Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1905-04-01

friends note a man may be teaching
his friend to be careess-aye, sinfully
careless-with money. DR.. Bowers
once wrote: Temptation resembles the
rocks which rest their jagged sides
above the waves when 1t Is low water.
No vessel dare come near them. But
after awhile the tide comes sweeping
into the bay and buries the rocks under
a food Of water 50 that the largest
ships may ride in safety above their
teeth of death, together with the light
est skiff." That is a beautiful orator
ical figure. But the incoming tide will
soon be the outgoing tide. Then woe
betide the boat that fingers there over
the Jagged rocks Of DEATH Yet the
temporary financial help we give our
brothers by Endorsement or unjust
credit may be the means Of carrying
them into a position where they shall
soon meet temporal as well as spiritual
shipwreck.
Why temporal and spiritual wreck?
you ask. In the first place, start with
the premise that many people are
tempted just as much as they can
bear. Place upon them one extra
temptation, and you may lead them to
become dishonest men and women.
For instance, the other day | was
reading about one Of the great pre-
ventlves Of crime which are decreas-
ing the proportion Of the number Of our
criminals This preventive is the reg
istering machine which Is now plac-
ed at almost every cashiers desk and
in every street car. No sooner Is the
five cent piece collected than the con-
ductor has to ring up the fare. No
sooner is the spool of cotton or the
pound of sugar or coffee bought than
the register records the sale. At the
end Of the day the clerks or conductors
must have their registers tally with
the amount of money on hand. Temp
tation is now being placed at a mini
mum. Lessen the temptation to crime,
and you lessen the number Of future
criminals.
This premise granted, do you not see
how you increase the temptations OF
your friends If you place money In
their hands for which they are unable
to give security? You practically say
to that young man: Here, my friend,
is my capital. You are worth nothing.
You take this money, and I will trust
you" What thought, then, is apt to
come to that young man? He says to
himself: "If | risk that money may
be able to double it, If | lose it, why
then | might as we'll be financially lost
for a sheep as for kid. l am worth
nothing now. l shall be no worse OF
even If fail" And what is the re-
suit? We see thousands Of men going
into wildcat speculations with other
peoples funds. We see thousands up
on thousands Of dollars lost because
men are risklng money which is not
their own. My friend, as an indorser
you have no right to lead your brother
into temptation. If brother has no
money and no security do not teach
him how to be crimlnally reckless with
capital not his own.
The Greatest Danger.
The indorser's trap may not only en-
danger the indorser, but also the in-
dorsers loved ones and the indorsee
as we'll Ralph Erskine once said,
"There is no devil so bad as no devil"
That means, interpreted in plain Eng
lish, There is no temptation so dan
gerous as where one does not expect
to find a temptation" But l do not
see how Ralph Erskine's words can
be applied to my text, for | see dan
gers everywhere lowering about the
indorsers trap. l find them here for
the man who sets the trap. l find them
for the person whose fingers hold the
pen which is caught in the trap. l
find them for all the dear ones on both
sides of the indorser and the indorsee.
Every argument that can be urged
against the cause of willfully running
|
sin of indscriminate Endorsement.
But a man to become Il security for
q friend or an acquaintance does not
necessarily have to sign a note for
money. He can give to an acquaint-
ance a letter Of recommendation. That
letter may be Of more value than
money. When Ulysses S. Grant form
ed his famous Wall street partnership
with Ferdinand Ward he did not put
into that firm much money. Though he
had been lieutenant general and twice
president of the United States, he never
had much money. He lived and died
q poor man. But he had more than
money. He gave Ferdinand Ward a
financial standing in the business COM
munity and the confidence of the pub
lie. The multitude Of admirers Of the
hero Of Appomattox poured their
wealth into his office. IS a result
Ward was able to cheat the trustful
public out of its hundreds of thou
sands. For the crime Of that misap-
propriation Ward was sent to prison.
What Ulysses S. Grant did for Ferdi-
nand Ward some Of us on a small scale
have been doing for our friends and
acquaintances. If man is out OF a
position and wants help we say "Sil-
yer and gold have none, but such as
have give unto thee" This, however
is not the gift of grace, but Of false
letter of recommendation. We fire.
quently give such letters Of recon-
mendation when we know that the
men to whom we give them are in
competent or at least unknown to us
and the result is that there are thou
sands of frauds being perpetrated al
over the country not because bad mel
are instigating them-there are baC
men eyerywhere-but because gooc
men have allowed their names to bt
linked to those frauds carelessly. Ant
there are thousands Of good men out o.
the positions In life which they are
qualified to fill merely because medic