Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-05-22

a custom IS In existence her
which, as we believe, (and we ar
not alone in the opinion) entail
considerable expense upon the prin
cipal parties concerned, aud OF
others serious injury, moral, physi
cal and Intellectual, without bene
fitting anyone. This being our view
| OF the matter, we propose to brin.
Il up for the consideration Of thOs'
who have the power to abolish i
and whose interest it would be to d.
so. The practice we allude to il
that of keeping stores open till nins
o'clock which could be closed at STA
without any sacrifice of business tC
any one of them, provided that al
engaged in the same business should
agree to it. The saving to the mer.
chant i'm gas alone would be consid-
cradle, the loss of sales, in our opin-
ion, absolutely nothing. But it is
in the interest of the clerks that we
mainly urge this change. Few PEG
pie are aware of the injurious effect
on young men of this confinement
TO close drudgery from breakfast
time to bedtime, with no interval
for air or exercise, recreation, sOcie-
ty, or mental Improvement. 1t is a
damage that effects the whole phys
zeal, mental and moral nature. OF
the physical nature we are quite
certain, for there never has been a
time that we have not been consult
ed by young men so situated for
torpid liver, loss of appetite, languid
circulation; and our prescription
has always been air and exercise,
which can't be had; so the trouble
goes on till the disorder becomes
chronic and we have a ruined con-
stitutiOn. But the intellect-must
not that suffer? Can anyone imag-
inc an occupation more dwarfing to
the intellect than the unrolling and
rolling up again of sheetings and
shirtings, the unwinding and wind
ing again of ribbons and laces, the
chaffering for a quarter of cent,
more or less, on the yard; in short,
the routine of a dry-gOOds store,
with no intermissiOn till the wearied
brain seeks its pillow? What time
is there fOr-reading we will not say
but what time even for thought ?
But the morals, you will say;
how are they to be affected? At the
risk of being laughed at, we will
say that we know of no more likely
way OF hurrying a young man into
reckless courses than that of keep
ing him closely confined all day at
an occupation which is cramping to
the body and Supplying to the in
tellect, and then turning him loose
late at night. Amusement is as
necessary to the young as food and
air, and the greater the seclusion
from it and the longer its duration,
the wilder is the appetite for it
when the time for reaction comes;
and If that time comes at an hour
when the means of healthy recrea-
ton are absent and the establish
ments for vicious indulgence in full
blast, it requires a more than human
degree of self-restraint to secure the
average youth from temptation.
We want to enlist the ladies in
this cause, for they are the patrons
of the very stores on which we have
our eyes, and if they once make it
understood that the stores which
agree to the change shall not suffer
in the way of patronage, it will be
easy to bring it about. We are not
forcing a change on unwilling men;
we have spoken with more than
one large proprietor and found
them more than willing, provided
they could be sure they would not
lose customers thereby. 1t is not
unreasonable when competition is
as active as it is here now, that
man should be unwilling to shut
out a customer so as to drive him to
a rival establishment, but this need
not be done, if it is a general
arrangement. There are two ways
in which the ladies could forward
the work very efficiently; one by
binding themselves to make no
purchases after six o'clock in the
evening; the other by assuring the
merchants with whom they are in
the habit of trading that they shall
not lose their custom by coming
into the proposed regulation. In
the movement by which early clos
ing was brought about in London a
few years ago, an immense number
of ladies bound themselves to buy
nothing at any store which did not
close at certain hour; and many
hundreds of stores Shops, as they
are there called, found it to their
advantage to have placard in their
windows inscribed 'No Sales Here
After p. NJ"
We do not advocate any compul-
sorry proceedings here, especially as
we do not deem them necessary.
A little friendly concert of action is
all that is required to bring the
thing about, and inestimable good
will be done. Ladies, let us hear
from you. You all, or nearly all,
belong to church societies. Go to
work there; this is eminently church
work, for it is aimed at the improve
ment of society in morals, intellect
and manners. 81
On next Monday the annual ex-
will commence at the