A REAL MAN

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 14

A REAL MAN

Some people go through life withont a slip, they are happy. Some people fall, and then lie in the mud for ever; they are cowards. Some people fall, and rise, and join the forward march again; they are brave., A man who has redeemed himself like this has just returned to the place from which he ran away some time ago. He was once the treasurer of a Yorkshire Outing Fund. Working men used to contribute to the fund, and at the end of the year they all went to see a cup final. But one year, when the treasurer had money troubles, he yielded to temptation and embezzled the money. He disappeared with it, and no one ever expected to see him Jagain. . - But remorse followed as soon as the deed was done. He knew he could never bo happy until he had atoned for the wrong done to those who had trusted him. He went to Canada and found work in a gold mine. Because he was a miner by trade his experience led to rapid promotion. Soon he was earning a good salary in a place where no one knew of his past and everyone thought well of his future. Then he made a great atonement. He felt that it would not be enough to send.the ninety pounds he had embezzled. He bravely determined to take it back himself and accept whatever punishment the law meted out to him. So he came back to his old home. This man who had left England like a hunted rat came back to it li.ke a man. After he had givpn back the money he had to appear in the dock and plead guilty to having embezzled it. He faced this shame like a man who was ashamed of it, although it might have meant imprisonment. The Magistrates, happily, only bouqd him over, under the First Offenders Act, and told him to go back to his work in Canada. Now he can look the world in the face again, "for he owes net any man." ■.