The Dickinson press., 1892-04-09
sanctimon,ous gloom.-and vehement
ly refuse to swallow that camel.
Again: My subject photographs all
those who are

while they are reckless in regard to
magnificent thefts. You will find
many a merchant who, while he is so
careful that he would not take a yard
Of cloth or a spool OF cotton from the
counter without paying for it, and
who, if a bank cashier should make a
mistake and send in a roll of bills SIS
too much would dispatch a messenger
i'll hot haste to return the surplus,
yet to 60 into stock company in which
after awhile he gets control of the
stock, and then waters the stock and
makes $lOO, 900 appearli like 5000, 900.
He only stole 100000 by the opera
wealth in that way. One OF those
men, engaged in such unriehteous acts
that evening, the evening OF the very
day when he watered the stock, will
find a wharf-rat stealing al evening
newspaper from the basement door
way, and will go out and catch the
urchin by the collar, and will twist the
collar so tightly that the poor fellow
cannot say that it vas thirst for
knowledge that led him to the dis
honest act, but grip the collar tighter
and tighter, saying, "Ihave been look
ing for you a long while; you stole my
paper four or five times, haven't you?
you miserable wretch" And then the
old stock gambler, with voice they
can hear three blocks, will cry out:
"Police, police!" That same man, the
evening OF theday in which he watered
the stock, will kneel with his family in
prayer and thank God for the pros
perity OF the day, then kiss his chill
d"en good night with an air which
seems tosay, II hope you will allgrow
up to be as good as your father!"
Prisons for sins insectile in size, but
palaces for crimes dromedarian. No
mercy for sins animalcule in proper
ton, but great leniency for mastodon
iniquity.
1t Is time that we learn in America
that sin is not excusable in proper
ton as it declares large dividends and
has outriders in equipage. Many q
man is riding to perdition position
ahead and hackney behind. To steal
a dollar is a gnat; to steal many
thousands OF dollars is camel. There
is many a fruit dealer who would not
consent to steal a basket OF peaches
from a neighbours stall, but who would
not scruple to depress the fruit mar
ct; and as long as l can remember we
have heard every summer the peach
crop OF Maryland is a failure, and by
the time the crop comes in the mis-
representation makes a difference of
millions of dollars. A man who would
not steal one peach basket steals ffty
thousand peach baskets. ANY sum-
mer go down into the Mercantile
Library, in the reading rooms, and
see the newspaper reports of the crops
from all parts OF the country, and
their p%hraseology is very much the
same, and the same men wrote them.
METHODlCALLY AND UNANIMOUSLY
carrying out the huge lying about the
grain crop from year to year and for
a score Of years. After a while there
is q corner" in the wheat market,
and men who had a contempt for a
petty theft will burglarize the wheat
bin OF a nation and commit larceny
upon the American corn crib. And
men will sit in churches and in reform
atory institutions trying to strain out
small gnats OF scoundrelism, while in
their grain elevators andin their store
houses they are tattening huge camels
which they expect after awhile to
swallow. Society has to be entirely
reconstructed on this subject. We are
to find that a sin is inexcusable in
proportion as it is great.
] know in our time the tendency is
to charge religious frauds upon good
men. They say. ooh. what a class
OF frauds you have in the Church of
God in this day." and when an elder
OF a church, or a deacon, OF a minis
ter of the Gospel, or a superintend-
ent of a Sabbath school turns out a
defaulter, what display heads there
are in many OF the newspapers. Great
primer type. Five-line plea. can
other Saint Ahsconded," Clerical
Scoundrelism"" Religion at a Discount
"Shame IN the Churches" while there
are u thousand scoundrels outside the
church to where there is one insidet the
church, and the misbehavior of those
who never see the inside of a church
is so great it is enough to tempt a
Christian to get out oftheir company,
But in all circles, religious and ire
ligious, the tendency is to excuse sin
in proportion as it is mammoth.
This subject does not give the picture
OF one or two persons, but it is agallery
in which thousands OF people may
see themselves.
Described in the text are all those
who are particular never to break the
law of grammar, and who want all
their language an
ELEGANT SPECIMEN OF sYNTAx,
straining ont all of the inaccuracies of
speech with a fine sleeve of literary
criticism, while through their CONVEX
sation go Islander and innuendo and
profanity and %falsehood larger than
q whole caravan of camels, when they
might better fracture every law of tho
language and shock their intellectual!
taste, and better let every verb seek
in vain for it's nominative, and every
noun for its government, and every
proposition lose it's way in the SEN
tence, and adjectives and pronouns
and participates get into a grand riot
worthy Of the fourth ward on election
day, than to commit a moral inac-
curacy. Better swallow a thousand
gnats than one camel.
Such persons are also described in
the text who are very much alarmed
about the small faults of others, and
have no alarm about their W great
transgressions. Their neighbours inn
projections are like gnats and they
strain them out; their own imperfec-
tions are like camels and they swallow
them.
But lest any might think they es-
cape the scrutiny OF the text, 1 have
to tell you that we all come underline
divine satire when we make the ques-
tions OF time more prominent than
THE QUESTIONS OF ETERNITY.
Come now, let us 20 into the confess
sional. Are not all tempted to make
the question, Where shall I live now?
greater than the question, Where shall
/! live forever? How shall l get more
l 49, 49,