News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-10-08
SMALL DISHONESTIES.
A "CHAPEL TALK TOYOUNG MEN AND
WOMEN

~ | WOMEN.
t. Were it not for the fact that mel
d and women of very high character
q are thOughtessly guilty of small dis
e hOnesties, it might seem an atfront tC
the maturity of character of college
II students to bring such a subject be
d fore them. Many very good people
l.. seem to think it nothing wrong to
Y cheat u corporation. If a railroad
r conductor fails to take up q ticket,
Y many q man will use it for another
< ride He would be astonished to be
called thief; but that is his name.
4 He wouldn't break into a ticket office
and take a ticket, but he will keep
= one that he has no more right to use
than he would have to use one so
) stolen. A ticket represents n ride of
a certain distance; when that has
been had. the ticket is cancelled OBJ
legation as much as promissory note
that has been paid. To ride on it
again is just as bad as it would be to
present such q note for another pay
ment because a receipt has been acci-
dentally lost, or on any other techni-
cality. The conductor is not to play
! w Uilt COll-
science; he is for the travellers con-
venience. 1t is only simple justice to
recognize that the lapse of morality
is due not TO deliberate thieving, but
to mere, though not blameless,
thOughtlessness. True, in many cases
if one is scrupulous about such mat
ters, he will be "iaughed to scorn "
by the railroad officials, who are not
accustomed to such scrupulous hon
esty. But that makes no difference
to the honest man. What other peo-
pie do or think in theserespects is not
the measure of his honor.
A man of the most sterling honor
and honesty told me lately that, COM
ing back from Europe once. he had
very fine shawl that he was bringing
as a present to a friend. As they near
ed New York, he was debating wheth-
er he should not ask some lady ac-
| quaintance to throw it over her
shoulders, "iust to keep her warm till
she got to the hotel" (worn garments
are not subject to cdstOm duties).
| When he "came to himself" the next
morning, he saw that there was only
one possible course for an honest
man-to pay the duty. The other
course, which probably three-fourths
of the people aboard would not have
hesitated to take. would have been
stealing from the United States gov
ernment the amount of the duty. The
| fact that they would not look upon
the transaction in that way doubtless
modifies the guiltiness; but the name
for it would be stealing, and nothing
else could, be made out of it.
A business man told me this incl
dent. His firm employed a certain
young man at a good salary and ''his
travelling expenses" In one monthly
report of work and expenses was a
charge of fifty cents for dinner on a
certain day. The fact was he was
with a friend, and had paid nothing.
He is now almost begging to work
| for the same firm at half his former
! salary. That item of fifty cents cost
! him his position. He might have ar
gued that his friends courtesy was
extended to himself and not to
! to his employers. There is a certain
| specious reasonableness in that. But
| it fails here; it was not such an iden-
tificatiOn of his interests with those
of his employers as they wanted to
see. Had he been a member of the
firm, he would not have thought of
making such a charge among his |
travelling expenses; neither should |
he when their agent.
Bring the matter nearer home. |
hold it the duty of every student to |
render periodically the strictest ac-
count of all expenses to those who |
furnish the money. One should not |
need that parent or guardian ask to
have it done. There may well be re-
luctance to seem to humiliate you by |
suggesting the need of any report.
Do it of your own accord. Think |
hard at it, and think you will agree |
with me. But even in many cases |
where reports are expected, many |
students lie dreadfully about it. You |
resent the imputation? | sincerely |
hope so. But see. What do "sun- |
| dries" mean? Does not that word |
sometimes cover items that you |
would not quite like to have written |
out? Put the question in this way:
Are the exceptional items lin case
there are any such) all excluded from
sundries, and only the scrupulously
unexceptionableo ones included in that
word? If sundries" are to be, then
that should be the principle.
Now hold up against the sky the
| transactions of which we have been
I speaking, and let it's light shine thro'.
Spell out the watermark now. 1t is
very plain. LIE. Is the Indictment
too severe? Judge ye. Only think
clearly, and no honest person among
YOU will ever do such q thing again.
How about little dishonesties of the
classroom, the little frauds practiced
on classmate or instructor, the pre-
tence to faithfulness or knowledge
that does not exist? Drag these things
out into the light of the day, and be
YOU Judges of them. l am willing to
abide by your decision.
0 but these things, seemingly so
small, do so awfullv make or mar
eternal character. No, no, they are
not small. There are no words to eX-
press how big they are in the time
when character is being moulded.
Take this matter into a higher
sphere where is something for us al
There are many small intellectual dis
honesties. Any tendency in scientific
or philosophical studies to see or
state things by hairs breadth differ
ent from what they are, any disposi-
ton to think untruly, unless fought
against and conquered, leads to in
telectual perdition.
, Greater yet is the danger in moral
and spiritual life, of any shadow of
dishonesty. What can God do with
or for any soul that is not honest ?
Any pretencc to toexperience thatis not
! real any expression of conviction
that is not true clear through, is rot
: ten stone built into tie foundations
of the fair temple OF character. The
! earlier it comes out, the less OF the
! temple needs to come down with it,
Geo. A. Gates in Golden Rule.
e THE Coal INDUsTRY.-ln ten gears
= the coal product of the United States