Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-11

NOT the cool, bright, shining gold as it was on
moral principle, but there it will lie. hot
meta, burning and consuming your hand for
ever. Or, If there be enough Of it for a chain,
linen linen II wlll TALL from the wrist clanking, the
Ietters OF an eternal captivity. The bribe is an
everlasting possession. You take it for time,
you take 1t for eternity. Some day in the next
Worlo, when you are longing for sympathy, you
Will hnd it to be Judas, who took so pieces of
silver as bribe and finished the bargain by
putting 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 during the
course of his life on larger or smaller scale,
mas the property of others committed 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 attorney and through his custody
| goes the payment from debtor to creditor, or
he is the collector for business house which
| compensates him for the responsibility; or ne
| is treasurer for charitable INSTITUTION and
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.
A SOLEMN TRUST.
It is as solemn trust as GOD can make it. 1t
| is concentered and multiplied condolences.
On that man depends the support of bereft
household, or the morals of dependents, or the
right movement Of 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 the intensity of the word,
miscreant How many widows and orphans
there are with nothing between them and star
walton but 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 hus-
band, left them acompetency. What is the mat
| ter? The administrators or the executors have
/ naVTE EOndr w1rvSrr he Hrvfh
would not have dared to encounter in their
own private affairs. How often it is that a
man will earn 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 1t is that
you have known the man to whom trust funds
were committed taking them out of the saw
ings bank and from trust companies, and ad-
mlnistrators, turning old homesteads into hard
cash, and then putting the entire estate into
the vortex of speculation Embezzlement is
an easy word to pronounce, but it has ten thou
sand ramIficauons 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 Hail. or the Jail, or the post
office, or the hospital, that in the building OF 1t
has not had political Job?
Long before the new Court House in New
York City was completed, it cost over Sl2 ,OOO
Five millions six hundred and slxty.three
thousand dollars for furniture! For plastering
and repairs, s., $4,000. For plumbing and gas
works, s., ,23l, ,Sl7. For awnings, S2S,55S. The
sum of SIS, Is, ,l9S 49, There was not an honest
brick, or stone, or lath, or nail, or foot OF
plumbing, or inch of plastering 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 oppor-
tunity for embezzlement. Lest man sAen
take 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 offenses, but give plenty
of opportunity for sinners on 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 defr3uders
who abScond with $500. COO 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 tempta-
tion is mightier than the 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 presense Of a pad
opportunity whether he is in a 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 trust, without once discussing whether
boy plenty of money and have no account of 1t,
and make the way down become very easy, and
you may put upon him pressure that he can
not stand. There are men |ho go into posi-
tions full of temptation, considering only the
one fact that they are lucrative positions.
say to the young people here this morning, dis
honesty will not pay in this world or the world
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
81, o1,1 a1
crop of 200 years! And / tell you, young man,
that the dishonesties which you plant in your
heart and life will seem to be very Insignificant,
but they will 3S up Until they w over
shadow all time and all eternity. 1t will not be
a crop for 200 years. but crop
FOR EVERLASTING AGES.
L stand this morning before many who have
trust funds. 1t is compliment to you that
you have been so intrusted, but charge you,
in the presence of God and the world, be care
full; be as careful of 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 estate or
trustee of an institution. This is the point at
which thousands of people make shipwreck.
They get the property of others mixed up with
their own property. they put it into Investment
and away it all goes, and they cannot return
that which they borrowed. Then comes the
and the press denounces and the church
thunders 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
consent you invest their property as well as
you can, and it is all lost you are not to blame
you did the best you could, but do not come
into the dulusion which has ruined so many
men, of thinking because a thing is in their
possession, theI efore it is theirs. You have a
solemn trust that God has given you. In this
vast assemblage there may be-some who have
misappropriated trust funds Put them back,
or, if you have so hopelessly involved them
that you cannot put them back, confess the
whole thing to those whom you have wronged
and you will sleep 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 ac-
count 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 funds that
have been misappropriated should suddenly
fly to their owners, and all the property that
has been purloined should suddenly go back to
its owners, it would crash into ruin every city
in America.
IT DOESN'T PAY.
A clustering young man arrived at hotel in
the West and he saw a man on the sidewalk,
and in a rough way, as no man has right to
address a laborer, said to him: Garry this
trunk upstairs" The man carried the trunk
upstairs and came down, and then the young
man gave him quarter OIL dollar winch was
marked, and instead of being 25 cents it was
worth only 20 cents. Then the young man gave
his card to the laborer and said: ''You take
this up to Governor Grimes: 1 want to see
him." "Ah,' said the laborer, 81 am Governor
Grimes" 'Oh," said the young man, 'yOu-I
excuse me-" Then the Governor said: II
was much impressed by the letter you wrote
me asking for certain Office in my gift and 1
had made up my mind you should have it; but
a young man who Will cheat laborer out of
cents would swindle the government of the
State if he got his hands on it. l don't want
You. Good morning, sir" 1t never pays
Neither in this world nor in the world to come
will it pay.