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Show STORY OF A PLATTER. Having boen found guilty upon six indictments which charged cruel trent- mcnt of his own children, T. Wistar Brown, a wealthy residont of Cochcan City, N. J., solf-rightcously declared: "For the past fivo years I have lived solely to promote tho moral, menial and physical welfare of my children." And this, in spite of tho fact, as shown by the testimony, that, he had vepoatedly beaten his six children, compelled them to bathe in the occ?au as late in tho year as November 12th, and that he had practiced various other cruelties upon failure of iho little ones to commit com-mit to memory certain long passages from the Bible. The hypocrisy of this man is almost equal to that nraciicod hero in Utah by men who claim "to be the personal representatives of the Father of All, aud who pretend to minister unto their cnimrcn tucir lonowcrs; niter mc manner of tho meek and lowly Savior of Mankind. These men unctuously credit lo themselves all manner of rightcousnoss and pharisaically bemoan the wickedness of the rest of mankind, while they at the samo time perpetrate the most glaring cruelties upon their followers because of their own disregard disre-gard of the law and the order of their church. The situation was well elucidated - a short time ago whon a lady of investigative investi-gative mind called upon Joseph I Smith for the purpose of learning from him his altitude among mankind. It will be remembered that this man has announced that he possesses more of the spiiit of the Lord than does any other man on the face of the earth, and his presentations to the lad' rc-feired rc-feired to were along that boastful line. Ho described his own virtues by declaring declar-ing that he abstained from the uso of tobacco and spirituous liquors, and even from the popular beverages of lea and coffee. He chestily finished by asking the good lady if she did not think that kind of a life was infinitely better, cleaner and purer than were tho lives led by many of his critics. Having read the prophet's testimony at Washington, the lady was .constrained to reply, "'Well, it might bo like tho case of the platler which was clean only on one side." Doubtless she had in mind the words uttered by St. Luke: Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of i he cup and the platter; but your Inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Showing themselves before the world in their holy stunts, in which the parade pa-rade themselves before tho world in continuous vaudeville performance as abstainers from lea and coffee, the hicrarchs at the same time havo confessed con-fessed that thoir manner of lifo in other respects is in opposition to' law and to the revelation of their own church, bringing upon the- heads of their unoffending followers tho antagonism antag-onism of mankind. This opposition is aimed at the leaders, who nrc tho real offonders against law and decency, de-cency, but the hicrarchs insist upon interposing the innocent followers between be-tween themselves and tho consequences of their own unlawful acts. Tho attitude of these ecclesiasts is about equal to tho burglar excusing his crime on tho ground that he is polite enough to shut the door behind him when ho leaves with his swag. It seems to be the particular thought of the fanatic that so long as he is only sufiieiently hory in some trivial thing he may lead the most, unreason able sort of an existence in some larger respects. The man Brown may have been conscientious enough in his declaration decla-ration that he was endeavoring to pro-moto pro-moto tho welfare of his children, while at the samo time ho was injuring thoir bodies and perhnps dwarfing their mental nnd moral stature. |
