The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-11-20

Seventy years 10 long enough for o
partyIor political power TO rule a
great metropolis. Corruption breeds
moro maggots es the city grows, for,
as Thomas Jefferson said: "The
growth of great cities is pestilentiai
TO good morals The public treasury
is thing to be plundered, .xEathe. !.
bs municipal, state OF national. There
are thousands Of men who would not
steal from me, but would steal the
moasy ! pay into the treasury, for
there il becomes go mixed mp that
nobody knows whose money tits. It
Is just as it was two hundred years
ago, when Swift wrote:
''Great feas haye little feas upon their
backs to bite 'em,
And little feas have lesser fleas, and go
on ad infinitum."
There is one comfort about all this
public plundsr. The money does not
go dead. It has TO be invested and
gives employment to labor. A mil
lionaire can't eat nor wear out much
more than I can, nor will he lock up
his money and let is rest. Not long
ago asked clever Northern man
Why it was that the tioh people who
pay the most Of the taxes let the PEN
sion steal go on so long and get bigger
every year? He smiled and said:
"Why that pension money goes mostly
TO the poor and we get it all back
sooner or later. 1t is our cheapest
way Of supporting them, especially
when We have your help" Poor Gar
6eld. In his last message he lament
ed that the pension rolls had got to the
alarming sum Of $50, ,O0O, 900, but said
there was comfort in knowing that it
was obliged to decrease from natural
causes, for death wSs the common lot
and the pensioners were rapidly de-
creasing in number. He was mis-
taken. They have been multiplying
ever since he was killed, and now it
takes $3.50. .000, 900 to pay the roll.
Public plumber would not be 80 bad
IL it was done in the open. What ag-
gravates US is that it is done on the
sly through corruption, through
bribes, franchises, charters, licenses,
salaries and schemes. It always vexes
me to sec the cook hiding something
or her child carrying off bundle on
the sly and hiding it under her apron
as she is going home. But they ere
all so kind and so willing and SO good
TO the children that We saw wood and
say nothing. They remind me Of
what blind phrenologiss said Of q
public official id Rome while feeling
che bumps on his head. He did not
know him at all, ut'said, 'This man
i,kind-hearted and good d-natured and
would do you favor if you were in
distress, but he will steal. If he
found man asleep alone in room at
night he would slip his purse from out
his pocket, out would kiss him before
he left him.. He diagnosed the man
correctly for he was turned out Of
Office soon after for embezsling the
public money, and everybody was
sorry for him because he was so gem
erous With his plunder. Stealing
from the public crib seems to be q
higher grade Of crime than lying,
thoughit takes lying and hypocrisy
and deceit to accomplish it. Ihave
often wondered why lying was not for
hidden in the Ten Commandments, G
s"Thou shalt not steal is there, but
"thou shalt not lie. is not there, and
JsS IL Is aoourSsaai ali through tbe
scriptures and is the:last sin recorded
in the last chapter Of Revelations and
in nearly the last verse. For with
I out are dogs and sercerers, and whore
mongers and murderers and whomso-
ever loveth and make lie. - Ac-
cording to David, that sin did not
leave very many to enter heaven, For
he says, Il said in mine haste all men
ere liars. The old Scotch preacher
took itfor 8 text and his FIRST rsnsr1sk !,
was, s'Ah, David, me mon,: If ye had
waited until now ye might have said
is AZ your leisure. Lying ia no doubt
the most universal sin among man
kind. but is graded ana not always
. sin. Stealing 10 always asin, but
lying must be malignant or harmful.
Paul cent Titus TO Crete and wrote ID
4 him that he would have 4 hard time in
sta!>lishipg . church there, for the
Cfetans we're ell liars. Crete is Gan,
dia nov, an island in the Mediterran-
I can inhabited by MohAmmedans
ohiedg, and travellers aay that they
-. ~ n hat nv. u, 4, s I, = =, s hoe, ,,,r,>