| Show THE CASE Or LIONEL STAGGE Lionel Stagge was recently appointed I ap-pointed bank receiver at Portland Oregon Then as is too often the case when a man succeeds in rising above his fellows the shafts of envy were hurled It was discovered that many years ago when a poor man in a city many miles from his present home hungry and penniless he forged a check He was arrested admitted his guilt and was sentenced to a term in jail He served out his time regained his liberty and then firmly resolved that he would live down that one error from which he was the only sufferer Success rewarded his efforts He marri d the woman he loved and since the day he merged from the jail he knew no unhappy moments until he was appointed to a position that was s ught after by someone else The little woman who married him knew naught of his past life Perhaps he should have told her But she loved him and he loved her and while it takes but little courage for c man to inflict punishment upon himself brave indeed is he who has courage enough to do what the world may deem to be right when those he lovesthose Who are dearer to him than life jtself must suffer untold agoniss It was not until the little woman proud in the success of her husband had seen the man dearer to her than anyone else in all the world reach the pinnacle for which he had been striving that she knew that her idol had been an inmate of a felons celL r It must have been a bitter awakening I Asked as to what he proposed to do in the future Stagge firmly replied I do not intend to leave Portland I I will stay here if I may and continue in my endeavors to atone for my early I offense and regain my reputation Truly has it been said that these words carry a reproach to mankind But they show more clearly than anything any-thing else that Stagge criminal as he was in early life made so probably by the actions of just such people as have now ferreted out his past lifemen who I live only for themselves and are willing ito l i-to use the bodies of other peoples children child-ren as stepping stones by which to reach the summit of their ambition has far more manhood than those who I are pursuing him simply because he I has been successful because he had the temerity to rise above the common com-mon le lIt l-It is not shown that these men exposed ex-posed Stagge because they thought the good and welfare of society demanded I I J > r Mi It it is not shown that they were actuated ac-tuated by any other motive than that of envy Had Stagge been content to plod along the fact that he had once worn the stripes would never have been given to the world by his persecutors But no Stagge came against them in a race that required brains and skill he outwitted them at every point Having beaten them they determined that he should die a moral death His wife his children his feelings the years that he had spent in endeavoring to atone for an early sin must not betaken be-taken into account All must be sacrificed sacri-ficed because he had the manhood to repent and endeavor to do better There may be not very many people who will agree with us but we would rather be Lionel Stagge today than the man or men who have unlocked the past who have brought sorrow upon a happy home who have undone the work of years of repentance who have compelled a penitent and repentant repent-ant man guilty of a solitary offense to go back once more to his starting pointto live his life all over again If there is anything in the principle of retribution if the measure men mete to others shall be measured to them I again the persecutors of Lionel Stagge will have a warm time of it when eternal eter-nal justice claims its own |
