The Prescott daily news., 1909-05-22
HONESTY THE BEST POLICY

A young St. Louis man who one day, not ,ong ago, had as bright a future before him as anyrSon of our great city could crave, is soon to be brought back home to face the serious charge of forgery Through the medium of the news columns every St. Louisan has been made more or less acquaint- ed with the facts in this especial case. Sidelights have been thrown on the canvas of inspection by events that followed his sudden departure from our midst.
 It would seem that if the young man is guilty, it is the old, old story. He was tempted; he fell, Ever since Adam fell, his descend ing sons have been equally sus- ceptib.e to sin, The sins of some have been great; the crimes of yesterday are as much the crimes of today and tOmOrrowl
 The man to whom attention is now attracted was a handsome and favorite young man about town. His friends and acQuaint- anceS were many and legion. All the blessings of a good home were his and a thousand angels guarded the baby feet that trod the house of happiness
 Temptation, dreaded specter of all the bliss that this world ho .ds out to us-W weddings in the hands of a powerful monster = came his way, knocked at his door and gained entrance, whether readily or not,
 The day of retribution came on ly too soon It was case of stand and fight out a lost cause or attempt to escape.
 c He chose the path that many before him have been wont to choose-flight. His course was like all the others trayersed by men in his position, a lane that had no ending save in the mighty arms of the law. But there was no other road open for him. He must take the one remaining chance and try to bury himself in the oblivion provided by sur roundings and peoples that were new and strange, where at every turn some landmark seemed ver- fly to point him out as fugitive rom justice and one who was be ing sought by the police of the world.
 On train or steamer as you will there was no downing the thoughts that led him to believe he must ultimately be caught and ,ed to the bar or justice though that might have been stifled as hest his conscience would per- nit
 The crowds of new friends knew not that the name he had taken was not his owm they cared not especially as long as the iE-got- ten goods of this world lasted
 But now all k different.
 The sun that smiles as he re- turns is not the same; the birds that lodge on the ship mast and flutter away as the steamer starts on its long trip to America may be the same feathered in- nocents that greeted the ship on its arrival on the foreign shore, Their Warbing as he set foot or that land thinking himself, it might be free from the grip ol the law, for a while at least, was just the same as it was. sbut it sounded not so to him. The very fow.S of the air now seemed tC mock and jeer at him, telling him that he was about to be called upon to pay the penalty Of the fall he had thought was to be hidden in an unknown land.
 The lesson that is taught has often been learned by others before it became necessary to teach it to this young man,
 It was once put in the terse expression Honesty is the best policy"
 As time has rolled up it's scroll year after year, men have come and gone who have attempted to discredit the preachment of that proverb. They have failed and they will continue to fail as long as the sun sets beyond the pat of the horizon that we are wont to call west. and as long as the everlasting hills remain as the perpetual monument to the hand iwork of the Creator who guides the welfare of. mortal men u
 The temptation has been faupht