Too often leads to more;
’Tis hard at first, but tempts the feet
As through an open door.
Just as the broadest river runs
From small and distant springs,
The greatest crimes that men have done
Have grown from little things.”
DISHONESTY AND ITS RESULT.
At a general election in England, a candidate personally unknown to the voters of a certain borough was asked by party leaders to do his best for election. He belonged to a good family and was a lawyer of promise in London. His path to success was open, as the borough belonged to his party. When he mounted the platform to address the electors, his eyes fell upon a board opposite, on which was scrawled with charcoal: “Forty Pounds!” He suddenly became pale and confused, stumbled through a short speech, and then hurriedly left the stand.
A few days later he rose to speak in another town, and again the mysterious words written on the wall confronted him. Again he left the platform, and that night retired from the contest for the seat in Parliament. Not long after he disappeared from public life, and retired to an English colony where he hid himself on a ranch. It was found that the words referred to a theft committed in his youth, which he supposed had been forgotten, but which had clung to him all these years. Lapse of time had not concealed it, and when on the verge of victory, defeat through someone’s reminder and a gnawing conscience pushed him from the race.