The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-03-28

by rise in price? l fail to see difference
i'm the standard

by rise in price? 1 fail to see difference
in the standard.
To pass from this class OF men to the
business world is but step. The merchant
buys sugar where he can buy cheapest. and
sells for all the market will pay. He buys
oil in large quantities because it is cheap.
His knowledge of prices tells him it will
advance, he knows there will be greater de-
mand in time, and the supply being within
a certain limit his shrewed business intel
lect tells him there is money in oil. He
buys. and oil goes up. He sells and realizes
fortune. His brother bought wheat at
about the same time he bought oil; wheat
went down, down, down. His brother is
ruined, forced into bankruptcy, and comes
out without dollar He was fool. So
says public opinion. The rich and poor say
so. but who comes to his rescue? Poverty.
broken and scattered family. obscurity;
finally death, which sets all right. Certain
it is he is not credited with ability, for he
made a mistake. He may rest silently
under the degradation and humiliation he
feels, and he may take desperate chances to
redeem his lost fortune. If he succeeds,
all is we'll; but if he fails, he may grow
more desperate and finally reach the prison
cell. Every good deed, every successful ven
ture is lost beneath the cloud of failure.
and his friends in prosperity become his
sympathiZerS in adversely. but always from
distance. The standard of morality of
the average business man reaches just to the
limit of his success. and no farther. His
good deeds are the price he pays the church
for the family pew. the assessment he pays
the Church should there be one, the amount
he drops into the contribution bOX-uSually
not much. The comforts he purchases for
himself and his. and above all else his con-
stant grasping after
dimes and dollars dollars and dimes,
Ye are the ladders by which man climbs
Over his fellows.
Musical chimes,
Dimes and dollars. dollars and dimes;
But empty pocket is the worst of crimes"
The christian world condemns gambling,
and justly; but how many know anything
of the many thousand ways by which men
win and lose money? A wide distinction is
made in the public mind between the board
of trade operator and the card gambler, but
he who knows both thoroughly places them
side by side on level of equality. A wide
distinction is made between the card gam
bier and the doctor, lawyer. merchant and
mechanic who CANDLES when it best suits
him for amusement, but the difference
dwindles to such diminutive point that he
who knows both fails to see the point.
There is in the world a class of men
whom all unprejudiced minds respect and
who, though in the minority, are the hope
of the generations to come. These are they
who live for the bettering of mankind: who
seek to educate men to the true purpose of
life; who see man as he is. and seeing him
so, seek to encourage the good and pursuade
the evil disposed to the higher. better, pur-
er life. They belong to no particular sect
or religion; they live in no certain place,
but are found throughout the world and are
known wherever they exist. Every year,
every day, they are brought nearer the view
of the thinking public. and the lines which
separate them from all dogma and supersti-
ton, becomes more distinct. If they are
found within the churches the most skeptical
will not deny their purity and worth; if they
are found without the churches the most
Jealous believes in the christian religion,
can not deny their worth. OBSERVER.