The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-03-28

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the collector for business hous,
which compensates him for the responsi.
bility; or he is a treasurer for a charitable
institution AMI he holds aims contributed for
the suffering; 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. II is as solemn trust as God
can make it, 1t is concentred and multi
piled condolences. On that man do
ponds the support OF bereft household, or the
morals of dependents, or the right of move
ment OF thousand wheels Of soc al mechan-
Ism. A man may do what he will with his
own, but he who abuses trust funds, in that
one act commits theft, raIsehoo1, per-
jury and becomes, in all the intensity
OF the word, a miscreant, How many
widows and orphans there are with
nothing between them and starvation
but a sewing machine, or held up out OF the
vortex Of destruction simply by the thread
of needle, red with their own hearts blood.
who little while ago had, by father and
husband, left them a competency. What is
the matter. The administrators or the exc
cutors have sacrificed it--running risks
with il that they would not have
dared to encounter IN their own private af-
fairs. How often 1t is that man will earn
livelihood by the SWEET Of his brow, and
then die and within few months all the es-
tato goes into the stock gambling rapids of
known the man to whom trust funds were
committed taking them out Of the savings
hank and from trust companies, and adj
ministrators, turning old homesteads into
hard cash, and then putting the entire estate
into the vortex Of speculation. Embezzle-
inent is an easy word to pronounce, but 10
has ten thousand qualifications of horror,
There is not a city that has not suffered
from the abuse Of trust funds. Where is the
court house, or the city hall, or the jail, or
the postoffice, or the hospital that in the
building of it has not had political job!
Long before the new Court House in New
York city was completed, it cost over sl2,.
100000 Five millions six hundred and
sixty-three thousand dollars for furniture
For plastering and repairs, $4,000
81, SIT. For awnings, s28,553
The bills for three months coming to
the nice little sum of SIS. 15l, 1889. There
was not an honest brick, or stone, or lath, or
mai, or foot of plumbing, or inch OF plaster
ing. or ink stand, or door knob in the whole
establishment.
That bad example was followed in many of
the cities, which did not steal quite so much
because there was not so much to steal
There ought to be closer inspection and
there ought to be less opportunity for embez-
element Lest a man shall take five cent
piece that does not belong to him, the con-
ductor of the city horse car must
sound his bell at every payment, and
We are very cautious about small offenses,
but give plenty of opportunity for sinners on
a large scale TO escape. FOR boy who steals
loaf of bread from corner grocer to keep
his mother from starving TO death, prison;
but for defrauders who abscond with half
million OF dollars, a castle on the Rhine, or,
waiting until the offense is forgotten, then a
castle on the Hudson!
Another remark needs to be made and
that is that people ought not to go into
places, into business or into positions, where
the, temptation is mightier than their
character If there be large sums of money
to be handled and the man is not sure of his
own integrity you have no right to run an
unseaworthy craft into an euroclydon. A
man can tell by the sense of weakness
or strength in the presence of bad oppor-
tunity whether he is in safe place. How
many parents make an awful mistake when
they put their boys in banking houses and
stores and shops and factories and places of
solemn trusts, without once discussing
whether they can endure the temptation.
You give the boy plenty of money and have
no account of it, and make the way
down become very easy, and you
may put upon him pressure
then he cannot stand. There are men who
go into positions full OF temptation, con-
sidering only the one fact that they are
lucrative positions. l say to the young
people here this morning, dishonesty will
not pay in this world or in the world to
come.
An abbot wanted to buy piece of ground
and the owner would not sell it, but the
owner finally consented to let it to him until
he could raise one crop, and the abbot sowed
acorns, crop of two hundred years!
And l tell you, young man, that the dis
honesties which you plant In your
heart and life will seen to be very insigni-
fcant- but they will grow up until thsy will
overshadow you with horrible darkness,
oversh dow all time and all eternity. II
will not be crop for two hundred years,
but crop for everlasting ages.
l stand this morning before many who
have trusted funds. 1t is a coElpinent to
you that you have been so intrus ed but
charge You, in the presence of God and the
world, be careful; be as careful or the
property of others as you are careful
of your own. Above all, keep your own
private account at the bank separate
from your account as trustee of an
estats or trustee of an institution.
That is the point at which Thousands of peo.
pie make shipwreck They get the property
of others mixed up with their own property,
they put it into investment, and away 1t all
GOES and they cannot return that which
they borrowed. Then comes the ex-
plosion AMI the money market is shaken
and the press denounces and the
church thun iers expulsion. You have
no right to use the property OF Others except
for their advantage, nor without consent,
unless they are minors. If with their con
sent you invest their property as well as you
can, and it is ali lost, you are not to blame,
you did the best you could; but do not come
into the deiusion which has ruined SO
many men, OF thinking because a
thing is in their possession. therefore
it Is theirs. GU have solemn trust
that God has given you. In this vast assem-
blage there may be some who have msap
propriated trust funds Put them back, or,
ii you have so hopsessly involved them that
you cannot put them back, confess the whole
thing to those whom you have wronged, and
you wi s.eep better nights and You Will
have the better chance for your soul. What
sad thing it would be if, after you are
dead, your administrator should find
out from the account books, or from the lack
of vouchers, that you were not only bankrupt
in estate but that you lost your soul If all
the trust funls thai have been misappro.
priated should suddenly fly to their owners,
AMI all the property that has been purloined
| should suddenly 90 back to its owners, il
would era N into ruin every city in America.
clustering young man arrived at a
hotel in the West and he saw man on the
| sidewalk, and in a rough way. as no man
has right to address laborer, said to
| him: Garry this trunk upstairs" The man
| carried the trunk upstairs and came down,
and then the youas man gave him quarter
of a liar which was marked, and instead
| of being twenty-i five cents it was worta only
twenty cents. Then the young man gave
his card to the laborer and said: "You take
this up to Governor Grimes; ! x'ant to see
him. 'Ah," said the laborer Il am
| Governor Grimes" 'Jh." said the young
man, 'you--I-excuse mo-" hen the Gov
ernor said: 81 was much impressed by
the letter you wrote me asking for a
certain office III my gift, an had made up
my min you sh 1uid have 1t; but n young
man who will cheat iaborer out of five
cents would swindle the Government OF the
State il he got his hands on it. don't want
you. food morning, SIR" 1t never pays.
| Nei her in this worll nor in the world TO
com, will it pay.
DO not suppose there ever was better
specimen of honesty than was found i'll the
Duke of Wellington lie mlrh9 with his
army over tbs French frontier, an. the army
was suffering, and he harlly knew how to
get along. P.enty Of plumber all about, but ne
conmailel none of the plumber 10
be tiken. He writes home these Re-
mlrkabie words: We are over
wheimsl with deo.s an | eau scarcely stir
out of my hoase ON IA count of puuic ere lit
orS waiting to dem1nl what is due them. >
Yet at That very tim. the French p as intry
| br yalr l,l IN