Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1883 — Fear Held Him. [ARTICLE]

Fear Held Him.

Novel-writers have tried, with more or less success, to depict life in Washington ; but if the real inside history of men and parties there could be given, it would surpass any picture in wild improbability. Take, for example,'the following bit of actual history. During the last generation, one of the most familiar faces on Pennsylvania avenue was that of a well-known party leader, who was popularly supposed to be an aspirant for the highest political honors. He was. known as a man of great intellectual power and unstained probity. He had the control of vast national interests. His personal popularity was very great throughout the country, and his ambition was known to be insatiable. Yet when, time after time, high political offices were offered him, he refused to allow his name to be presented as a candidate. The reason for this was known only after his death, and then to but few persons. In his early youth, under strong temptation, he had committed a crime which, if disclosed in after life, would have brought irreparable shame and disgrace upon his children. The facts were known but to two or three persons in an obscure country village, where he had once lived. These persons were not unfriendly to him, but they belonged to the opposite political party. When, therefore, his name was suggested as a candidate for a high national office, he received a quiet intimation from the inland village that if he came before the people the story would be made public. We know nbmore dramatic figure in fiction than that of this strong, ambitious*leader, with noble aims and trae purposes in later life, perpetually held in check by an occasional crack of the whip from an unseen hand in a distant hamlet. That single crime in his youth had put a yoke upon him, made him a slave, and balked every hope of his whole life. Yet hard and pitiable as this man’s fate seems to us, is it not measurably that of every man who gives way to vice or folly in his youth ? No matter how sincere his repentance, or how pure and helpful his after life, the ineffaceable marks of that early lapse into crime remain on soul and body. The man who frequents vulgar and vicious society, or is a drunkard, gambler, or libertine at 20, will carry the taint with him into old age and the grave.— Youth’s Companion.