The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-05
It is aCfvie Righteousnessn And While all CInsses May Violate The Law it Looks as Though
 Only One Glass of yio-
 lators is putaishe.d
BY !. CULPEPPER.

It Is recorded of distinguished gentleman that once. in his haste, no doubt. when. he was "out of sorts. remarked that 'ali men are liars"
 This was rather sweeping N- de- claration and perhaps was tntended to apply to his contemporaries @ <.
 Lying is notean original human pro- duct. It Is only an evolution. M
 Lawlessness or Q disregard of law came ahead of lying.
 Perhaps 1t was St Paul who gave 1t as his opinion that the love of money is the root of all evil"
 Perhaps that was true of his time and generation z but. maybe. he had not given the subject of "all evil" the research to which 1t is entitled.
 Now adays, some good men charge alcohol with primal virtue of mischief Maybe. like David, they are nasty in conclusions.
 My notion is that while a malicious outsider prompted the first disregard of law, those who followed his sug- gestions were the very first people of the land-the 'uppertens" of their time; the 'virtuous and intelligent --so to speak.
 We ought not to forget this-that lawlessness. sometimes. has it's strong hold way above the law and mean:
 We should recollect, that when 1t comes to law-breaking. the high ups have the advantage over the Flow downs"
 As far as reported. the first trans- gressor was almost faultless. and stood high in morals. His book learn ing was nothing to speak about. but he had a mighty vocabulary and named the beasts and birds and fishes as fast as his stenographer could put them down.
 If he ever went to Sunday School or church his biagrapher neglected to mention it. but for all that. like 8 later gentleman. named Grimes. ne was a nice old gentleman"
 However grievous was his transgres- sion and however disastrous the re- suits, if David had thought about it, he would have excepted Adam from his sweeping declaration.
 After investigation. it is due the old man to say that lying was not one of his virtues. When charged with his fault Adam owned up like an honest man.
 Some people charge him with lack of gallantry, but, when you think about 1t. truth Is greater than gallan- try.
 Even "gallantry" Is an evolution. We have found that so far as Adam was concerned. David should have made him an honorable exception"
 Then again, we must conclude that of all evil, money was not the root
 Since Adam is supposed to have lived in the pre- alcoholic age 1t Is likely that he was not moved to evil by in- toXicants
 These three conclusions negative David. St. Paul and many good men of the present day.
 The spirit of lawlessness that de- veloped amongst the very first and very best people of the world Is chargeable with a great deal of wrong.
 Mark you. Adam was a good man (it he was lover persuaded by his wife, there are lots like him even to this day) but he was more than that he was a truthful man ana honest-ne was ready to "acknowledge the corn when he was caught Tn hault'
 Well, David was too.
 can.t say what either one of 'en would have done If he hadn't beer
 I'm afraid nothing would have beer saId about If. and perhaps l had bet ter not he so fast about according such A strict honesty to Adam
 What I'm after is to dinerentiatt goodness and honesty
 It Is, no doubt. true that one ma, be A very good man and yet not bC
 That is. goodness will walt for yot to And ont the faults of the possessol while honesty will make clean breast of 1t before detection.
 This kind of honesty once had sucf | a fall into dinnocu 7us desuetude" IT the town where Diogenes lived that II annoyed him no little. and ne LOOK torch at nnid-dav and looked for the man who was burdened with 1t. The man had gone out of town,