Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1886-09-30
The Fall Of q Trusted Man.
Lewiston Journal. !

A thunderbolt out Of clear sky is what
too often falls on the business, moral and
religious world, and that is what has fallen
on the State Of Maine. One Of the best in
formed financiers in Maine, one of the most
trusted of her citizens, William E. Gould,
cashier of the First National Bank of Port
land, confesses to having stolen 1900 of
the funds of the Bank, and is under arrest
in a $50, 900 house, with all the elegance
that his speculations made easy. The terri
bic feature of the fall of Mr.. Gould is that
he has carried on his operations under the
cloak of most active and disinterested ere
ligious' life, preaching and preaching with |
ability, prominent in all lay meetings and |
evangelistic work, active in home and foreign /
missions, an official in church and mission |
AIRY societies, generous TO fault, kind to the /
poor and tremendously sharp and self-as- /;
sertive antagonist Of heresy.
Now, the very energy and excellence of !
Mr.. Gould's outward life, coincident with |.
his robbery of the bank, makes his offense
all the more grave and more dangerous, and
with one blow vastly more than negatives all
his good deeds, because if from one thing
more than another, the world is suffering. it
is that from which it has always suffered
hypocrisy.
IL a hnted that faulty banking methods
may somewhat pallste Mr.. Gould's offence,
but taking his own alleged confession to be
true that he has used SS7 900 of the funds
of the bank without consent or security pal
liation wholly fails to Justify. if not wholly
TO paliate. Such cases do more to under
mine public faith in integrity and in religion,
than scores of great sermons can repair.
The scotfer at Christianity wants no better
ammunition than this afforded by GouId's
offence. A man whose whole leisure has
been employed in pouring white light .on
other peoples moral and religious duties
must be careful so well to snuff his own
candles at home, as not to extinguish them
The causes Of Mr.. Gould's fall are not far
to seek. They are not personal vices, 40
much as personal vanity-and possibly not
more his own vanity than the vanity of an
aris,ocratc establishment, with its elegant
upholstery, its span and livery its yacht and
all the elegant Ct ceteraS which are no sin If
they are paid for without borrowing other
peoples money when their backs are turned.
Mr.. Goulds case strongly illustrates the
perils which assail men of average good in
tention. No doubt, in his anxiety to live
like nabob, he strained some Of the COM
Z
seem to himself 10 be straining them al all
The small end Of the wedge looks so harm
| less, especially when one hasn't the slight
est intention of driving the wedge. The
subtie,y of the processes by which respecta-
bic passes into infamous treachery, is too
often experienced to require the unfolding
Of metaphysical dissection. \ man begins
with the most excellent intentions, and he
I I ~.
good, while he knows he has made off with
considerable percentage of national
bank. But he si.euceS his conscience by
/ the anodyne of a continued good intention,
in the sweet bye and bye, to make the stol-
en- good by some lucky speculation, if
in no other way. There is no fellow a man
can 50 easily cheat himself. And there
is no man whose castles IN Spain look 10 be
, such near mater!aliZatIOns as a Skiilful tiuau-
cier dealing in options a. other folks risk.
That 1t takes something resembling " hat
is called CHECK" TO exhort sinners to re
pentanCe. with SS1 900 of misapptopriated
funds weighing on conscience, does not need
! the saying. \ continued appearance in
I evangelIstlc work, while thus coyertly "bor-
rowing other peoples surplus money, is an
appalling offence. Such a sad event would
not be possible if the relation between re-
ligion and Christianity were intimately and
thoroughly and xperImentally understood
The exaltaiions Of religious experience
are no equiv valent for common honesty. We
are told that Mr. Gould recently EXPRESSED
the greatest concern in regard to the posi-
bic spread of the errors Of Robert lnger-
soil" Mr.. Gould perhaps cannot to-day
shut his eyes TO the fact that an lngersoII in
a thousand years could not harm Christian
ity 50 much as he has done in this shame
less betrayal OF an unlimited public and prl-
vate trust Though one give all other peo-
pies goods to feed the poor and have not
abounding integrity, he is nothing
And while thus conceiving and character
izing this eart-breaklng case of moral
bankruptcy, one should put new spiritual
police force at watch over his own lie aud
character and beware of those little deyia-
tions from right line which end in fatal
crookedness. No man ever tumbles head
long in the moral world, without first hav-
ing cultivated a careless gait. No man
should rebuke another more sharply than in
the same circumstances he would feel the
desert Of similar rebuke. LET him that
standeth take heed, lest he fall" But let
him that has fallen be monumental warn
ing. His punishment should not be arti-
ticially increased but the moral laws can
not be repealed, and the statutes which they
have inspired, should not be vacated on be
half OF great offender, that are not sus-
pended IN behalf of the poor wretch, who
without opportunity Of moral enlightenment,
born and reared under corruptIng Influences
for which he was not responsible, properly
languishes in chancery for stealing a loaf of