Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-03-09
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE Blythe NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: "Dishonest Transactions'--One
of tho Crying Evils of Modern Life is
the Abuse of Trust-Beware ofthe Web
Observation-Disclosures to Business sIen.
TEXT: "Whose trust shall be spiders
web."-Job Will. IA.
The two most skillful architects in all the
world are the bee and the spider. The one
puts up sugar mandatory and the other
builds O slaughter house for flies. On a
bright summer morning when the sun
COMES out and shines upon the spiders
web, bedecked with dew, the gossam er
pension bridge for aerial beings to cross
on. But alas for the poor fly which In the
latter part Of that very day ventures on it
and is caught and dungeoned and de-
stroyedl The fly was informed that 1t was
free bridge and would cost nothing, but
was its own life. The next day there
comes down a strong wind, and away go
the web and the marauding spider and
the victimixed fly. So delicate are the
silken threads of the spiders web that
many thousands of them are put together
before they become visible to the human
eye, and it takes 4, ,0Q0, 900 of them to make
n thread rs large as the human har. Most
cruel as well as most ingenious Is the
spider. A prisoner In the Bastille, France.
had one so trained that at the sound of the
violin It every day came for its meal Of
flies. The author of my text, who was q
leading scientist of his day, had no doubt
watched the voracious process OF this one
Insect with another and saw spider and fly
swept down with the same broom or scat
tered by the same wind. Alas that the
world has 50 many designing spiders and
vietimized fiiesl
There has not been time when the
utter and black irresponsibilitY OF many
men having the financial interests OF
Others In charge has been more evident
than In these last few years. The bank
ruptcy OF banks and disappearance Of ad-
illustrators with the funds of large estates
and the disordered accounts otUnited States
officials have sometimes made pestilence
OF crime that solemnizes every thoughtful
man and woman and leads every philan-
thropist and Christian to ask, What shall
be done to stay the plague? There is ever
and anon a monsoon OF swindle abroad, a
typhoon, a sirocco. I sometimes ask my
Ing Wills to hequeath the property directly
to the executors and officers of the court
and appoint the widows and orphans II
committee to see that the former got all
that did not belong to them. The simple
fast Is that there are large number OF
men sailing yachts and driving fast horses
and members OF expensive clubhouses and
controlling country seats who are not
worth dollar il they return to others
their just rights. Under some sudden re-
verse they fall, and with afflicted air seem
to retire from the world and seem
almost ready for monastic life, when in two
or three years they blossom out again, hav-
Ing compromised with their creditors-that
Is, paid them nothing but regret, and tho
only difference between the second chap
ter of prosperity and the first is that their
pictures are Murillos instead Of Kensetts
and their horses go mile in twenty Sec
opds less than their predecessors, and in
stead OF one county seat they have three.
have watched and have noticed that niue
out of ten of those who fail in what is called
high life have more means after than be-
fore the failure, and in many of the cases
failure is only a stratagem to escape the
payment of honest debts and put the world
OF the track while they practice large
swindle. There lie something woefully
wrong in the fact that these things are pos
sihle.
First of all, charge the blame on care
less, indifferent bank directors and boards
having in charge great financial institu-
lions. 1t ought not to be possible for a
president or cashier or prominent officer
OF banking institution to swindle it year
after year without detection. / will under
take to say that II these frauds are carried
on for two or three years without detec-
tion either the directors are partners in
the infamy and pocket part Of the theft or
they are guilty of culpable neglect of
duty for which God will hold them as re-
yponslble as He holds the acknowledged de-
trauders. What right have prominent
business men to allow their lmes to be
published as directors In financial insti-
tuition go that unsophlsticated people are
thereby induced to deposit their money In
or buy the scrip thereof when they, the
published directors, are doing moth
Ing for the safety of the institution?
1t Is u case OF deception most
reprehensible. Many people with surplus
Of money, not needed for immediate use,
although 1t may be little further on in
nispepsable, are without friends competent
to advise them, and they are guided solely
by the character OF the men whose names
are associated with the institution. When
the crash came and with the overthrow of
the banks went the small earnings and
limited fortunes of widows and orphans
and tho helplessly aged, the directors
stood with idiotic stare, and to the inquiry
Of the frenzied depositors and stockholders
who had lost their all, and to the arraign-
ment of an indignant public, had nothing
to say except: 1--WE thought it was all
right. We did not know there was any
thing wrong going on" 1t was their duty
to know. They stood in position which
deluded the people with the idea that they
were carefully observant. Calling them
selves directors, they did not direct. Th y
had opportunity of auditing accounts and
inspecting the books. No time to dc so?
Then they had no business to accept the
position. 1t seems to be the pride of some
moneyed men to be directors in a great
many institutions, and all they know is
whether or not they get their dividends
regularly, and their names are used as de-
coy ducks to bring others near enough to
be made game of. What first of all is
needed Is that 500 bank directors and in
Burance company directors resign or at
tend to their business as directors. The
business world will be full Of fraud just rs
long as fraud is so easy. When you arrest
the president and secretary Of a bank for
an embezzlement carried on for many years,
be sure to have plenty OF sheriifs out the
same day to arrest all the directors. They
are guilty either of neglect or completely.
We must especially deplore the misfor-
tunes of banks in various parts of this
country in that they damage the banking
institution, which is the great convenience
Of the centuries and Indispensable to COM
merce and the advance of nations. With
one hand 1t blesses the lender. and with
the other it blesses the borrower. On
their shoulders are the interests Of private
In hixid Tn