Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-30
FRAUDS OF A WEEK.
Matthew Marshall Reads a Lesson in
Recent Financial Crimes.
THE WORLD DAILY GETS BETTER,
And Science, Philosophy and Religion Com
bine TO Make II So.
PRESENT TPiDEMIC. OF DISHONESTY
,errcrA1 TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.

Like causes produce like effects the world
over. The recent revelations of financial
fraud in Germany have been paralleled by
similar disclosures in this country, and here,
as well as there, the commission OF the
crimes and their discovery have constituted
a similar chain of circumstances. First,
there was a high credit, won by honest and
successful dealing; then there was an abuse
OF that credit for the purpose of repairing
disasters which, if delusively supposed, were
only temporary: and, finally, came exposure
in consequence of an inability to carry on
longer the process of deception necessary to
conceal the original wrong-doing.
The week began with the announcement
of misappropriation of the stock OF the
Standard Gaslight Company by its former
President and ended with that of the failure
of Field, Lindley, Wiechers Co. and the
discovery of their rehypothecation of bonds
and stocks which had been confded TO them
as security for money loaned. Interme-
diately we had the news OF sundry small de-
falcations in country banks, and to crown
all, that OF one by a woman manager of
girls school, showing that the prevailing
epidemic of dishonesty has no respect for
sex. Nor has the week been specially re-
markaDle for events of this character. Ever
since the Barring collapse of year ago the
calendar has been full of them. With the
uneaSiness which that catastrophe created
ing facilities, many cases of financial un-
soundness have come to public knowledge
which had previously been covered up, and
among them that particular sort of I'M
soundness which is coupled with dishon-
esty.
Revelations Made by Accident.
These revelations remind me of one of my
bovhood's experiences. Near where lived,
in the country was mill-pond, into which,
.,t high tide, flowed the water of the ocean:
and this, being retained by a dam with
swinging gate, served at low tide to turn
mil wheel Usually, the hours of low tide
were not long enough to empty the pond,
and it therefore preserved a iake-lfke ap-
pearsnce. / remember well how admired
ius placid surface, trimmed with green
meadows, and rejecting the blue summer
sky Oh the golden clouds of sunset. L swan
in it, rowed over it in my slif, and caught
killy fish on its pebbly shore. For
all that saw, it was mass OF
imperfection. One day, however, either the
milldam broke. or the miller purposely
opened the gate, and at the next low tide
the water all ran out OF the pond. MISS
Edgeworth, in her childhood, was not more
disgusted with her purple jar, when sRe
found out what it contained, than L was
when l saw what had been hidden under my
hitherto admired sheet of water. Black,
stinking mud WAS the least of the horrors.
The bed of the pond was filled with old tin
cans, broken and decaying tlmbers, sLmy
rocks green weeds and all sorts of rubbish.
The water at its usual level had concealed
these denominations, and If it had remained
there / should never have known they e1-
isted Its outflov- did not create them; it
nv let them Hp L.
-. the financia. crimes which are shock
ing US have not been caused by the financial
depression, but only brought to light by it,
II our former level of prosperity had been
maintained, we might never have known OF
them, but now the knowledge is forced upon |
US. The illustration holds good further tnan |
this. |
Dishonest Men Not the Exception.
Most people are accustomed to declaim |
against swindlers and defaulters, as if they |
were monstrous deviations from the normal |
dmanity, and deserved nothing but |
ration. They assume that honesty in |
Ell is the rule, and dishonesty the excep- |
tion. and that the dishonest are therefore |
special criminals and specially worthy of |
punishment. used, in my early days, TO be |
of this opinion, but experience and refec- |
tion have taught me better. L now see |
pretty clearly that the old Presbyterian |
doctrine of the total depravity of human /
nature is not far from the truth, and can |
sincerely join in the confession of the Epis- |
copal liturgy that we are all miserable SIN
ners. Our outward show, like the water in
the old mill pond, hides world of evil, and
we ought to wonder not that SO many men
are dishonest, but that so few OF them are
Science and philosophy corroborate the
teachings of religion on this point. Formerly
nationalists who repudiated all religious be-
lief held to a profession of faith in the dig
nitV of human nature, and traced all crimes
TO the perversion of that nature by exterior
influences. The brilliant, witty, but un-
sound school of French writers, such as Vol
taire and Rousseau, which four1shed just
before the Revolution, succeeded in impress
ing this idea upon nearly the whole intel
lectual world, and it finds numerous support
ers at the present moment. Indeed, unless
] am very much mistaken, most, if not all, of
the schemes for reforming mankind, of which
we hear so much from time to time, pro-
ceed upon the assumption that men are
naturally good and disposed to do right, and
need only be freed from adverse influences
to show themselves perfect angels. Impair
tial investigation has demonstrated the fall
the doctrine of evolution dissipates it en-
tirely.
The Development of Mankind.
Whether or not it be strictly true that
man is evolved from an animal, tits certain
that he has, during the historical period, at
least, risen and not fallen in developement,
morally and intellectually. Not only do we
still regard as crimes things which our
ancestors regarded as such, but in addition
we condemn actions which they permitted.
Human slavery which the pious John New
ton approved, and which up to recent date
was defended by hosts of Christian dfvines
in tbis country, at the North as well as the
South, is now thing OF the past. have in
my own life time seen dueling become first
Odious and finally impossible. A large num-
ber of the most respectable gentlemen Of
this city are seeking to suppress the lottery
in its last retreat in this country, in spite of
the fact that the fathers of many OF them
upheld lotteries as q legitimate means of
raising money for religious and charitable
purposes. Drunkenness, which was once only
q gentlemanly weakness, is now viewed
almost as & crime, and the use Of profane Ian
Euage, such the great Washington per-
mitted to himself in moments Of excitement,
has become conclusive mark of i'll
breeding.
Going further back in the annals of the
race brings out the advance of modern times
even more impressiyely. Wars are more
numaEely conducted than they were even
and pastimes have in great measure, If not
entirely, lost the savage character which
they possessed in civilized Rome. Torture
in criminal proceedings has been abolished,
ana the death penalty, which was formerly
inflicted for hundred petty ofenses, is now
reserved for murder only. Prisons, too,
have been improved, until they are more
like asylums than places OF punishment.
With all this, crimes of violence have dimin-
ished rather than increaSed-notwIthstand
ing the publicity given to them by the press
may pyoduce an impression to the cont ntrary-
and both property and life are safer than
they ever were before.
A Lingering Tastegfor Savasery.
The inference 1 draw from the facts is that
religion civilization and morality have for
their mission not the restoration of human
nature to a pristine state of purity, but
It's elevation from a primitive, degraded,
savage and even brutal condition toward an
ideal not vet attained, and toward which it
has no instructive tendency. Like wild
fiewers which have been developed by gar
den culture and which need sedulous care
20 keep them from reverting to their oIigi-
nal form, so man has in him lingering
taste for savagery, wnlch, as We see, ire