The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-11-17
Bill ArIp's Letter .
He Talks on the Sins of the Present Day in
the WorId--About Lying and Stealing.

We are not distressed at the over
throw of Tammany in New York. Seven
ty years is long enough for a party or
a political power to rule a great me-
tropolis Corruption breeds more mag
gots as the city grows, for as Thomas
jefferson said 1.-THE growth of great
cities is pestilential to good morals"
The public treasury is thing to be
plundered, whether it be municipal,
State or national. There are thousands
of men who would not steal from me,
but would steal the money l pay into
the treasury, for there it becomes so
mixed up that nobody knows whose
money il is. 1t is just as it was two
hundred years ago, when Swift wrote:
Great feas have little f1eas upon their
backs to bite EN-,
And little fieas have lesser feas, and so
on ad infinitum.'
There is one comfort about all this
public plumber. The money does not so
dead. 1t has to be invested and gives
employment to labor A millionaire
can't eat nor wear out much more than
can, nor will he lock up his money and
let it rest. Not long ago | asked clev-
er northern man why it was that the
rich people who pay the most of the
taxes let the pension steal go on and
get bigger every year? He smiled and
said: why that pension money goes
mostly to the poor and we get 1T all
back sooner or later 1t is our cheapest
way Of supporting them, especially when
we have your help" Poor Garfield. In
his last message he lamented that the
pension rolls had got to the alarming
sum of $30,OO0O00, but said there was
comfort in knowing that it was obliged
to decrease from natural causes, for
death was the common lot and the pen
sioners were rapidly decreasing in
number. He was mistaken. They have
been multiplying ever since he was
killed, and now it takes $150,000, 900 to
pay the roll.
Public plumber would not be SO bad if
it was done in the open. What aggra-
Yates us is that it is done on the sly
through corruption, through brides,
franchises, charters, licenses, salaries
and schemes. 1t always vexes me to see
the cook hiding something Or her child
carrying off a bundle on the sly and
hiding it under her apron rs she is 60
ing home. But they are all so kind and
so willing and so good to the children
that we saw wood and say nothing.
They remind me of what a blind phre-
nologist said of public official in Rome
While feeling the bumps on his hsad.
He did not know him at ALL but said:
This man is kind hearted and good
natured and would do you favor if you
were in Distress but he will steal If
he found man asleep alone in a room
at night he would slip his purse from
out his pocket but would kiss him be
fore he left him. He diagnosed the
man correctly, for he was turned out of
office soon after for embezzling the pub
lie money, and everybody was sorry for
him because he was so generous with
his plumber Stealing from the public
crib seems to be higher grade of crime
than lying, though it takes lying and
hypocrisy and deceit to accomplish it. /
have often wondered why lying was not
forbidden in the Ten Commandments.
Thou shalt not steaF' is there, but
thou shalt not lie' is not there, and
yet it is accused all through the scrip
lures and is the last sin recorded in the
last chapter of Revelations and in near
ly the last verse. For without are
dogs and sorcerers. and whore mongers
and murderers and whosoever loveth
and maketh lie According to David,
that sin did not leave very many to en-
ter heaven for he says: II said in mine
haste all men are lars The old Scotch
preacher took it for a text and his first
remark was: "Ah. David, me mon, if
We had waited until now we might have
said it at your leisure" Lying is no
doubt the most universal sin among
mankind, but it is graded and not al
ways a sin. Stealing is always a sin,
but lying must be malignant or harm
full. Paul sent Titus to Crete and wrote
to him that he would have hard time
in establishing church there, for the
CretanS were all liars. Crete is Canada
now, an island in the Mediterranean, in
habited by Mohammedans chiefly, and
now than they were in st. Paul's day,
for they are not only liars, but thieves
England used to have laws to punish
common scolds, common drunkards and
common vagabonds, but none to punish
common liars, for they are generally
harmless. Every community has one
or two and they keep us amused at their
Munchasen exploits in hunting and
fishing and their narrow escapes. Then
there are some uncommon liars-ljars
of the first magnitude as Shakespeare
calls them, such as Baron Munchausen,
Joe Mulhattan and some Chicago edi-
tors and preachers. Some of these get
into the pulpit and make up pathetic
stories and thrilling incidents to empha-
size their sermons and create sensa-