"Gold can gild a rotten stick and dirt sully an ingot."
Aids to Morality.--"Many imagine that the only ways in which public and
private morality can be improved," says the Philadelphia _Ledger_, "are
those definite and direct methods which appeal at once to the conscience
and the heart. Preaching and teaching, persuading and warning, exhorting
and encouraging, are instrumentalities worthy of all honor, and those
whose abilities qualify them for such tasks should receive every
possible stimulus to exert them in so noble a cause. But it is a great
mistake to suppose that these are the only means to promote morality.
Every truly civilizing influence is also a reforming one. By this we do
not mean that miscalled civilization which multiplies wants, and
increases luxury and develops refinement in a few, at the expense of the
many, but that advancement of mind and of knowledge, which is forever
disclosing better methods of living and diffusing them among the whole
people. Dr. Howard Crosby, president of the Society for the Prevention
of Crime, in New York, and who has had wide opportunities of observing
the condition of morality in that city, has recently declared that the
moral condition of New York has vastly improved during the past few
years, and that fifty years ago, although there was far less of the
foreign element than there is now, a low condition of morality existed
that would not be tolerated at the present time. What is true of New
York in this respect is equally true of our other cities, and if there
be any pessimist who points to the well-known corruptions and vices
which still exist as a refutation of this statement, we would remind
him that the very fact that such things are now brought to the light,
discussed, and condemned, is a proof that they are on the decline. When
a community is deeply sunk in immorality, little or no comment is made
on the fact. When we come to seek into the causes of this improvement,
we shall find that among the most prominent are the practical results of
scientific progress and the civilizing tendencies of the age. There is
no question that dirt, disease, and darkness are prevalent sources of
vice and crime, and whatever influences are brought to bear against them
will also press heavily against immorality. The increasing value set
upon health, as shown alike in sanitary laws and regulations and in the
greater willingness manifested by the community to understand and adopt
hygienic modes of life, is beyond dispute. The improvements in house
building and drainage; the introduction of water, pure and plentiful;
the freer admission of fresh air; the better systems of ventilation; the
brilliant lighting up of our city streets--all contribute to the
prevention of crime and to the spread of a higher type of morality,
while increasing the health, peace, and comfort of the community. And
when to all these we add the better and wider education given to the
rising generation than was thought possible fifty years ago, we shall
find abundant reason for the moral advancement which has been made.
There are some persons who feel quite powerless to help on the cause of
reform, or to improve the moral character of a single individual,
because they have no gift for influencing men by direct appeal. They
have, perhaps, tried and failed, and so, although they would like to do
some good in the world, they are hopeless of any success. Let such take
courage as they remember how many indirect, yet most effectual, methods
there are of accomplishing this end. Let them look over the multitudes
of civilizing agencies that are silently working in the interests of
morality, and attach themselves to such as most heartily engage their
interest. Every intelligent individual must be in sympathy with some of
them; and it is just there that his services are needed and will be most
valuable. Nor let him make the mistake of supposing that he is thus
working upon a lower or inferior plane. It is in works of benevolence
and reform, just as in all other kinds of work--that which a man can do
best is the very best thing for him to do. So, if one man is interested
in sanitary schemes and another in evening schools; if one is anxious
for free libraries and another for free parks; if one can help to secure
good roads and clean streets and another can aid in protecting children
or dumb animals from ill-treatment, let each be assured that in such
exertions he is doing his share in promoting morality and in elevating
character as surely and as effectually as those whose peculiar province
it is to teach or to preach, to admonish or to advise."
If the butcher's trade begets in him, the butcher, a disposition to use
the knife more indiscriminately, and causes him to look upon the taking
of life indifferently and unconcernedly, so that in a majority of the
States he is disqualified from sitting upon a murderer's jury, there
then must be something not only in the associations we keep but in the
business we follow.
The average lawyer tries by every known means to clear his client. In
50% of the cases handled by 50% of the attorneys their clients are
guilty and they know it. They do not break the law of their State or
country simply because the laws in the main are made to screen the
evil-doers and not the honest citizen. But how they can do this and
affiliate with any one of the 1,100 different faiths, or attend their
church organizations or services sincerely, is more than we can surmise.
In contrast, however, we must mention an isolated case that has reached
us well authenticated. A very prominent and able lawyer of New York
City, who had the reputation of never losing a case, was accosted by a
well-known offender of the law on trial for felony before the court of
Oyer and Terminer. The attorney invited the would-be client into his
private office and had him state his case. He finished, and the lawyer
remarked, "You are guilty." "Well, I know that," replied the culprit,
"that is why I want your services--you never lose a case." "Sir," said
the lawyer, "you have come to the wrong office. I have never failed in
any case before the courts; I account for it from the fact that I have
never espoused a cause where I knew the client was guilty. Knowing I was
right, I have thrown my whole soul into it, and won."
Gossip.--There is a vast deal of unhappiness in this world caused by
gossip. Dr. J. G. Holland presents helpful ideas in the following:--
"What is the cure for gossip?--Simply culture. There is a great deal of
gossip that has no malignity in it. Good-natured people talk about their
neighbors because they have nothing else to talk about. As we write,
there comes to us the picture of a family of young ladies. We have seen
them at home, we have met them in galleries of art, we have caught
glimpses of them going from a book store or library with a fresh volume
in their hands. When we meet them they are full of what they have seen
and read. They are brimming with questions. One topic of conversation is
dropped only to give place to another in which they are interested. We
have left them after a delightful hour, stimulated and refreshed, and
during the whole hour not a neighbor's garment was soiled by so much as
a touch. They had something to talk about. They knew something, and
wanted to know more. They could listen as well as they could talk. To
speak freely of a neighbor's doings and belongings would have seemed an
impertinence to them, and, of course, an impropriety. They had no
temptation to gossip, because the doings of their neighbors formed a
subject very much less interesting than those which grew out of their
knowledge and their culture.
"And this tells the whole story. The confirmed gossip is always either
malicious or ignorant. The one variety needs a change of heart and the
other a change of pasture. Gossip is always a personal confession either
of malice or imbecility, and the young should not only shun it, but, by
most thorough culture, relieve themselves from all temptation to indulge
in it. It is a low, frivolous, and, too often, a dirty business. There
are neighborhoods in which it rages like a pest. Churches are split in
pieces by it. Neighbors are made enemies by it for life. In many
persons it degenerates into a chronic disease, which is practically
incurable. Let the young cure it while they may."
Married Life.--As the family is the center about which all life
revolves, it is absolutely essential to have happy relations there.
Husbands too often neglect their wives and homes. "Women are lonely,"
says Mrs. Annie Jenness. "They miss their husbands. What amount of
companionship exists between the American woman and the man? He starts
for his office as soon as his breakfast is hurriedly swallowed. He does
not come home at the lunch hour. He is barely in season for a late
dinner. Very possibly he belongs to a club and has an engagement as soon
as dinner is done.
"If not that, his head is in bank or counting-house, and he studies the
stock quotations in the night's paper, and counts, as against a possible
rise of wheat, the day's gossip, with which his wife is overflowing,
very small potatoes. They have callers, or they go to opera or theater.
It may easily happen that they do not spend ten minutes in conversation
with each other during the day. American men are always in a hurry. They
seem to live for the sole purpose of catching trains. They have no time
to amuse or be amused.
"The conditions of modern life separate them from women. The lives of
men grow more and more simple--business comprehends the whole. The lives
of women grow more and more complex--everything which is not business is
given over to them. A man past the romantic epoch, who honestly enjoys
talking with women, is not an average mortal. The every-day sort of man
takes pains to be detained somewhere until all the guests have departed
from his wife's 5 o'clock tea. The couple live in different worlds. The
world is now discussing why marriage is a failure, if it is? Then
consider this collection of reasons:--
"When either of the parties marry for money.
"When the lord of creation pays more for cigars than his better half
does for hosiery, boots, and bonnets.
"When one of the parties engages in a business that is not approved by
the other.
"When both parties persist in arguing over a subject upon which they
never have and never can think alike.
"When neither husband nor wife takes a vacation.
"When the vacations are taken by one side of the house only.
"When a man attempts to tell his wife what style of bonnet she must
wear.
"When a man's Christmas presents to his wife consist of boot-jacks,
shirts, and gloves for himself.
"When the watchword is, 'Each for himself.'
"When dinner is not ready at dinner-time.
"When 'he' snores his loudest while 'she' kindles the fire.
"When 'father' takes half of the pie and leaves the other half for the
one that made it and her eight children.
"When the children are given the neck and back of the chicken.
"When children are obliged to clamor for their rights.
"When the money that should go for a book goes for what only one side of
the house knows anything about.
"When there is too much latch-key.
"When politeness, fine manners, and kindly attentions are reserved for
company or visits abroad."