The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-02-02

young man who purloined from his
| employer did 90 because his mother
| was dying for the lack OF medicine.
| That young woman who went wrong
did not get enough wages to keep her
| from starving to death. Most people
who make moral shipwreck would do
| right in some exigency, but they have
| not the courage to say no.
Better die than do the least wrong,
but moderate your anathema against
the wrongdoer by the circumstances
which may yet develop. Be economi-
cal of you curses all the COM
munity is bounding some man or wo-
man. Wait, consider, pause and nope
that which is charged is a base fabr1-
cation. Do not be like a jury who shall
render a verdict against the defendant
without allowing him to present his
side of the case. / know not what your
observation has been, but / have new
er known a case of default in charac-
ter but there were some circumstances
which ought to weigh on the side or
the recreant. The most repugnant
character on earth to me is the man
who believes everything he hears
against others and hurls all the sland-
cred down the same embankment or
denunciation. / dislike such a one
more than / dislike the offender for
whom he IA no mercy.
DISGUSTING SPECTACLES-
Furthermore, we make ourselves a
disgusting spectacle when we become
b~usybodies. What a diabolical enter
prise those undertake who are ever
looking for the moral laps or the down.
fall of others, AS the human race is
a most imperfect race, all such hunters
find plenty of game. There have been
sewing societies in churches which tore
to pieces more regulations than they
made garments for the poor With
their sarcasms and sly hints and de-
probation of motives they punctured
more good names than they had need
les. With their scissors they cut char
aCtets bias. and backstitched every
evil report they got hold of. Meetings
OF boards # directors have sometimes
ruir.ed good business men by insin'la-
tons against them. The bad WORK
may not nave been done so much by
words, for they would be libelouS, but
by o twinkle of the y or a shrIg of
the shoulder or a sarcastic a~cceatIta-
ton of a word. Yes, he is all right
when he is sober" Have you in1uir-
ed INTO that mans history?" d You
know what business he was in before
he entered this?" II move that the
applicatio be laid on the table until
some Investigations now going Oh ale
consummated." 1t is easy enough to
Ids q SdSpISIOh lAAdI "Aii v "
buc what a despicable man is the one
who started it,
There is not an honest man in WASH
ington or New York or any other oi'y
who cannot be damaged by such INFER
nallsm. In a village where L once
lived a steamboat every day came to
the wharf. An enemy of the steam
boat company asked n day, Il wond-
err if that steamboat is safe?" The
man who heard the question soon sad
to his neighbor, There is some Suspi-
cion about the safety of that steam
boat" And the next one who got hold
of it said, There is an impression
abroad that there will soon be an &C
cident On that steamer" Soon all that
community began to say, That steam
err is very unsafe" n as a conSe-
quence we all took the stage rather
than risk our lives on the river. The
steamer was entirely u n safe,
but one interrogation in regard to her
started a suspicion that went on until
the steamboat company was ruined.
Precisely so nobl regulations and
good enterprises and useful styles or
business are slain by Interrogation
points. Can you imagine any creature
so loathsome as the one who feels him
self or herself called to question all in
tegrity, all ability, all honesty, all
character? BuzZards looking for car
rion.
MOST PEOPLE ARE DOING THEIR
BEST.
While / believe enough in human
d%epraVity to be othodox, 1 tell you that
the most of people whom l know are
doing the best they can. Faults? Oh,
yes. All people except you and 1 have
faults. But they are sorry about 1t,
%repentant on account of it and are try
ing to do better. About all h married
people 1 know of are married to the
one person best suited. Nearly all the
parents with whom 1 am acquainted
are doing the best they can for their
children. All the clerks in stores, so
far as 1 know, are honest, and all per-
sons in official position, city, state or
nation, are fulfilling their mission as
we'll as they can. The most of those
who have failed in business, so far as
1 know, have failed honestly. The
singers are singing their best songs,
the sculptors chiseling their best pic
lures, the ministers preaching their
best Take any audience that
assemblies in any church, and II there
are 500 people assembled l think at
least 45O are doing the best they cam,
and if there be 5000 assembled at least
$500 are doing the best they can.
While I was thinking upon this sub
ject / made a visit to one of the nation
al bureaus in this capital and found
that out of eleven hundred millions
of money hat had passed through the
hands of more than 40U employees only
3 cents were u~naccounted for, and the
8 cents were afterward found. What
a compliment to common honesty!
All people make mistakes-say things
that afterward they are sorry for, and
miss opportunity of uttering the right
word and doing the right thing. But
when they say their prayers at night
these defects are sure to be mentioned
somewhere between he name of the
Lord for whose mercy they plead and
the amen that closes the supplication.
That has not been my objection"
says some one. Well, l am sorry for
you, my brother, my sister. WhGt an
awful crowdy you must have gotter into!
Or. as is more probable, you are one
of the characters that my text sketch
es. You have not been hunting for
cartridges and quail, but for vultures.
You have been microscopiZing the
worlds faults. You have been down
in themarshes when you ought to have
been on tie uplands. I have caught
you at last. You are "a ~busybody in
other mems matfarSn