The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-04-21


The first passage introduces to you Lydia, a
christian merehantess. Her business is 10 deal
IN purple cloths or silks. She is not a ~giggline
nonentity, but practical woman not ashamed to
work for her living. Indeed, a woman is never
more honorably occupied than when she is selling
goods across a counter. All the other women Of
Philippi and Thyatira have been forgotten; but
God has made immortal in our text, Lydia, the
Christian ealeswoman.
The other text shows you a man with head
and hand and heart and foot all busy toiIing on
mp until he gains a p%rincely success. "Seest
thou a man diligent in his business? he shall
stand before kings.' Great encouragement in
these two passages for men and women who will
be busy, bat no solace for those who are waiting
Tor good luck to show them, at the foot of the
rainbow, a casket OF buried gold. 1t is folly
for anybody in this world to wait for something
10 turn up. 1t will turn down. The law Of
Thrift is as memorable as the law Of the tides.
Fortune, the magician, may wave her wand in
that direction until castles and palaces come;
but she will, after awhile, inyert the same wand,
and all the s~plendors will vanish into thin air.
There are certain styles Of behavior which lead
TO usefulness, honor and permanent success, and
there are certain styles of behavior which lead TO
dust, dishonor and moral default. | would like
to fire the ambition of young people. L have
no sympathy with those who would prepare
young folks for life by whiting down their ex-
pectatIoBs. That man or woman will be worth
nothing to church or state who begins life cowed
down. The business of Christianity is not to
quench but TO direct human ambition. There
fore it is that l come out this morning and utter
words of encouragement to those who are occu-
pied as clerks in the stores and shops and banking
houses of the country. You say: "Why select
one class, and talk to one specially this morn
lng?" For the same reason that a surgeon does
not open the door of a hospital and throw IN a
bushcl of prescriptions, saying: "Come now,
and get YOUR medicine He first feels the
u1a ruoEoAa kho un-Eo., o-I kLa- --oao-,Hog
for that particular case. So to-day L must be
specific. The people in this audience who are
clerks are not an exceptional class. They belong
TO a great company of tens of thousands who are
In this country amid circumstances which will
either make or break them for time and for eter-
nifty. / should be very slow to acknowledge
that the clerks, male and female, of other cities,
arc any more honest or faithful than the clerks
Of our own city. Many OF these people have al
ready achieved a Christian manliness and a Christ
ian womanliness which will be their passport to
any position. [ have seen their trials. [ have
watched their perplexities. There are evils
abroad which need to be hunted down, and
their miserable carcasses dragged out into the
MONDAY light.
In the first place, l counsel clerks to remember
that for the most part their elerkship is only a
school from which theyare to be graduated. 1t
takes about eight years to get one of the learned
professions. 1t takes about eight years to get to
be a merchant. Some of you will be clerks all
your lives, but the vast majority of you are only
IN q transient position. After awhile, some De
cember day, the head men of the firm will call
YOU into the back Office and they will say to you:
a. Now you have done well by us; we are going
to do well by you. We invite you to have an
interest in our concern You will bow 20 that
edict very gracefully. Getting into a street car
to 90 home, an old comrade will meet you and
say: "What makes you look SO happy to-
night?' Oh you will say, " n~othing-noth-
But in a few days, your name will bios
som on the sign. Either in the store or bank
you are now, or in some other store or
bank, you will take a higher position than that
you now occupy. So L feel to-day that L
am standing before people who will yet have
their hand on the helm Of the worlds commerce,
you will turn it this way or that; now clerks,
but to be bankers, importers, insurance company
shippers, contractors, superintendent
of railroads-your voice mighty 9 on Change
foremost in the great financial and reli-
gious enterprises of the day. For though we
are In the professions may on the platform
plead for the pbilanthropies, after all, the mer-
chants must come forth with their millions to
sustain the movement. Be therefore patient
and diligent in this transient position. You arc
now where you can learn things you can never
learn in any other place. What you consider
POUR disadvantages are your grand opportunity.
You see an affluent father some day come down
on a prominent street with his son, who has
graduated from the University, and estab-
fishing him in business, putting $3.50, 900 of
capital in the store, Well, you are envious.
say. oh, If L only had a chance like that
young man-if [ only had a father to put $3.50,
300 in a business for me, then | would have
tome chance in the world"
Be not envious. You have advantages over
hat young man which he has not over you. As
might 1 come down to the docks when a yes
vel is about to sail for Valparaiso, and say
: Let me pilot this ship out of the Narrows."
Why / should sink crew and cargo before l got
,ut of the harbor, simply because | know moth
ng about ~pilotage. Wealthy sea captains put
heir sons before the mast for the reason that
hey know that is the only place where they can
earn to be successful sailors. 1t is only under
lrill that people get to understand pilotage and
and l want you to understand that 1t
no more skill to conduct a vessel out OF the
larbor and across the sea-, than to steer a COM
nercial establishment clear of the rocks. You
ZEE everyday the folly of people going into a
business they know nothing about. A man
makes a fortune IN one business thinks there is
mother occupation more comfortable goes into
{ and sinks all. Many of the commercial es-
Adjustments of our cities are giving to their
Jerks a mercantile education as thorough as
iale or Harvard or Princeton are giving scien-
ifc attainment to the students matriculated.
he reason there are so many men laundering in
BUSINESS from year to year, Is because their
arly mercantile education was neglected. Ask
hese men in high commercial circles, and they
riI tell you they thank God for this severe dis
ipline of tkeir early clerkship. You can afford
o endure the wilderness march, If it is going to
nd in the vineyards and orchards of the pro-
lised land. But you say VIII the woman
Jerks In our stores have promotion" Yes.
lime is coming when women will be as we'll paid
Dr. their toll in mercantile circles as men are
ow paid for their toll. Time is coming when a
roman will be allowed to do anything she can
o well. 1t is only a little while ago when
roman knew nothing of telegraphy, and they
kept out of a great many commercial circles
here they are now welcome and the time will
o on until the woman who at one counter in a
sells $40, 600 worth of goods q year, will
ct as high a salary as the man who at the other
,unter of the same store sells 500 0 worth of
pods. All honor to Lydia, the Christian sales