Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-01-03
The Jekyll and Hyde
Phases of Human

By Rev. DR.. CHARLES H. PARKHURsT
of New York

A4ERw HE majority of current honesty is NOT QUITE hon
The majority of current purity is not quite pure. Virtue
as we see it, is an attempt to be virtuous, but that is salts
fed even if it does not succeed in being PERFECTLY
virtuous. The wicked gutter people gamble coarsely.
"Good' people gamble refnedly, and then nobody knows what gam
bling is o r. whether it is a vice II a virtue. Wicked people, very wick
ed people, practice RIGHTEOUSNESS in the "Tenderloin," while others,
men and women who wouldn't be seen in the "Tenderlon,' summon
the divorce courts and other appliances to their relief and operate
what is in Gods sight A "TENDERLOIN" OF THEIR OWN
without FORGETTING by the means the friendship and conidenceSof
churchy people in our "best society,"
When a member of my congregation was once criticised for some
act which he had committed and which was inconsistent with his pro-
fe@ed Christian character as a religious man, he explained himself by
saying that he was careful not to let his religion interfere with his
secular life. Such things as have been occurring in life insurance
would have been impossible if all the parties connected with existing
corporations had been willing to let their personal integrity introduce
itself INTO THEIR DIRECTORIAL RESPONSIBILITIES and
if they had been as unwilling to see their corporations steal as they
doubtless are to steal themselves.
A MAN MAY BE A GOOD MAN IN HIS PRIVATE CAPACITY AND
YET NOT BE GOOD ENOUGH TO PREVENT HIS BEING AN Ac-
coMPLIsHED RASCAL WHEN HE COMES TO SIT AS A DIRECTOR.
There has been made by the insurance companies a ~prodigal Use of
money, but the people that have been administering them are not
babes in finance, and appropriations have been made with a shrewd
and studied regard to RESULTS, and when $4,000 has on three
occasions been contributed to the campaign treasury of a political or
ganization the contributors did it with a view to producing results"
and the only word that in my judgment is applicable to the transac-
ton is "GRAFT"-moneyla laid down with a view to special privilege
or immunity in return-and when the agent of a campaign committee
visits corporations with a view 90 a corporate contribution, he is doing
what a police captain does when he puts his hand behind his back till
the palm has been filled with the VOLUNTARY donation bestowed
by the keeper of a low resort.
The thing that concerns lis SIS no. the abominabe knavery of which
we are being afforded the demonstration, but the more or less widely
prevailing tendency of which, certainly, insurance matters are merely
a startling symptom. Among men standing high in the social and
financial world the love of money is overcoming the RESTRAINTS
OF CONSCIENCE.
Itisa disease, as certainly so IS smallpox, and a contagious disease,
and it is unfortunate, therefore, in the interests of the general health,
that there is not some quick and ready means of transferring the M
fected to that species of pesthouse provided for such a type of conta-
gious invalidism, not so much for the sake of the infected as in the in
terests of those NOT YET ONTAMINATED. For it i not nee
essary to consider that the general conscience of the country is de-
bauched. 1t has been abundantly proved during these last few weeks
that moral Indignation has not become a lost art among us. The press
has done some fine preaching: We may not exactly know what lNDl-
VIDUAL to trust, but we know we can trust the people, at least the
American people.
MORAL INDIGNATION is NOT EASILY AROUSED AMONG US,
BUT WHEN IT is 1T Is LIKE AN AVALANCHE THAT SWEEPS
OUT OF ITS WAY EVERYTHING THAT STANDS BEFORE 1T.