Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-05-10


But as the matured judgment of th
greatest dry-goods man the city c
New York has ever seen, they ar
worthy of being set down and mad
much Of His success was not a sud
den result of lucky speculation. HI
did not speculate in personal or rea
property | never heard of his over
reaching anybody, by trick, deceit o
buster He was reputed to be hard
man. Justice was with him, as i
ought to be with all men, a highe
virtue than generosity Il have hearC
that he did not give his note when ht
bought the goods of a neighbor, bu
made him wait for the pay till it suited
the convenience of the great Mr.. Stew
art, though the smaller dealer suffered
for want of it. These things may not
be true And they do not affect the
two principles he proposed to me as
the governing rules of his business.
And they are just the lessons that
young men in the world of trade should
take into their hearts as the man of
their counsel and the guide of their
lives. We do not believe the half that
is told us in the trades we make from
day to day And the worst of it is
the ways of trade are 80 well under
stood that we do not expect to be told
the whole truth when we are buying.
I am not now discussing the old vex-
ed question as to the duty of one who
is selling to inform the buyer of all the
defects of the article he offers. Let
that be for the present. But the Lord
of the conscience knows that the seller
who answers q question untruthfully,
or uses any evasion, trick, subterfuge,
or concealment, for the purpose OF de-
ceiving the buyer, is at heart rascal.
1t is not needful in order to be bad
man, to rob the till, or alter the figures
in the account books, or keep back part
of the money received when making
returns. To state the original cost to
be more than it was, to give qualities
to goods that are soon found to be ficti-
tious, to give the buyer false impress
sion in regard to the property offered
for sale, whether it be house or q
horse, book or broom, is to lie
about it. The clerk who INDUCES in
this vice, whether for his employers
benefit or his own, is sapping the basis
of all right character and training him.
self to steal, to gamble and to swindle.
He may get money. Nine out of ten
young men in business think that sue
cess means getting rich. But Mr..
Stewart held scrupulous integrity, the
incest honesty in dealing with women,
who were his principal customers, to
be the true foundation of success in
trade And / have often heard wo-
men say, while Mr.. Stewart was alive,
they were always sure that they got at
Stewards the thing as it was represent
ed to them. Precisely the same is
true of the other great houses in this
city They are governed by men of
undoubted integrity, who would apply
to their clerks and agents the same
rule that Mr.. Stewart did And they
would not be what they arc if they
did not. That is something for young
men to think of. Let it be a matter of
rumor and suspicion that the great dry
goods house of Ketcham & Cheatam is
run upon the principle of selling all
the goods they can by fair means or
foul, that you never can depend on a
word they say, that the "calico will
wash" as the clerk said it would, but
the colors will all run" when it is
washed. and that great house will lose
it's prestige and it's customers; and by
and by its doors will be "closed on ac-
count of death in the family" and
never opened again.
Perhaps the standard of commercial
integrity is not so high as it once was.
But it is high enough to sustain the
principles which Mr. Stewart professed
to me as we paced the deck of
steamer in mid-ocean. IRENEUs.