at 10 o'clock the bank door is not opened, and
there is card on tho door signed by an Off
Ger OF the bank, indicating that there Is
trouble, the name of the defaulter or the de-
frauder heads the newspaper column, and
hundreds of men say: Good for him."
hundreds of other men say: ''I'm glad he's
found out aS last;n hundreds of other men
say: Gust as told you;n hundreds of other
men say: "We couldn't possibly have been
tempted to do that-no conjunction Of cir
cumstan ces could ever have overthrown me;"
and there is a superabundance Of indigna-
ton but no pity. The heavens full of light
ming, but not one drop of dew. If God
treated us as society treats that man we
would all have been in hell long agol Wait
for the alleviating circumstances, Perhaps
no 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 a,
commercial establishment whore there was
a 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-
ton to please her he has gone into that ruin
into which enough nien have fallen, and by
the same temptation, to make procession of
many miles. Perhaps some sudden sickness
may have touched his BRAIN and his judg-I
ment may be unbalanced. He Is wrong-he,
is awfully wrong, and h, must be condemned,l
but there may be mitigating circumstances.
Perhaps under the same temptation You
might have fallen. The reason some men do
not steal $4,000 is because they do not get
a chance! Have righteous Indignation you
must about that mans conduct, but
temper it with mercy. But you say: II am
so sorry that the innocent should suffer-"
Yes, am too--sorry for tho widows aud or
phans who lost their all by that defalcaton.
/ am sorry, als), for the business men, the
honest business men, who have had their
affairs all crippled by that defalcation. l
am sorry for the venerable bank President to
whom the credit of that bank was matter
of pride Yes, l amsorry also, for that mau
who brought all the distcess-sorry that he
sacrificed body, mind, soul, reputation,
Heaven, and went into tho blackness OF dark
ness forever.
You defiantly say: 81 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
invective against that unfortunate, it shall be
shown now whether he has the power to
stand" Fifteen years go by. The wheel OF
fortune turns several times, and you are IN O
crisis that you never could have anticipated.
Now all the powers of darkness como around,
and they chuckle, and they chatter, and they
say: "Aha! here is the old fellow who was
so proud of his integrity, and who
Dragged he couldn't be overthrown by
temptation, and was so uproarious in his
demonstrations of indignation at the detaica-
ton fifteen years ago Let us see. God lets
Che man go. God, who had kept that man
under His protecting care, lets the man go and
try for himself the ma jesty of his integrity.
God letting the man 60, the powers OF dark
ness pounce upon him, | sea you some day
in your Office in great excitement One oftwo
things you can do. Be honest, and be pauper-
lied, and have your children brought nome
from school, your family dethroned in social
influence The other thing is, you can step a
little aside from that viii, is right, you can
only lust go half an inch out of the proper path,
YOU can only take a 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 eadow 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
conjunction of circumstances any one
could have imagined, you are Frustrated.
Bankruptcy, commercial humiliation, ex-
posure, crime. Good men mourn and devils
hold carnival, and you see your own name at
the head of the newspaper column In whole
congress of exclamation points, and while
you are reading the anathema in the repor-
torial and editorial paragraph, it occurs to
you how much this story is like that OF the
defalcation fifteen years ago, and clap OF
thunder shakes the window-sill, saying: with
what measure We mete, it shall be measured
to you again"
You look in another direction. There is
nothing like an ebullition of temper to put
man to disadvantage. You, man with
calm pulses and a fine digestion and perfect
health, can not understand how anybody
should be capsized in temper by an intinit test
NAL annoyance. You say: II couldn't be
unbalanced in that way" Perhaps you smile
at provocation that makes another man
swear You pride yourself on your imper-
turbability You say with your manner,
though you have too much good taste to say
with your words: 81 have great deal more
sense than that man has; have great deal
more equipoise of temper than that man has
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 organlza
ton; that for forty years he has been under
a depicting process; that sickness and trouble
have been helping undo what was let
OF original healthfulness; that much OF hi
time it has been with him like filing saws
that his nerves have come to be merely o
tangle of disorders, and that he is the most
pitiable object on earth, who, though he IS
very sick, does not look sick, and nobody
sympathizes. Let me see Did you not
say that you could not be tempted to
an ebuilition of temper! Since September
you come home from your summer watering
place, and you have inside, away back in
your liver or spleen, what we call in our day
malaria, but what the old folks called chills
and fever You take quinine until your ears
are first buzzing beehives and then roaring
N;csaras. You take roots and herhs, You take
everything. You get well. But the next day
you feel uncomfortable, aud you yawn, and
you stretch, and you SILVER AMI you COLI
sumo, AMI you suffer. Vexei more than you
can tell, you can not sleep, you eau not eat,
you can not bear to see anything that looks
happy, you go out to kick the cat that is
asleep in the sum- Your children's mirth
was once music to you; now it is deafening.
You say: 'Boys, stop that rackes" You
turn back from Juneto March. Ia the family
and in the neighborhood your popularity Is
- per cent OF. The world says; What is
the matter with that disagreeahle man!
What woe-begone countenancel | can't
bear the sight of him. You have got yoar
pay at last your pay. You feel just as
the man felt that man for whom you had
no mercy, and my text comes in with mar
Vicious appositeness: with what measure We
nete, it shall be measured to you again"
In the study Of society have come to this
conclusion-that the most of the people want
to be good, but they do not exactly know
now to make it out. They make enough good
res buttons to lift them into angelhood. The
vast ma iority of people who fall are the VIC