Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-03-04
&SATURDAY
@&% NIGHT
BY
1872 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The SKELETON IN THE CLOSET.

THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET.
Text, There is nothing hidden that
ehall not be revealed."-Matt. x. 26.
"1heres Il skeleton in every closet"
True. CHASTITY, grewsome, hideous, 1t
stands, staring with eyeless sockets,
rrinning with lipless jowls. You open
the door Of memory, fOrgetful for
moment, and there stands that fear
full thing, reminder Of the past. 20
God, l thought it was dead No,
only hidden. Smash 1t In one closet,
it appears in another. Never did
Doyle or Hugo write detective story
so thrilling. The Javert Of your sin
full past forever on the track OF the
Vatican Of your better self. Quick!
Shut the door on the horrid phantom!
Did any one get glimpse? BY any
subtle telepathy could another read
your thoughts? Your heart thumps
outrageously. The door is slammed
tight and the key turned. You breathe
easier You even smile to think how
foolish were your fears. And yet it's
there. This world is a mighty poor
place for hiding secrets. The sin OF
yesterday, Of last year. Of FIVE, ten,
fifty, years ago will come back. 1t
sits in the chair, Banquo-like, at your
feast. It's stamped on your inner
breast, a blazing scarlet letter. The
marks on your hand. You rub. "Out
damned spot!" But 1t won't out
Mighty fortunate you can wear
cloak or gloves! But It's there!
Hiding Our Sins.
Naturally we try to conceal the skele-
ton. We don't succeed. Proteus-Ike,
when you conceal sin In one form 1t
wriggles out in another. The diff
Guilty Is that sin Is not lifeless lump,
but a force and u cause and comes
under definite laws of conservation OF
energy and correlation of forces. Some
day comes the crash. And its the
crash We dread, for to be brutally
frank it isn't SO much the thing itself
that men fear and are ashamed OF, but
the exposure. The objectionable sin
Of social ethics today 10 in being found
out. Then, too, God forgive ~, much
depends In your sin whether you are
man or q woman, rich or poor, indu-
entail or friendless. But doesn't the
man and the sinner in silk and the
prominent culprit suffer shame and
sorrow, too, preacher? Yea, but more
often the weeping Is onion caused.
The eyes sheds tears because It smarts!
The provoking cause Is external, not
internal, objective rather than subjec-
tive. Nevertheless out 1t will come.
No ostrich with head in sand was
ever more self deceived than he who
Duries his secret in the sands of silence
and thinks 1t concealed. There's q
subtle miasmatic poisonous odor that
affects the mans own self and makes
others feel somehow there's something
wrong. The finger Of fate pointed
plainly toward the tent of Achan and
his buried booty And It's the hollish
mockery Of the devil that man may
lose the very thing that he risked his
all to get.
Ialltals Finger Prints.
We chuckle in the Darkness of our
concealment, but every laundering fln-
ger touch leaves its mark. Sin 10 its
own detective. A queer thing 10 that
your sin will find you out. Catch that?
Self exposure. In Leonardo's 1.-THE
Last Supper" every voice 10 saying
Lord, 10 it r. Every face IL in con-
sternation bat one. Judas 10 looking
with unaffected mien-how bold 10
guilt!-but his hand betrays him. He
has upset the salt! Sin once commit
ted is a wild beast released. Tomor-
row morning you may find It crouch
ing at the door. Are you ready for Ito
lancet claws and .crunching jaws7 But
the sin was secret. In the home, In the
crowd of the city, It's forgotten. No,
not Experimentation. Hide q seed
and you have a plant. '"Whatsoever q
man soweth''-yoa know the rest The
proposition that murder will out"
means simply mental and Temperament
tal lapses that leave unexpected Jaws
In the hiding Of a wrong. It's due to
some mystic thing within. Out in the
forest the deeds done. No one heard
the death groan. Dead men tell no
tales. He wipes his knife. 1ts all
over! No! BY the Eternal, its Just be-
gun! His neighbours blood cries out
the ground. He's no longer in solitude.
The whole air Is alive. Every rustling
leaf and passing wind tells the coming
footsteps Of vengeance. There's q
knocking laugh. He starts. Who
laughs? Only the call OF crow in tho
dead oak. Perhaps, a. Hugo suggests.
it, the souls laughter at itsslf.
Judgment Or Msrsy7
You cannot avoid the escapsless gase
Of the Almighty. Thou God seest
me-" God is not Knocked. Been ten
years now? The mills Of God grind
slowly. The chariot wheels drag. But
he's coming! The fin done in secret?
It shall be proclaimed upon the house.
top. nat theft committed, that won.
an wron, ed, that scandal started, that
lie told, that mothers heart broken
arc they trooplng back now. ghosts Of
past deeds. a fearful, CHASTITY throng?
Is there no mercy-nothing but the
hIaZin1 wrath ~ an offended COd3