The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1889-03-22

By policy or by p~1rchase-by money! NJ
death would not be hired then; he will nc
pe hired now. Men Of the world often re
greet That they have to leave their none,
mere Wnen they go away from the world
GU can tell from what they say In thei
last hours that one Of their chief sorrows |
that they have to leave their money.
break that delusion / tell that bride take
That he will take his money with him. Go,
Will wrap 1t up In your shround. or put il II
the palm OF your hand In resurrection, an
tnere 1t VIII lie, not the cool, bright, shin
ing gold as 1t was on the day when you soil
YOU vote and your moral principle, blu
there 1t will lie, a hot metal, burning ant
consuming your hand forever. Or, If Their
be enough OF it for q chain, then it will fal
from the wrist clanking the letters of al
eternal captivity. The bride is an ever
lasting possession. You take it for time
you take 1t for eternity. Some day in tn,
next world, when you are longing for sym
pathy, you will feel on your cheek a kiss
Looking up You viii find it to be Judas
wno TOOK thirty pieces of silver as a bride
and finished the bargain by putting an in
famousk kiss on the pure cheek of his divine
Master.
Another wrong use of money is seen in
the abuse of trust funds. Every man durina
the course of his life, on a larger or smaller
scale, has the property of others committed
to his keeping. He is so far a safety depos
~ NO 80 ~ I'LL lOluS III uls
hand the interest of the family of a 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 bust
ness house which compensates him for the
responsibility; or he is a treasurer for a
charitable institution and he holds aims con.
tributed for the suffering; or he ia an official
or the city or the state or the nation. and
taxes, and subsidies, and salaries, and sup
plies are IN his keeping. 1t is as solemn IA
L r1l 4 90 1lnd nnr 1a1r@ 4
and multiplied condolences. On that man
depends the support of a bereft household,
or the morals OF dependents, or the right
movement Of a 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, false
hood, perjury and becomes, in all the in
tensity 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 a
needle, red with their own hearts blood,
who a little while ago had, by father and
husband, left them a competency. What is
the matters! The administrators or the ex-
ecutors have sacrificed ~it-running risks
with 1t that they would not lave dared to
encounter in their w private affairs. How
often Is 1T that a man will earn a livelihood
by the sweat of his brow, and then die, and
within a few mouths ali the estate goes into
the stock gambling rapids of Wall street.
How often is it that you have known men to
whom trust funds were committed taking
them out of the savings bank and from
trust companies, and administrators, turn
ing 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 thousand rami-
ticationS 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 a political job!
Long before the new court house in New
York city was completed, it cost over S12,-
100000. Five million six hundred and sixty
three thousand dollars for furniture! For
plastering and repairs, S2,37O,0OO. For
plumbing and gas works. Sl,231,S17. For
awnings, S23,553. TIL bills for three months
coming to the nice little sum of S13, Isl, 1885,
SO. 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 a closer inspection
and there ought to be less opportunity for
embezzlement. Lest a man should take a
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 offenses, but
give plenty OF opportunity for sinners on a
large scale to escape. For a boy who steals
a Loaf OF bread from a corner grocer to keep
his mother from starving to death, a prison;
but for defrauders who abscond with half a
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 60 into
nlQpaS into huSinpSc nr into rncifionc rrhoro
the temptation is mightier than their char
acter. 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
u~nseaworthy craft into an euroclydon. A
man can tell by the sense of weakness or
strength in the presence of a bad opportuni-
ty 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 sol
emn 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 a pressure
that he canno stand. There are men who
go into positions full of temptation, consider
ing 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 the world to come.
An abbot wanted to buy a piece of ground
dlu Uuc OWutr WOuiu uCU sell IL, DuU Gll6 OWu-
er finally consented to let it to him until he
could raise one crop, and the abbot sowed
acorns, a crop of two hundred 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
grow up until they will o~vershadow you !.
with horrible darkness, o~vershadow all time
and all eternity. 1t will not be a crop for
two hundred years, but a crop for everlast-
ing ages.
[ stand this morning before many who
have trust funds. 1t is a compliment to you
that you have been so entrusted, but I
charge you, in the presence of God and the
world, be 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. That 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 Dor
rowed. Then comes the explosion and the
money market is shaken and the press de-
nounces and the church thunders expulsion.
You " no right to use the property of
others except for their advantage, nor with
out consent, unless they are minors. If
with their consent you invest their property
as well as o can, and it is. all lost, you are
not to blame, you did the best you could;
but do not come into the delusion which has
ruined so many men, OF thinking because a
thing is in their possession, therefore it is
theirs. You have a solemn trust that God
has given you. In this vast assemblage
there may be some who have misappropriat-
ed trust funds. Put them back, or, if you
nave 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 a sad thing it would
be if, after YOU are dead, your administra-
tor 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 funds
that have been mi-sappropriated should