Sierra County advocate. [volume] (Kingston, N.M.) 1884-1960, 1886-12-04
CRIME IN HIGH LIFE.
Causes Which Have Lod Weii-to-Do Men
to Commit Defalcations and Forgeries.

| Causes Which Have Led WeIl-to-Do Mer
to Commit Defalcations and Forgeries.
The recent defalcations by men of the
highest social standing have not only
greatly shocked the public mind, but
they have aroused great deal of re-
Election upon the probable causes o.
such conduct in such men. Many
crimes of the worst kind are at least
ineligible. Eugene Aram murders
Clarke for money. Old Mr.. White, in
Salem, was murdered by men who
would gain by his death. There are
also crimes of passion. of anger, pi
jealousy, of revenge, which are I'll
comprehensive in certain sense.
Then there are crimes which are no
crimes, as when starving boy steals a
leg of mutton, in which case the moral
guilt disappears
But when q man is not only of COM
Portable pecuniary condition, but is
rich; when he is Tapped in luxury and
ease; carefully educated and trained in
tllt IilOSb dilb SotiNtJt
in which the mere suspicion of dishon-
esty is fatal when neither circum-
stance nor health nor temperament
solicits him to dishonor, and he is per-
fectly conscious of the unspeakable
consequences of his conduct to those
whom he loves tenderly; when there is
no conceivable temptation or reason or
excuse, within or without, no apparent
weakness of the moral sense, no
hereditary tendency, and the man sud-
denly proves to be thief and a
swindlcr, and is SO overwhelmed with
the discovery of his dishonesty that he
kills himself-what is the explanationP
1t is mystery, and all the pro-
founder because of the meanness of the
obvious motive.
When the starving boy steals food,
we say the moral guilt vanishes, al
though the English law used to hang
him for it, but had no penalty for Col
Queensbury, who was a hereditary
law-maker. In the case we are con-
sidering. however, the only motive is
inexpressibly contemplate. 1t is the
wish to paint the lily, to gild the gold.
The man who has one yacht would have
two yachts. His dinner service is of
Sevres, but he would have another of
Dresden. His horse is the fleetest of
horses, but he would have pair. He
has fresh figs daily from his green
granates also. His house is costly and
beautiful, but he would rival the AL
hambra His wife's diamond tiara
dazzles every beholder, but she must
add to it necklace of black pearls.
These are his aims, and for these he
dishonors his name, blows out his
brains, and wounds irremediably the
hearts that fondly love him.
His crime is the result of an undue
exaltation of wealth, and such exalta-
ton is the bane and peril of American
society. To penetrate the charmed
pale of society is the instinct of
wealth, and in country where there is
no social hierarchy, wealth can have
and does have its way. 1t is one ad-
vantage of society of class that wealth
can not buy its way beyond its caste.
H. X. H., indeed, may condescend to
eat your exquisite dinners and ad-
mire your precious collection, but you
are not therefore admitted ad
eundena. The blue blood, whatever
that sacred fluid may be, flows in the
veins of yonder beldam, shriveled in
body and purse, and she instinctiyely
takes naughty precedence of the gem
crusted beauty who flashes with new
splendor upon the court. But the
beauty knows and the husband knows,
and they both know that everybody
else knows, that all the gems of Col
conda can not be transmitted into one
drop of that mystic blood
But in a country where you can break
into the sacred pale with a bar of gold.
everybody knows that the pit out of
which social distinction is digged is a
gold mine. To scale society is only to
climb golden stair. The more gold
the more distinction. Not rank for
public service, a coronet or Westmin-
ster Abbey, not the noble tradition of
a long line of ancestors whispering
sternly noblesSe Oblige, but mere pro-
fuse and splendid expenditure, will
open the awful gates and seat you at
the highest table. And it is the plain
moral of all the recent betrayal of
trust, the meme, meme, flashing upon
the wall of the banquetng chamber,
that while VIC accept money as the
credential and passport, instead of
actual service, actual accomplishment
and distinction, we put premium
upon dishonesty and robbery.
This tendencyis is encouraged by moth
ing more than by the reports in the
newspapers of the trivial details of the
lives of rich people. Tho dinners and
the drives of Midas are Of as much in
Lrinsic public interest when he earns
ten dollars a week as when his income
is ten thousand dollars day. The
only reason that they are recorded in
the latter event is that his income is inn
mense. This casts prodigious CLAM
our upon the mere fact of wealth, and
greatly strengthens the temptation to
1Stain II at anv cost The daily an
1ouncement that Mr.. and Mrs. Bonan-
"a yesterday entertained Mr.. and Mrs.
Iulch at dinner is not merely ludic-
rous imitation of the foreign gazette of
4 recognized social hierarchy, but it is
, stimulant to get within the circle the
Incidents of whose social intercourse
ire recorded like those of royalty or of
iristocraey. The key to that circle is
/ key of gold, and the stimulant incites
he legion who crave that notoriety