New Britain herald., 1916-02-16
THE WAGES OF SIN.
Contemplation on Franklin Burton's First Sunday ill Jail and the Les
 son it Draws.

how I came to commit the acts which have brought me to this cell.'' We did not hear those words yes terday from the lips of one whose sin has been confessed in open court and who last Friday was sentenced to spend a term of years in the peni- tentfary of the state.
 No, we did not hear the man who has held the highest office in the gift of the people of his city-say a
 word during that first Sunday of sui
 fering away from his family, in the solitude of his cell, but does any body doubt what he said over. and over again as he sat all day alone
 and realized even more dreadfully
 than he had anticipated the suffering g
 of separation from his wife whose
 heart is breaking at home, from the
 daughter whose life is darkened by
 the shastly shadow of her fathers sin, from the son whose love. loyalty and companionship have been more
 helpful than any words can tell
 Franklin Burton, for years one of the most trusted citizens of Ansonla, mayor of the city, senator from the district of which Ansonia is part, at the head of a bank, apparently Ideal in respect to moral conduct and
 devotion to religious convictions can 1t be that this man Is self-con- ressed embezz1er. forger. convict who must spend days and weeks and months and years behind prison walls, much of the time in a dismal solitary cell?
 Alas, it is true, and oh, the pity of it!
 The wages of sin.
 That's what Franklin Burton of Ansonia, was called upon to pay whom he faced learned and impartial judge in the superior court of New Haven county Friday morning.
 Judge Reed outlined the conditions and Burtons crimes very accurately when he said
 ''It is said that in your business methods with others you have exact ed the highest degree of rectitude and eXactness from them, and that in your usual dealings you have prac- ticed the same yourself. All of these things only serve to make your down. fall more shocking and more difficult of explanation.
 Your prominence in the commun- ity and the magnitude of the trust reposed in you. greatly increased the mischief of your example. You have served to impair confidence even in our sound and conservative savings banks, and to inculcate the feeling that no matter how high the char acter of a bank treasurer may stand in the community, the state and the church, he cannot be trusted with other peoples money. I am happy to say that no such thing can be said of our bank officials in general. who are faithful to the last cent with the millions entrusted to their care, but such examples as yours puts upon them a heavy burden.
 Why you should have done it I cannot conceive. You must have known that exposure must come soon CT or later. and then punishment.
 ''The risk of things happening as they have happened and as they are today would seem to be too great a price for the money taken, to say nothing of the condemnation you must have felt in the consciousness that you were doing wrong.
 You cannot plea that it was a to a sudden temptation. Your choice has been deliberately made, and whatever your reasons may have been there was no lack of time for 
 No, Burton did not yield to sud den temptation He deliberately, year in and year out. forged deceived, embedded and falsifed accounts.
 He posed as a man of upright character when in fact he was a brazen thief, deliberately deceiving those who trusted him, deliberately stealing the money that had been entrusted to his keeping by those who were rich and those who were poor.
 No man stood higher in public es- tim ation in Ansonia than Franklin Burton. Very cunning was his hy- pocricy He fooled all of the people all of the time for Is years-perhaps finally he was caught off guard, his sin found him out, the mask was torn away and behold the face of a thief. instead of that of an honest man.
 There was no excuse for this mans evil doing He deserves the punish ment that has been imposed. and if the minimum penalty had been made 10 years most people would nave felt that he deserved that sentence. and should not be allowed to sldestep a part of it. as Deacon Walker of New was allowed to do a few weeks ago.
 Walker stole more than Burton stole, and if the people of Connecti- cut had been asked whether or not he should be allowed liberty during a long period of the time which the court said he ought to stay in pri- son we doubt not the vote would have been overw helmingly against his re- lease on parole or on any other terms whatever.
 Burton will undoubtedly stay in prison to the limit of his sentence unless the Almighty takes him from earthly punishment to the judgment from which there can be no appeal.
 fatn is amt he 1arnnf that