The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-03-22

My charge is to you, IN all departments
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 a day coming
when the most secret transaction of pri-
vate life and Of public life will come up
for public apprehension. 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.
'sFieiD said Cardinal Beaufort, 'tiei
can't death be hired? is money nothing?
must die, and so richg if the owning Of
the whole realm would save me, could
get it by policy or by purchase-by
money! No, death would not be hired
then; he will not be hired now. Men or
the world often regret that they have to
leave their money here when they go
away 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 delusion.
I tell that bribe-taker that he will take
his money with him. God will wrap
it up in your shrOud, or put 1t
in the palm OF your hand in resur-
rection, and there it viii lie, not the
cool, bright, shining gold as it was on the
day when you sold your vote and your
moral principle, but there it will lie, hot
metal, burning and consuming your hand
forever. Or, il there be enough Of it for
a chain, then it viii fall from the wrist
clanking the letters Of an eternal
captivity. The bride is an everlasting
possession. You take it for time, you
take it for eternity. Some day in the next
world, when you are longing for SYM
patty, you will feel on your cheek kiss.
n IS III Al -. hn Trrfm
who took thirty pieces of silver as bride
and finished the bargain by putting an in
famous kiss on the pure cheek Of his
divine Master.
Another wrong use Of money is seen in
the abuse of trust funds. Every man
during the course Of his life, on a larger
or smaller scale, has the property OF
others committed to his keeping. He is
so far q safety deposit, he is an admins
traitor, and holds in his hand the interest
of family of deceased friend. Or he
is an attorney, and through his custody
goes the payment from debtor to creditor,
or he is the collector for a business house,
which compensates him for the respon-
sibility; or he is treasurer for q chari-
table institution, and he holds aims con-
tributed for the suffering; or he is an
official of the city, or the State, or the
Nation, and taxes, and subsidies, and
It is as solemn q trust as God
can make it. It is cOncentered and multi
piled condolences. On that man depends
the support of bereft household, or the
morals of dependents, or the right move
ment of one thousand wheels of social
mechanism. A man may do what he will
with his own, but he who abuses trust
funds, in that one act commits theft,
falsehOod, perjury, and becomes, in all
/ sv,Aa asN - 1,a INF
How many widows and orphans there are
with nothing between them and starva-
/ ton but a sewing machine, or held up out
/ Of the vortex of destruction simply by
the thread of a needle, red with their
| own hearts blood, who little while ago
had, by father and husband, left them q
competency. What is the matteri
The administrators or the executors
have sacrificed it-running risks
with it that they would not have dared to
encounter in their own private affairs
How often it is that a man will earn Q
livelihood by the sweat of his brow and
then die, and within few months all the
/ estate goes into the stock gambling rapids
| Of Wall street. How often it is that you
have known the man to whom trust funds
were committed taking them out of the
savings bank, from trust companies and
administrators, turning old hOmesteads
into hard cash, and then putting the en-
tire estate into the vortex of speculation.
! Embezzlement is an easy word to pro-
nounce, but it has ten thousand ramifca-
tons of horror.
There is not city that has not suffered
from the abuse of trust funds. Where is
the courthouse, or the City Hall, or the
Jail, or the post Office, or the hospital
that in the building of it has not had g
political job?
Long before the new courthouse in New
York City was completed, it cost over
twelve million dollars. Five millions sir
hundred and sixty three thousand dollars
for furniturel For plastering and repairs
two million three hundred and seventy
thousand dollars. For plumbing and gas
works, one million two hundred and thir.
ty-One thousand eight hundred and seven.
teen dollars. For awnings, twenty three
thousand five hundred and fifty-thret
dollars. The bills for three months COM
ing TO the nice little sum of thirteen mill
ion one hundred and fifty-One thousand
one hundred and ninety eight dollars and
thirty mine cents. There was not an hon
est brick, or stone, or lath, or nail, or foot
OF plumbing, or inch of plastering, or ink
stand, or door knob in the whole estab'
lishment.
That bad example was followed in many
Of the cities, which did not steal quite sc
much because there was not so much to
steal. There ought to be a closer inspec-
ton, and there ought to be less opportuni-
ty for embezzlement. Lest man shall
take five-cent piece that does not belong
to him, the conductor on the city horse
car must sound his bell at every payment,
and we are very cautious about small Of
lenses, but give plenty of opportunity for
sinners on a large scale to escape. For a
boy who steals loaf of bread from cor.
ner grocer to keep his mother from starv.
ing TO death, prison; but for defrauders
who abscond with five hundred thousand
dollars, q 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
On eurOclydOn. A man can tell by the
sense Of weakness or strength in the
presence OF a bad opportunity whether he
is in q 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 trasts, 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 a pressure that he can not
stand. There are men who so into posi-.
tions full of temptation, considering only
the one fact that they are lucrative posi-
tions. say to the young people here this
morning, dishOnestyVwill not pay in this
world or the world to come.
An abbot wanted to buy a piece o.
ground and the owner would not sell il
but the owner finally consented to let il
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