The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-02

supper out of the little cash still In my
possession. which left me so nearly broke
without counting the gold coin. OF course
that l shortened my vacation one day and
started for indianapolis the next morning.
with railroad ticket and barely enough
money-stiIl leaving the gold piece out OF
the reckonIng-to reach home In safety.
Now, that's my confession. / feel like a
criminal / know well enough that / could
have made more of an effort to find the
woman who lost the money. She may be a
person OF great wealth. or she may be a
stenographer on her annual vacation. All
sorts and conditions of people go to that
seaside resort. If / felt sure that, like
Robin Hood. am merely robbing the rich,
i don't know that I would feel so remorse-
full over the matter. But I'm thief any
way you look at the thing. l had intended
paying for this round Of highballs out of
that gold piece, but'-and here the con-
science-stricken young man picked up the
coin from the table and replaced it in his
p0cket-"Pve changed my mind again."
After digging into various pockets of his
coat and trousers. he managed to scrape
enough small silver together to settle the
bill.
Now the question that remains to be an
swered Ii this" he said, as he lighted a
cigar and leaned back in his chair if will
ing to let somebody else do the talking; lis
IL rot natural for a human being to be dis
honest? Don't you believe that, if nature
had her own way, free from the influence
brought TO bear by civilization and its ac-
companying schooling we would all be hard
cned crim;nals?"
You think, then, that IL we were to be
guided by nature In all things we would
have bad counselor" said another MEM
Der Of the party. young man connected
with enc of~the biggest banking houses in
indianapolis. "Wcll, you're wrong there.
The fact OF the matter is that nature pro-
yidcs little scale in the brain of every nor
NAL human being. On end OF this tee
ter-totter is a weight marked 'self-interest,
and on the other end is a weight marked
other peoples rights If you keep the
scales balanced you'll get along all right in
this world without resorting to dishonesty.
But it's fact" he continued, that the
average man or woman who chances to find
small amount of money will not make any
determined effort to return IL to the person
who lost it, The old boyhood watch words,
Finders are keepers, seems to hold good the
world over. With large sums it's different,
for II seems more like out-and-out stealing
II you find large sum and hold on to it.
Its the men whose daily work brings
them constantly in contact with great sums
of money who suffer the greatest tempta-
tons, and I venture to say that there isn't
man who handles thousands of dollars
each day that has not, at some time other
experienced a struggle in getting those little
scales in his brain balanced as they should
be. i own that I've had my moments of
weakness, but. thank God, know now
that I'll never weaken again. There is a
young man in Western bank who was a
college chum of mine in an Indiana univer-
sity, and he once confided to me that he had
gone through the torments of hell during a
terrible period of twenty-four hours, which
seemed more to him like twenty-four years,
he said. He was very ambndous, and in a
moment OF Encouragement over his small
income he happened to find out that he could
easily steal a package from the bank con-
tanning an even 100000. The package was
In his keeping for shipment the next day.
and he knew that he could take the money,
disguise himself and get away from the
city before the robbery could be discovered.
SELF-INTEREsT WEIGHT
We'll, he went under. He allowed the
'self-interest' weight to become the whole
thing on those little mental scales of his,
and other peoples rights took shoot
skyward. He placed the package in his
suit case secured the necessary disguise
and left town. But when he got into his
sleeping car he found that, for the life
of him. he couldn't even close his eyes.
He told me that IL he thought, he was to
suffer in the next world what he suffered
during that night journey he would rather
not die at all, but would prefer to go on
living on this earth forever. He got off
the train the next morning at o'clock
and took the next fast express back home,
arriving at the bank shortly after the OPEN
ing hour. He went to the presidents pri-
vate room and made a clean breast of
everything. managing to speak dispassion-
ately until he had got the whole miserable
story out, when he broke down and cried
like a child And what do you think the
president did? Why. he merely smiled,
and told the poor fellow that all men had
their moments of weakness, and that he
could go back to his desk and take up his
work where he had left off. You'll not do
ii again. said the president for you know
now what 1t means to steal And I'm sure
tuhb no tciuptdtiou COulu DC great enough
to lead that good fellow away again. For
he Is a good fellow-one OF the best that
ever lived
The man who had started the conversa-
ton was looking hard at the liquid re-
freshment in front of him as he stirred
the cracked ice with a little silver spoon
by George he said. I'm going to
write to every hotel proprietor at that sea-
side resort tO-morrow IL it's the last act
OF my Ilfe II that gold piece doesn't get
back to its rightful owner-well, at least,
it'n be through no fault of mine"
NAMED THE PARTY.