The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1892-09-01

5enger:
Editor of the Messenger:
"Woe unto you, scribes and phari
sees, hypocrites! for ye compass Sc
and land to make one proselyte; ant
when he is made, ye make him two
fold more the child Of hell than your
selves"
So spoke He, who spoke as neve
man hath spoken. Long centurle
after, a poor-nothing ventures to ad
dress the self same words to kindred
class False leaders and teachers g
before false doctrine and dupeS, an(
they are amenable before God an(
man for the harm accruing.
Pause and consider, ye political
scribes and pharsees, hypocrites, be
fore a wrong is wrought that time may
not undo, and ye fall beneath thi:
curse of your children and your chill
dren's children. False teachers and
leaders have been the bane Of State
and Church from earliest times. Every
age and creed and land has been
afflicted with them. They come OF
/ popular discomfort with existing state
/ of things, too oft we'll founded. That
is the pap they feed upon in teeth
cutting age. Evils, real and imagi-
nary, are harped upon and magniied
to further inhame it. But as yet no
remedy is suggested. Still they are
building up a reputation as popular
sympathizers. But as the beard begins
to grow, SO does their self-conceit, and
suddenly they loom up as the self
appointed champions of reform. With
promise and platitudes they enlist their
first recruits from that omnipresent
class ever anxious for the novel and
the new. And then they plant their
iulcrum on popular credulity and
straightway essay to upset things and
move the world. With modest assur
ance it is given out, "What is wrong.
Change is essential, and lucky you, to
rs It's given to lead the way, and
blaze the path which weaker men and
simpler minds must follow" Ofcourse,
such conscious and Heaven born lead
ers should carry the compass of unerr-
ing point, the chart of perfection.
But no, there's no occasion for those
prerequisites. The claim of possession
is all sufficient for their all-conflding
dupes. Assumption suffices for the end
aimed at, self-promotion and leading
string for the confiding, and SO it has
proved from the apostles down, aye
and long before the fishermen taught
unerring truth, false teachers and lead
e's were the bane of earnest, phllan-
thropic, self-sacrihcing heroes. No
matter how absurd the teacher or
crude the doctrine, assertive claim has
ever sufhCed to rope in and hold fol-
lowing.
By intuition, in the twinkling of an
eye, as it were, these Heaven inspired
prophets Of the cross roads grasp and
solve abstruse problems that have
puzzled sages and thinkers from the
birth Of time. They have a nostrum,
an lnfallible panacea for all the ills
that Government is heir to. But it is
in the field of Finance that their genius
shines out most transCendantly. Col
bert and Pitt and Peel and Hamilton
and Bob Walker, with Adam Smith
and Benlham included, who had i'm
posed on the Credulity of the world,
are to them pack of monetary quacks.
They, poor, ignorant old fogies, never
dared tackle what was to them an in
soluble "magnnm ar6ann0," but to
worthless of the class referred to, is one
of the simplest things in the world.
How to give every man plethora of
money, tree freight and transportation
and such like.
Why bother Parliaments and Con-
gresses with trifles like these when we
nave it all cut and dried and at our
tongues end Take us on faith and
give us trial and We'll prove it. But
first, you must cut loose from and
strike down old party friends and
affiliations. Don't fail to plant death
blow under the seventh rib of the
party that you have heretofore re-
garded as the most unswervlng sup
porter of free institutions and of popu
lar rights. That's a popular delusion
that must be shaken off to entitle you
TO a place in our unerring brother
hood. 1t matters not that by SO doing
you reinstate and perpetuate in power
that other party whose every act and
utterance has been inimical to you and
yCur interest, both as affecting the
rights of person and of property
That's another popular deluslon tos sup
pose that these good folk don't mean
we'll. They know better what is for
your good than you do yourselves.
True, it might be inferred by the too
captious and inquisitlve, that having
with a brief interregnum been in
almost undisputed sway of the Gov
ernment for the last one and thirty
years, they are primarily responsible
,or the ills at which you Justly grumbie.
But bear in mind that they have had
o encounter all the time an obstinate,
ST if neCked Democratic minority,
which held them in partial check and
prevented the full and complete con
summation of their we'll laid schemes.
True, perhaps, that under their pater-
nal management more than one-halt
of the aggregate wealth of the country
has been concentrated in the hands OF
10000 individuals. What of this
Don't you see that that's an incen-
tive to others to make effort by like
industry and economy to try and get