Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1891-04-19

to obtain that great power bys ques-
tionable, even criminal, methods, and
thus the country teens with "respec-
table" criminals; men who have even
stood flat-fOOted in COurtrOOms and
confessed themselves infamous: 9th
ers, who, by the laws delays and the
bubbles Of lawyers have barely es-
capped the prison they so richly de-
served; embezzlers, bribe-giyers and
bride takers, smugglers, boodlers,
pauper husbands of millionaire wives
holding title to estates tilched from
the confiding creditors, political hus-
tiers with plethoric purses, filled with
brides earned by bribing others. Yet
they are respectable, everyone of
them, well received by the world.
Yea, held in esteem as business men
Of reputation and in some cases as So
cial lions. Society thrusts out to
them the hand of fellowship. They
consOrt with honest men, and women,
without a blush, condOne their infamy
with smiles They swagger in public
places, and in the loftiness of kind
Of purse-proud independence, known
only to their kind, look askance, con-
temptuously, at the honest poor.
1t is not strange that in this coun-
try for many years a marked decad-
ence in the popular reverence for the
law has gone forward. Some writer's
have attempted to account for this
fact, and in this effort have INDUCED
in great deal Of hair-splitting and
philosophizing. The plain, unyar-
niShed truth is that the contempt of
the rising generation for the law OF
the land is the legitimate outgrowth
of sOciety's indifference to its viola
tion. The poor man who in despera'
tiOn breaks into a bakery and steals a
loaf of bread is hustled off to prison
and ever thereafter is regarded
as an irreclaimable felOn. The nabot
may offend with impunity. Criminals
begotten by poverty and misfortune
are made to feel the rigors of the law
by the swift visitation upon theil
heads Of its severest penalties, while
wealthy thieves, led on by avarice t
criminal lives, step through the meshe'
of the law as minnows slip through
fshermens nets.
Society puts on the airs Of a daint!
virgin, but at the behest Of .MammOn
lives the life of a condOner of vice
Parents read hOmilies to their children
replete with the highest moral max
inns; tell them to shun evil cOmpan
and LEAD honest lives-then 60 out int
: the world and themselves become tn
companions, patrons and friends o
; respectable criminals.
7 OF all the graces charity is tn
: sweetest. To forgive is to be Goo
$ like. But let it not be forgotten tina
, penitence is the legitimate fruit o
, wilful wrong. That to the poorwoma
, at the well, and not to the money
changers in the temple, words of com
, passion were bestowed by the Man 0
-, Many Sorrows. If to be thief, eyel
: under the pressure of. seeming neces
, sity is an ofTense, certainly the ma
, who becomes a thief from chOic
. places himself fairly outside the pal
of compassion. The great revolutio
Il that is to come before the millinniun
e and in which will be fought the battl
= of ArmageddOn, will be that in whic
honest worth, sincerity, naturalnes
n of demeanOr, pure manhood an
. wOmanhood will triumph owe
- crowned vice, and when Intelligent
- and the virtues will be the definitio
:, for responsibility, and society mus
- bring this about before it shall cease
70 to be regarded by Jehovah and til
: pure of earth as a whited sepulchr
- within which, not all, but much,
II, rOttenss.