The most popular themes of the preacher, lecturer and magazine writer to-day are Honesty, Anti-graft, Tainted Money, True Success, etc. You have heard and read them all, and have been thrilled with the stirring words "An honest man is the noblest work of God." The preacher and the people think they are sincere, and go home congratulating themselves that they are capable of entertaining such sentiment. When we observe their social lives we are led to wonder how much of that noble sentiment is only cant after all. THE WORLD'S STANDARD. The world will say that goodness is the only thing worth while, But the man who's been successful is the man who gets the smile. If the "good" man is a failure, a fellow who is down, He's a fellow "up against it," and gets nothing but a frown. The fellow who is frosted is the fellow who is down, No matter how he came there, how honest he has been, They find him just the same when being there's a sin. A man is scarce insulted if you tell him he is bad, To tell him he is tricky will never make him mad; If you say that he's a schemer the world will say he's smart, But say that he's a failure if you want to break his heart. If you want to be "respected" and "pointed to with pride," "Air" yourselves in "autos" when you go to take a ride; No matter how you get them, with the world that "cuts no ice," Your neighbors know you have them and know they're new and nice. The preacher in the pulpit will tell you, with a sigh, That rich men go with Dives when they come at last to die; And men who've been like Lazarus, failures here on earth, Will find their home in Heaven where the angels know their worth. But the preacher goes with Dives when the dinner hour comes; He prefers a groaning table to grabbing after crumbs. Yes; he'll take Dives' "tainted money" just to lighten up his load. Enough to let him travel in the little camel road. That may sound like the wail of a pessimistic knocker, but every observing man knows it's mostly truth. The successful man is the man who gets the world's smile, and he gets the smile with little regard to the methods employed to achieve his "success." This deplorable social condition is largely responsible for the multitudinous forms of graft that exist to-day. To "cut any ice" in "society" you must be somebody or keep up the appearance of being somebody. Even if the world knows you are going mainly on pretensions, it will "wink the other eye" and give you the place your pretensions claim. Most of the folk who make up "society" are slow to engage in stone slinging, for they are wise enough to consider the material of which their own domiciles are constructed.