Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-05-06
AN OLD TRUTH RESTATED.
An Obvious Fact Which Needs to BE Often
Presented for Our Attention.

An Obvious Fact Which Needs to BE Often
Presented for Our Attention.
People are no longer startled at find
ing in their morning paper an account
of a breach of trust by some man of the
highest standing and reputation. This
has become so common, that the alb
sence of such an item of news is more
conspicuous than its presence. These
crimes may not be much more frequent
now than formerly, but the great in
crease otnews-g atherin g facilities makes
the reported instances more numerous
And of course. this is what is most like
ly to be collected 10y news gatherers for
the press. That in a given community
a thousand men are faithful to their
trusts ana of blameicss integrity is no
news. Every body expects that. 1t is
only when one man of the thousand
proves to be a scoundrcl that there is
any news to be reported. But let
us not make the mistake of forgetting
the nine hundred and ninety-nine hon
est men in our shock at finding one
rascal.
Still. however much we may comfort
ourselves with the thought that honest
men are the great majority, and that
dishonesty is news simply because
1t is exceptional, we must admit that
dishonesty and dishonor are sufficient
ly common to be cause for sadness
for sadness, not for despair. There is
need of careful study of causes and OF
anxious seeking for remedies. Both
causes and remedies are in many cases
only too obvious. and need hardly to
be mentioned. One remedy, however,
that is most obvious o. all is in most
danger OF neglect from its very plain
ness and simplicity. 1t is the neces-
sity of the most watchful self-control
on the part of every honest man, lest
he be betrayed into sin
The sudden fall of a man trusted by
all and of previously unblemished rep
utation naturally gives great shock
to all who know him. The shock is
all the greater if. as has often hap
pened, the man is member of a
Christian church, and to all appearance
an exemplary follower of Christ When
the secrets of his career come fully to
light it always transpires that the man
did not fall suddenly. There was a
long preparation for the catastrophe.
His integrity was gradually under
mined. and the fall was preceded by
slow advances in wrong action. There
are no sudden catastrophes in nature,
if we may believe men of science;
what seem such are the elimination of
processes whose gradual progress we
have not marked. We are startled by
the event, and being in ignorance of
the causes we call it sudden This is
certainly true in the realm of morals.
What appears like sudden fall is sud-
den only in appearance. A single
Light blow might break great rock,
and the one who struck it might imag-
inc this blow the cause of the breaking,
if he were ignorant that hundreds of
other blows had fallen on the same
spot. His blow was rather the occa-
sion than the cause of the final giving
way; it was really the combined force
of the preceding blows that should be
called the cause. When an apparently
strong character goes all to pieces un-
der the stress of some sudden tempta-
ton there has been some hidden defect
in the man. of which possibly he was
himself only dimly conscious.