The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1856-10-30

Tpr rperaur C1EnK-Fity years ago there was a
faurisbinr store at Groton, Massachusetts, Kept oy
lanes Brazer. Nh. Brazer did large business with
all the country round, for his stock was composed Oh
everything one could want cotton and WOODEN goods'
hardware, woodenware, silks, threads, crockery' KEGS
of tobacco, and great quantities OF rum ana ofahoy ,
giving plenty of employment to I'VE clefAs.
In Mr. Bfazer's store In those days there vas q
custom which is generally done away with nov
custom Of drinking at II O'CLOCK. 80 nra
drink was mixed up, made of rum, ralsins' su9dr'
and nntmeg. with biscuit, and handed around 70 ne
master, clerks, and their customers an PaICooH -
it. and rclished it, aed [ dare say sInacked th5I hP9
and wanted more. At last one OF his CLERKS REUSE
his class He made q resolution not to take any lof
a week. he said. IT looked very odd. lis eohPdi-
ions wanted to knog Why The haolt Is gfo@t99 On
me. answered Amos, fer that was MS name, ana am
afraid OF it that's why.
The other clerks called him foolish, and a coward
They thought that was no good reason, for everybody
drank. They laughed at him.
He made his first resolution for a week, then Tor a
wear. and fnaIly the years Of his apprenticeship anu
thus alone, and for himself, he took the ground Oh
total abstinence = hen spirit drinking was the uhlNer-
sal fashion ; and during the whole time ne never
drank a spoonful, though he mixed gallons ana gal
Ions for his master. Amos made the same resolution
in. REGARD to tobacco he never smoked u cigar, ana
chewed but one guild, and that before he was ttteen'
4 great many years afterwards he wrote to q young
student at college
- In the nfSt place. take bIAS y JOuI v a. to
beginning Of your Journey, take the differences OF
going just right and a Title wrongs, viii be the dller-
ence OF finding yourself in good quarters or IN q ms
cradle bog or slough at the end of it. OF the whole
number educated in the GrOton store for years Derore
and after myself, no one else, to my knowledge, es-
capped the bog or slough and my escape traced 10
the single fact of my having put q restraint upon my
appetite. After leaving school and going INTO a store,
not a month passed before l was impressed with the
opinion that restraint upon appetite was necessary to
prevent the slavery l saw destroy ing numbers around
ne. Many and many Of The farmers, mechanics ana
apprentices of that day have filed drunkards graves
and left destitute many families and friends
Let every clerk and apprentices who reads TINS, ana
hone there Will be many, stop and note this point
the difference of doing Just right or q t1EtIe Wfon9-
in YOUR setting out IN life, is the difference between
integrity and dishonesty, success or disappointment
happiness or ruin.
At twenty-one. in 1907, Amos went to Boston with
twenty dollars in his pocket. He soon received an
offer Of a clerkship in a respectable firm. Here ne
STAYED but n few months. His employers failed, ana
he hired q small store in Cornhill, and furnished 1t
with goods upon the strength Of the confidence with
which he had inspired merchants who had become
acquainted with him. Integrity, industry and sys-
tenn, were the foundation on which his business life
was built. He practised rigid economy, never allow
ing himself to spend a tourpence upon unnecessary
objects until he had earned 1t.
During his first seven years In the city he never let
a bin stand against him over the Sabbath. II the
purchase Of goods had been made at auction on Satur-
DAY, lie always GAdnIlESu bill 9CblAO bN NAA W NV
or by crediting it, so that in case he was not on duty
on Monday there would be no trouble for the clerks
thus keeping business before him instead Of allowing
it to drive him. At the close Of seven years he was
worth fifty thousand dollars.
On first coming to this city, he took lodging with a
widow who had just opened a boarding house. Amos
asked fer one rule to be made for the boarders in the
public sitting room, and that was that they might
keep quiet one hour after supper in order to give
those who wished it an opportunity for study OF read
ing.
The consequence was, said he in after years, that
he had the most quiet and improving set OF young
men IN town. The few who did not wish to comply
with the regulations went abroad after tea, sometimes
to the theater, sometimes to other places, but to a
man became bankrupt in after life, not only IN for
tune but in reputation while the majority of the
other clerks sustained Z, good character, and some are
now living who are ornaments to society, and I'll I'M
portant stations The influence of the small number
viii, perhaps, be felt throughout generations. 1t was
no less favorable on myself than others.
Such we're the principles on which was reared a
young man l,ho afterwards became one of the princey
merchants Of Boston, prineely in wealth, virtues, and
benevolence, Amos Lawrence, who gave in charity
more thsn sic hundred thousand dollars, and the leg
acy OF whose life is 9 part of the worlds true riches.
Such principles never fail a man. Young men, study
them - Exchange.