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Show I T ' -THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH." The rule to speak naught but good of the dead must bo waived in the case of Senator John II. j Mitchell of Oregon, who died last Friday, because I his career affords a striking example of the fact I that dishonesty either in private or public life does I not pay. and 1hat. retribution will overtake sooner or later the man who deliberately chooses to tread I a crooked path. Four times the people of Oregon honored Mitchell Mitch-ell by electing him to the United States senate. 1 He had every incentive to be honest; every oppor- 1 1 unity to be a faithful servant. In the end, how- I vcr, his disgrace and exposure were so overwhelm- I ing lhat he died in abject poverty, forsaken by his friends and family and shunned by men. The man's life showed that he was devoid of I moral perception. The people of Oregon have ! known him long and well, and his repeated political .successes in face of his known record covering a period of forty -five years were distinctly discred- D itable to the people of that state. They were more; :. they served for a long time to instill in the mind of Oregon young men that to be successful they j ' must resort to trickery and knavery. I The end came when President Roosevelt, in his I , erusade against grafting and grafters, uncovered the fact that Mitchell was part and parcel of a conspiracy to steal the public domain of Oregon. Mitchell was convicted by a jury of his peers and i sentenced to jail. His case was pending on appeal when he died. ' Mitchell fled from Pennsylvania in 1SG0 with a woman who was not his wife. Under an assumed I name for Mitchell was not his real name he I went to California, where he deserted his victim. Then he went to Oregon, married another woman, and seduced her sister. His rotten private record was exposed in Oregon years ago, but an engaging j personality, the cohesive power of graft and a shocking public indifference to civic duties gave ihini repeated successes, and time and again he triumphed over men who were his superiors in everything that represents private virtue and pub- lie honor. . . 1 ? Mitchell's high position made his downfall only I J the more tragic, and, while it is to be regretted that II y any men should be guilly of the crimes which he I . committed, it clarifies the moral atmosphere when I such a man i unmasked. Truly "thc vages of.in I is death." -' :i'";:.r,v'" cCr?r' I - - . ,""." . . - . ( j |