The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-03-05
The Upright Clerk.

Fifty years ago there was hourishing
tore in Groton, Massachusetts, kept by
James Brszer. Mr.. Blazer did large
business with all the country round, for
his stock was composed of almost every
thing one could want, cotton and wooden
goods, hardware, wooden ware, threads,
silks, crockery, kegs Of tobacco, and
great quantities of rum and brandy; Civ
ing plenty of employment to five clerks
In Mr.. Brazer's store, in those days
there was a custom, which is generally
done away with now, the custom of
drinking at IL o'clock. Every forenoon
drink was mixed up. made Of rum, raj
sins, sugar and nutmeg, with biscuit, and
handed round to the master, clerks, and
their customers; all partook of it, and
relished it, and dare say smacked their
lips and wanted more. At last one of his
clerks refused his glass. "He had made a
resolution not to take any for week." he
said. It looked very odd. His COM
panions wanted to know why. "The
habit is growing on me-" answered Amos,
or that was his name, land I am afraid
Of it; that's ALL" The other clerks.
called him foolish, and a coward. They
thought that was no good reason at ali,
for everybody drank. They laughed at
him, but they did Tot laugh it out of him.
He made his first resolution for week,
then for month, then for a year. and
fin ally for the five years of his appren
ticeship; and thus alone, and for himself
he took the ground Of total abstinence
when spirit drinking was the universal
fashion; and curing the whole time he
never drank spoonful, though he mixed
gallons and gallons for his master. Amos
made the same resolution in regard to
tobacco; he never smoked a cirgar, or
chewed but one quid, and that was before
he was fifteen. A great many years
afterwards. he wrote to young student
at college:
In the first place, take this for your
motto, at the beginning of your journey,
that the difference of going just right and
little wrong will be the dihelen ce of
finding yourself in good quarters, or in a
miserable bog or SLOUGH at the end of it.
OF the whole number educated in the
Groton stores, for years before and after
myself, no one else, to my knowledge es-
capped the bog or SLOUGH; and my escape
traced to the single fact of my having put
restraint upon my appetite. After leav-
ing school and going into store, not a
month passed before I WAS impressed
with the opinion that restraint upon ap-
petite WAS necessary to prevent the slav.
cry saw destroying numbers about me
Many and many Of the farmers, mechan.
les, and apprentices OF that day have
filed drunkards' graves, and left destl-
tute friends"
Let every clerk and apprentice who
reads This, (and I hope there will be ma
ny) stop and note this point-the differ
ence Of gong just right and little wrong
in your setting out in life, is the diferenc,
between integrity and dishonesty, success.
or disappointment, happiness or ruin.
At twenty one, in 1907, Amos went t,
Boston with twenty dollars in his pocket
He soon received an offer Of clerkship il
respectable firm. Here he staid but
few months. His employers failed, AM
he hired small store on Cornhill, an
furnished it with goods upon the strengt
of the confidence with which he had in
spired the merchants who had becom
acquainted with him. Integrity, Industry
and system, were the foundations upo