Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-03

themselves, the nervous force lett MIN DIV
sturdy ancestors and transmits his son a
shattered nervous system, and over wrought
brain, ready to wreck in mental and moral
| imbecility at'any strain? These are ques-
| tions which men must ask in tracing the
| cause OF disaster, and the answers all must
take home to themselves.
The lessons read by fate from month to
month, have personal interest for each
one of us. They do not concern merely the
big rich people who live on a scale of mil
lions, but those who read of them in the
newspapers, the well-to-do, the comfortably
| of, the people in moderate circumstances,
| and those in very small way. The ruin Of
the great banking firm In Berlin, the failure
| of the Maverick In Boston, the disaster in
New York, the last crash of personal and
business honor you read this morning, have
their message for you, for all of US. Think
YOU that they upon whom the tower In
Sloan fell were sinners more than these!
When the indictment for these crimes is
framed we may be surprised at the list of
defendants If as all men hold, he who
might have prevented a crime, legally
shares in its guilt, it is time for us to begin
to purge ourselves of offense before the day
of reckoning that unlocked for happening
which is the surest of all things to arrive.
Men Who Do Not Warn Others.
Taking the least counts first, what ought
decent men to think of business houses
who, knowing the riskiness of bank be-
fore it breaks, gave no warning to the COM
munity. The least that can be said is that
it looks as if it were willing few hundred
or thousand people should suffer to make
room for themselves. That is the business
reading of the case, and undoubtedly the
nearest truth. They knew the vessel
would founder, and lett, not caring that the
majority of the passengers would go down
for want of warning. An ocean disaster is
the agony of a few hours, financial fail
ure involves the suffering of lives, dragged
out between the strokes of misery.
What can be said of the criminality of
those who palliate the Field disaster in
New York by repeating that all his friends
knew the influential member in the bank
ing firm which collapsed was virtually i'm
beeile or insane? If it excuses young Field,
it lays heavy responsibility on those who
knowing his mental weakness suffered him
to have the handling of large business in
terests The idiocy and moral insensibility
Of this exhibition are hardly paralleled.
Are these good people in the habit of leav.
ing Imbecile of epileptic children to play
with box of matches and their gold bonds
and securities? There is little difference to
be seen in the cases, except that the bank
people. But these are minor criminalities
which do not enter into the grave charge
lying against all classes and divisions of So
ciety.
Worship at n Dirty Shrine.
Why are men so infatuated for money as
to wreck every power of enjoying it for the
greed of getting it? That is your fault and
mine. Whom does the keen-witted, rough
shod boy of the people hear quoted, ad-
mired and envied from the first recoliec-
tions? The man who has money. Who
gets the civiIities, the welcomes, the consid-
Grafton, any drop of which would be cordial
as Chartreuse to his famished nature? The
rich man of the neighborhood, of course.
He hears plenty of whispers how the money
was made, not always cleanlv, but he also
perceives that it makes no difference in the
way you or greet the man, in our willing
ness to talk with him at the railway station
or the church door, nor does he ever hear
of our refusing an invitation to the rich
house, or see the reluctance in allowing our
children to associate with his family, which
is plainly perceptible toward those of
blameless repute who happen to be dis
tinctly poor.
The first lesson is rubbed into his intelli-
gence till it is Bible and faith to him He
VOWS to be rich, and not being burdened by
scruples he catches up with his ambitions
before he is thirty. Our own children
mark his career, and about the time he
builds his fine house with the electric lights
and tower, and sports his fast team they
begin to feel that money has its attractions
too. 1t takes very little to light the fuse of
discomfort and money fever in neighbor-
hood. have seen the advent of piano
lamp and picturesque portico set all the
boys wild to make money so their homes
could have electric lights and piano lamps
with big pagoda shades and paper flowers
pinned on the Sides
Tho Covetousness Which Is Idolatry.
The boys leave high school in the first
term to enter business. They can't wait
for an education they are in such haste to
be getting ahead and gathering in the good
things of life-to have pretty houses with
big awnings, like French maisonettes, to
have electric lights all over the house and
hot and cold water.in every chamber, to
have drawing rooms in white and gold,
with carpets specially designed, carved
mantels and hall screens, steam heat and
Conservatives. You smile, but plenty of
boys care working like madness to make
money which only represents to them such
material comforts and probabilities. The
worship of the golden calf is out of date,
luxe, and art designery, toward which
men and poor women pour out their souls
Curious are the objects of desire which
draw them to the old uneainly altar. here a
suite OF hawless large diamonds, there a
pair of sixteen button gloves, q bonnet from
Virots, the key of an opera box, the pennant
of millionaire's yacht, the Japanese screen
which some poor boy thinks will give the
final touch of elegance to his plain home,
bouquets of roses at 81 apiece, here q piece
of jeweled mosaic from cardinals treas
uries, which ravishes the soul of collector
there pair Of long silk stockings which
are the dream of little sewing girl. But
the golden calf is under the lustheap, and
its worship pays for the things we crave
Alas, to grant the wish increases the
hanger, and this is the covetousness which
is idolatry.
The Frenzy Never Quenched.
The clever lad who has made a thousand
by his months commissions, looks en-
viously at the manager who had S25, 900 for
working up a trust, and he in turn feels
small beside the millionaire whose bidding
he does, the millionaire has his eve
upon the railway men who associate in
focks of 20, 000, 600 owners, who in turn will
begin to be satisfied when their income
touches a million year-possibly. But
death takes them off before they reach the
ennui of that dream. They must have
money, from the boy restless in his plain
home till he fix things up round home, and
his mother, who wants to have things like
other folks" up to the son of the million
aire who wants money to lend impccunious
sons of dukes as ticket to their society.
The worSt Of ii is hot is pot ,oona,