The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1908-02-07
THE MORAL OF IT.

THE MORAL OF IT.
| Whatever differences of opinion
there may be as regards the justice
of his acquittal there is general feel
ing of relief that there are to be no
further details of the Thaw affair
1t is pity that the press made so
much out Of it and it is a credit to
the newspapers of the country as a
whole, that much less space was CIV
en- to the second trial.
The story was simply reiteration
of how too much money and luxury,
given to lives having no high purposes,
leads 10 ruin and death.
Stanford X. White deserved his
fate. He was a man of great intellec-
tual capacity, devoid of any character,
who lived dual life. He was a moral
leper and his baseness was all the
more culpable because of his percep-
ton and knowledge of right and wrong
| Harry Thaw Is rich mans son, a
spoiled child, who led the life of cheap
dissipation which attracts vacant
minds. The woman over whom they
quarreled was victim of environ
ment. She lacked the kind of mother
which guides and teaches the way of
life and went the primrose pathway
which leads TO sadness and despair.
She is most to be pitied. Thaw and
White were both degenerates whose
lescapades and wickedness make them
course to the world as long as they
are in it. s-.nr
Such trial only brings for the time
being before the eyes of the nation a
picture of the large number of men
and women who are going the pace
that kills. They are found especially
among that class who have money
70 burn" and allow themselves to be
allured by the base. the cheap, the
superficial and the unworthy.
Disgusting as it is, it is perhaps
not altogether Improbable to have
such careers as those of Thaw and
White made known. They are not
pleasant to contemplate but they may
be helpful
They ought to arrest the attention
Of every young man who thinks that
it is clever to be fast to the fact that
it is exceedingly cheap and foolish
and inevitably leads to defeat and
failure. 1t ought to lead every man
who is pursuing a dual life to turn
about and direct his energies and his
time in making the most of himself
and serving the general welfare.
Contemplated in any aspect, the hor-
ror and awfulness of low debased
life as shown In these Thaw trials,
should make us glad that the curtain
is at last rung down upon their nause-
Gus incidents and at the same time
reveal to us because of the striking
contrast, the beauty of noble lives,
the happiness of firesides where true
love dwells, the dignity of honest toll
and the lasting Joy and triumph which
comes through self-mastery and devo-
ton to high ideals.
People who give up their lives to
dissipation and evil influences are
moral suicides. They give up tremen.
dous and enduring possibilities for a
miserable mess of pottage.
| The young men and women of the
land-the boys and girls-should re-
alize that from the standpoint of self
interest, it does not pay to allow them.
selves to drift into cheap and vulgar
ways of living. The pathway is always
paved with dead mems bones and
strewn with blighted hopes and blast.
ed lives.
Happiness and success are to be
found in being true. In daily kindness,
honest labor, manly thought and manly
action is found honor and respect
from ones neighbors and the great
world about us-and more than this
it is the pathway to the stars.