Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-03-21

ten cents or the orange you Will give
them. There is a great difference between
rewarding virtue and making the profits
thereof the impelling motive. That man
who is honest merely because honesty is
the best policy" is already moral bank
rupt.
NV charge is to you, in all departing Mt:
of life, steer clear of bribery, all of you.
Every man and woman at some time viii
be tempted to do wrong for compensation.
The bride may not be offered in money.
1t may be offered in social position. Let
us remember that there is day coming
when the most secret transaction of pri-
vate life and of public life will come up for
public reprehen sion. We can not bride
death, we can not bride sickness, we can
not bride the grave, we can not bride the
judgments of that God who thunders
against this sin.
s.FieU said Cardinal Beaufort ''fie
can't death be hireds is money nothing!
must die, and so rich? If the owning of
the whole realm would save me. l could
get it by policy or by purchase = by
money!" No. Death would not be hired
then; he will not be hired now. Men of
the world often regret that they have to
from the world. You can tell from what
they say in their last hours that one OF
their chief sorrows is that they have to
leave their money. l break that deiusion.
| tell that bride taker that he will take
his money with him. God will wrap it up
in your shroud, or put it in the palm of
your hand in resurrection, and there it
will lie, not in the cool, bright, shining
gold as it was on the day you sold your
vote and your moral principle, but there it
will lie, hot metal, burning and consum-
ing your hand forever. Or, if there be
enough of it for a chain, then it will fall
from the wrist clanking the letters of an
eternal captivity. The bride is an ever
lasting possession. You take it for the
time you take it for eternity. Some day
in the next world, when you are longing
for sympathy, you will feel on your cheek
a kiss. Looking up you will find it to be
Judas, who took thirty pieces of silver as
a bride and finished the bargain by put
ting an Infamous kiss on the pure cheek of
his divine Master.
Another wrong use of money is seen in
the abuse of trust funds Every man dur
ing the course of his life, on larger or
smaller scale, has the property of others
to his keeping. He is so far
safety deposit, he is an administrator, and
holds in his hand the interest of the family
Of deceased friend. Or he is an attor-
ney, and through his custody goes the
payment from debtor to creditor, or he is
the collector for a business house which
him for the responsibility; or
be is treasurer for charitable institution
nd he o., frih fad ha
or he is an official of the city or
the State or the Nation, and taxes and
subsidies and salaries and supplies are in
his keeping. 1t is as solemn trust as
God can make it 1t is concentrated and
multiplied condolences. On that man de-
bends the support of bereft household or
he morals of dependents or the right
movement of a thousand wheels of social
A man may do what he
viii with his own but he who abuses
rust funds in that one act commits
heft, falsehood, perjury, and becomes,
II all the intensity of the word,
miScreant. How many widows and
orphans there are with nothing between
hem and starvation but a sewing ma
,hine, or held up out of the vortex of de-
truction simply by the thread of needle,
ed with their own hearts blood, who
title while ago had, by father and hus-
Iand, left them a competency. What is
he matter? The administrators or the
Executors have sacrificed it-running
'isks with it that they would not have
Jared to encounter in their own private
affairs. How often is it that a man will
arm livelihood by the sweat of his brow
md then die, and within few months all
he estate goes into the stock gambling
apidS Of Wall street. How often is it
hat you have known men to whom trust
unds were committed taking them out of
he savings bank and from trust COM
,anies, and administrators turning old
omesteads into hard cash, and then put
ing the entire estate into the vortex of
peculation. ENLIGHTENMENT is an easy
word to pronounce, but it has ten thousand
of horror.
There is not city that has not suffered
rom the abuse of trust funds. Where is
he court house, or the city hall, or the
all, or the post-o office, or the hospital, that
n the building of it has not had political
oh?
Long before the new court house in New
1ork City was completed it cost over SD,
10000. Five million six hundred and six
y-three thousand dollars for furniture!
FOR plastering and repairs, $3.50, 900. For
'lumbing and gas works, S1,231, ST. For
winnings, S23, $50. The bills for three
months coming to the nice little sum of
Is Isl, 1889 There was not an honest
rick, or stone, or lath, or nail, or foot of
'iumbing, or inch of plastering, or ink
tand, or doorknob in the whole establish
nent
That bad example was followed in many
f the cities, which did not steal quite so
much because there was not so much to
teal. There ought to be a closer inspec-
ion and there ought to be less opportun-
ty for embeZZiement Lest man should
axe five cent piece that does not belong
o him, the conductor on the city horse car
must sound his bell at every payment and
We are very cautious about small offenses
ut give plenty OF opportunity for sinners
N large scale to escape. For a boy who
teals loaf of bread from a corner grocer
o keep his mother from starving to death,
prison; but for defaulters who abscond
With half million of dollars, a castle on
he Rhine, or, waiting until the offense is
orgotted, then a castle on the Hudson!
Another remark needs to be made, and
hat is that people ought not to go into
laces, into business, or into positions,
where the temptation is mightier than
heir character. If there be large sums of
money to be handled and The man is not
ure of his own integrity you have no right
o run an unseaworthy craft into an euro
lydon. A man can tell by the sense of
or strength in the presence of a
ad opportunity whether he is in safe
lace. How many parents make an awful
nistake when they put their boys in bank
ng houses nd stores and shops and fact
rles and places of solemn trusts, without
nee discussing whether they can endure
he temptation. You give the boy plenty
I money and have no account of it, and
make the way down become very easv,
nd You may nut mon i'm, :, z,,.osc....a a..