Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-07-27

lishment and gets n salary for the dis
charge of his responsibilities, or he IS
treasurer of n philanthropic institu-
ton, and money for the suffering goes
through his hands; or he has some Of
flee in city or state or nation, and taxes
and subsidies and supplies and salaries
are in his hands. Now, that Is q trust.
That is as sacred a trust as God can
give n man. 1t Is the concentration Of
confidence. Now, when that man takes
that money-the money Of others-and
goes to speculating with it for his own
purposes, he is guilty of theft. false
hood and perjury and in the most in
tense sense of the word Is a miscreant.
There are families today-widows and
orphans-with nothing between them
and starvation but a sewing machine,
or kept out of the vortex by the thread
Of needle red with the blood of their
hearts, who were by father or husband
left a competency. You read the story
in the newspaper of those who have
lost by a bank defalcation, and it h
only one line, the name of woman
you never heard of, and just one or
two figures telling the amount Of stock
she had, the number Of shares. 1t is
a very short line in a newspaper, but it
is line of agony long as time. 1t Is
a story long as eternity.
Now, do not come under the fascina-
oh 70
trust funds for purposes Of their own
speculation. Cultivate old fashioned
honesty. Remember the example OF
Wellington, who when he was leading
the British army over the French from
tier, and his army was very hungry,
and there was plenty of plunder on the
French frontier, and some Of the men
wanted to take it, said: Soldiers, do
not touch that. God will take care
Of us. He will take care of the Eng
lish army. Plenty Of plunder, | know,
all around but do not take It," He
told the story afterward himself, how
that the French people brought to him
their valuables to keep-he supposed
to be their enemy-brought him their
valuables to keep. And then, he said,
at time when the creditors Of the
army were calling for money and for
pay all the time and they had so much
all around about, he did not feel it
right for him to take it or for the army
TO take it.
Oh, that God would scatter these fas-
cinations about fraud and let US all un-
derstand that If | steal from you 81
/ am a thief. and if steal from you
S5OO,OO0 | am 100000 times more of
thief!
Society to Blame.
So there has been a great deal Of fas-
cnation thrown around libertinism.
Society is very severe upon the impu-
rity that turks around the alleys and
low haunts of the town. The law pur-
sues it. smites 1t, incarcerates it, tries
to destroy it. You know as well as |
that society becomes lenient in proper
ton as impurity becomes affiuent or is
in elevated circles. and finally society
is silent or disposed to palliate. Where
is the judge. the jury, the police officer,
that dare arraign the wealthy libertine!
He walks the streets; he rides the
parks; he faunts his iniquity in the
eyes Of the pure. The bag of unclean-
ness looks out of the tapestried win
dow. Where is the law that dares take
the brazen wretches and put their
faces in an iron frame of a state prison
window?
Sometimes it seems to me as If So
ciety were going back to the state Of
morals of Herculaneum, when it sculp-
tured its vileness on pillars and temple
wall and nothing but the lava OF a
burning mountain could hide the i'm
menslty Of crime. At what time God
will rise up and extirpate these evils
upon society know not nor whether
he will do 1t by fire or hurricane or
earthquake. but a holy God. | do not
think. will stand it much longer. be-
lieve the thunderbolts are Kissing hot
and that when God comes to chastise
the community for these sins. against
which be has uttered himself more Bit
terly than against any other, the fate
of Sodom and Gomorrah will be toler-
able as compared with the fate OF our
modern society, which knew better, but
did worse.
We want about 10000 pulpits in
America to thunder, "All adulterers
and whoremongers shall have their
place In the hell that burneth with ire
and birthstone, which is the second
death" 1t Is bell on earth and hell
forever. We have got to understand
that iniquty on Columbia heights or
Fifth avenue or Beacon bill is as DAM
nable in the sight of God as II Is In the
slums. Whether it has canopled couch
or ederdown or dwells amid the pu-
tridity Of low tenement house. COD
is after 1t in his vengeance. Yet the
pulpit of the Christian church has been
SO cowed down on this subject that 1t
hardly dares speak. and men are al
most apologize when they read the
Ten Commandments.
Then look at the fasclnatlons thrown
around assassination. There are In all
communities men who have taken the
lives of others unlawfully, not as exc
cutioners of the law, and they GO scot
free. You say they had their provoca-
tions. God gave life, and he alone has
a right to take it, and he may take it
by visitation of Providence or by an
executioner of the law, who is his mes
senger. But when n man assumes that
divine prerogative he touches the low
est depth Of crime.
Society is alert for certain kinds OF
murder. If citizen going along the
road at night is waylaid and slain by
a robber, we all want the villain ar
rested and executed. For all garroting,
for all beating out Of life by club or
an ax or a slungshot, the law has quick
spring and heavy stroke, but you know
that when men get affluent and high
-ocftion and thov aVpnOo their wrongs