The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1905-07-19
Corvallis Times
Official Paper of Benton County.
CORVALLIS, OR, JULY t9, 1905.
KICK HIM,-WHY?

luCSC tulCS, dAo IhS ~
these is charity. A Corvallis boy
has fallen, and with pitiless energy,
there are many who kick him.
many who kick him because he is
down. This boy, unfortunate in
business, father of seven children,
driven from pillar to post by cred
itors, in an evil hour, used money
that was not his. 1t was wrong,
it was a grievous mistake, it was
tragedy, because it was start on
the down grade. He expected to
replace it, for there are none who
believe his original act came from
other than the desperate necessities
of his financial straits and that in
all things he was naturally as hon
est as the average man.
He expected to replace that or
iginal sum that he used of city
money. But instead of time for
replacement, there quickly follow
ed the keen necessity that caused
him to borrow again. The ice was
broken, his debts were many, his
profits small, his needs greater than
his income, he could not pay back.
He was on the down grade, and
travelling swiftly, with none to help
put on the brakes, none to throw
him life line. His dilemma was
his own, his own horrible secret,
that he could not, or at least did
not entrust to a single friend.
Kick him now, why? What
about the nights, days, weeks,
months and years of torment his
conscience has given him? When
he walked the streets among his
friends, the dread knowlege of his
awful secret was in his mind. Was
not that nightmare, torture, a
hell? When in the council chamb-
er, members inquired what sewers
had been paid for and what had moi
when he sat there and answered
questions with the dreadful know
ledge in his mind that he had used
some of that sewer money, what
must have been the horror of hi:
feelings, what the torture of his
soul, what the tragedy, the awfu
relentless, hideous tragedy in hi:
heart?
How many times during those
three criminal years, did he dream
that his secret was out, and that al
the town knew of it? How many
hundred times in that period, die
re look ahead and start, shiver
Shrink at the thought of what has
just happened,-this melancholy
discovery of his story. How many
times when he walked the street
OF stood among friends, or sat his
home with his family, did he real
ize that sooner or later, the dreadful
truth would come out with all it:
hideous consequences, with all it:
condemnation, with all the kicks
that come to a man when he i:
down.
And, if all these multiplied sor.
rows were noe enough, what of the
present? This flight from the
home of his childhood, boyhood
manhood. What of the constant
harassing, merciless fear that eve1
follows fugitive, the dread tha
an officer may step from the door
way to arrest, the expectation O.
pursuit, capture and trial, the
cease1ess. restless, s1eep1ess vigi
struggling against surprise, mem
ory filled with childish forms ane
loved faces, all these are the ter.
rible penalty he suffers by reason
of the evil hour he yielded and useo
city money, perhaps to pay for the
purchase of chi1d's shoes, bread fol
home, clothing for a family.
With his cup of bitterness SO full
what good does it do to kick mar
already down? It was his chiefes
sin that he was a poor man. I
was his other grave fault that b.
failed to make his business yielt