The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-07-15

LCopSrlghted by Dave Il Tabor
Is there not in your neighborhood
person whose past has a blot on il.
and whose name is mentioned with
look of holy horror by cronies wien
together for chat? 1t is of such Der.
sons | would write this week. and
may my pen be dipped in power fnr
the task
-
II man commit a crime. be given
fair trial, be found guilty, and be
condemned, what becomes of him.
He goes to prison and works out his
sentence. And then? Then he is
guiltless in the eye of the law. and he
is as if he had done no wrong thing.
His retention in prison has expiated
his crime; ne is Il pure member of
society. But what says society
through you? The answer by deeds
is this: 1.-The stain of that wrong
shall stay on him forever; he shall be
hampered in every way; he shall be
prevented from getting an honorable
position by meddlesome tongues re
viving the story of the past; he shall
be bounded by the voices of those
who say, 1 am holier than thou; he
shall be made to feel that the world is
too small for him to hide himself, and
the grave too shallow to purify him;
for the stigmata of crime shall fasten
even on his children after him"
49,
If man commit a sin and no one
knows it, he is as pure as the unsullied
snow in the eyes of the world; but if
it be known, though he weep over it
until its very substance is washed
away by the flood of grief, though he
agOnize with regrets, though he spend
his last effort to right wrong, vet in
every neighborhoOd are those whose
memories are long as death or whose !
hearts are hard as adamant, whose
cool, calculating ways save them from
sin or whose clever cOncealments save
them from discOvery,-these Phari- |
sees, | say will summon the ghosts of |
a mans past from the grave, though |
it all be buried deep beneath accum-
ulated years of remorse and unhappi- |
ness. Like mythical ghouls and real |
hyenas, these lovers of carrion will |
dig till they find the treasure they
seek, the sin spot; and they rejoice
with hOwlings that all the world can
hear.
*..#
If a life of probity be lived for 25
years or more, and the deeds of good |
be plentiful as grain in harvest-time;
if the citadel character be held by |
keen conflict with evil, until some
weary moment of slOth, and evil then |
rush in through some unguarded spot, |
though only for a few moments, |
the world through the deeds of the |
world, says that the years of probity
count for naught. Thereafter the !
spot shall be larger than the char
acter it is on, the fragment be larger |
than the whole, the five minutes of |
evil blot out the whole memory of a
quarter of a century of good. An |
earthquake rends in a moment the |
works put up by patient process of |
accretiOn, and there is nothing then |
but dust and disaster where beauty |
stood before; and so is it with the |
dazed man who is the sufferer from |
the moral upheaval of bitterness and
uncharity in a community. One NOM |
ent he rightly stands before them all,
worthy of confidence and reconized
as power for good, the next moment
his character lies bruised and man
gled, never to be well again so far as
the Levites and Pharsees care. never
to live and move and have full being
again unless some barred-Out Samar-
itan with goodness, far eXcelling that
of these aloof ones, comes to the res
cue with sympathy and love.
*;,*
If a girl kept Intentionally ignorant
of herself, by those who train her,
and who know not the difference be-
tween ignorance and purity, makes a
.f01tG pas under the stress of feelings
that she does not understand and the
pleadings of the man who ought to
be worthy Of trust, then her own kith
and kin too often turn on her like
ravening beasts, driving her out into
the world to further wronS-doing and
certain destruction. Upon her head,
fair and inexperienced, are visited
the sins of omission committed by
those who raised no warning voice to
tell Of the pitfalls of life.
49,
If the All-Father takes note of the
fall of Il sparrow, and tenderly bears