Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-04-02

sudden SlCRn6SS may nave IOucueu LIE
brain, and his judgment may be unbal-
anoed. He is wrong, he Is awfully
wrong, and he must be condemned, but
there may be mitigating circumstances.
Perhaps under the same temptation you
might have fallen. The reason some
men do not steal 5000, 600 is because
they do not get chance. Have righteous
indignation you must about that mans
conduct, but temper it with mercy.
But you say, II am sorry that the
innocent should suffer-" Yes, am. too
sorry for the widows and orphans
who lost their all by that defalcation.
am sorry also for the business men,
the honest business men, who have had
their affairs all crippled by that defal-
cation. I am sorry for the venerable
bank president to whom the credit OF
that bank was matter of pride. Yes,
7 am sorry also for that man who
brought all the distress, sorry that be
sacrificed body, mind, soul, reputation,
heaven, and went into the blackness Of
darkness forever.
You defantly say. 81 could not be
tempted In that way" Perhaps you
may be tested after awhile. God has o
very good memory, and he sometimes
seems to say "This man feels so strong
in his innate power and goodness he
shall be tested. He is SO full of bitter
invective against that unfortunate it
shall be shown now whether he has the
power to stand. Fifteen years 60 by.
The wheel of fortune turns several times
and you are in crisis that you never
could have anticipated. Now all the
powers of darkness come around, and
they chuckle and they chatter and they
say: "Aha, here is the old fellow who
was SO proud of his integrity and who
Dragged he couldn't be overthrown by
temptation and was SO uproarious in his
demonstrations of indignation at the
defalcation 10 years agol Let us see p
1t Shall Be Measured.
God lets the man go. God, who had
kept that man under his protecting
care, lets the man go and try for him
self the majesty of his integrity. God
letting the man go, the powers of dark
ness pounce upon him. see you some
day in your office in great excitement.
One of two things you can do. Be hon.
est and be pauperized and have your
children brought home from school,
your family dethroned in social infu-
ence. The other thing is, you can STEP
q little aside from that which is right,
you can only just 90 half an inch out OF
the proper path, you can only take a
little risk, and then you have all your
finances fair and right. You will have
large property. You can leave for
tune for your children and endow col
lego and build public library in your
native town. You halt and wait and
halt and wait until your lips get white.
You decide to risk it. Only few
strokes of the pen now. But, oh, how
your hand trembles, how dreadfully it
trembles The die is cast. By the
strangest and most awful conjunction
of circumstances any one could have
imagined you are Frustrated. Bank
ruptcy, commercial annihilation, expo,
sure, crime. Good men mourn and devils
hold carnival. and you see your own
name at the head of the newspaper col.
umn in u whole congress Of exclamation
points, and while you are reading the
anathema in the reportorial and edi-
torial paragraph, it occurs to you how
much this story is like that Of the defal,
cation Is years ago, and a clap of thun.
der shakes the window sill, saying,
with what measure ye mete it shall
be measured to you again i"
Flesh Is Weak.
You look in another direction. There
is nothing like ebullitions of temper tc
put man to disadvantage. You, mar
with calm pulses and a fine digestion
and perfect health, cannot understand
how anybody should bo capsized in tenn
per by al infnitesimal annoyance. You
say, II couldn't be unbalanced in that
way" Perhaps you smile at provoca-
ton that makes another man swear.
You pride yourself on your imperturb-
ability. You say with your manner,
though you have too much good taste to
say it with your words; II have a
great deal more sense than that man
has. have q great deal more equipoise
of temper than that man has. never
could make such puerile exhibition OF
myself as that man has made.
Let me see. Did you not say that you
could not be tempted to an ebullition
of temper? Some September you come
home from your summer watering place
and you have inside, away back in your
liver or spleen, what we call in our day
malaria, but what the old folks called
chilIs aud fever. You take quinine un-
til your ears are first buzzing beehives
and then roaring Niagaras. You take
roots and herbs; you take everything.
You get we'll. But the next day you
feel uncomfortable, and you yawn, and
you stretch, and you shiver, and you
consume, and you suffer. Vexed more
than you can tell, you cannot sleep, you
tannot eat, you cannot bear to see any
thing that looks happy, you go out tc
kick the cat that is asleep in the sun.
Your children mirth was once music
to you; now it is deafening. You say,
"Boys, stop that racket" You turn
back from June to March. In the family
and in the neighborbood your populari
ty is 90 per cent off. The world says
"Wbat is the matter with that disa
greeable man? What q woebegone coun
tenancel I can't bear the sight of him.
You have got your pay at last-got your
pay. You feel just as the man felt, tina
man for whom you had no mercy, ant
nv text comes in with marvellous ap
positeness, "With what measure "
mete it shall be measured to you again.
Victims of Circumstance.
In the study of society have come tt
this conclusion-that the most of TIT
people want to be good, but they do no
exactly know how to make it out. The.
make enough good resolutions to III
them into angelhood. The vast majorlt.