Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-05-24

hlreng in his wages" LoVticus: Thou
shalt not keep the wages Of the hireling all
hlSht unto the morning" Coossans: Mas
ters, give unto you servants that which Is lust
aud equal; knowing that ye also have Mas
ter IN heaven" SO you see It Is nos n question
between you and your employee SO much as
II Is question between you and God.
10 not say Ia your employees; Now, II you
don't Ike this place get another when you
know they cannot get another. As far as pos
siOle once year visit at their homes, your
clerks and your workmen. That is the only
way you can become acquainted with their
wants. \ on Will by such process find Outthat
there Is a blind parent or a sick sister being
supported. Nou VIII find some of your young
men IN rooms without any fire IN winter, and
IN summer swelterlng in nill-ventilated apart
ments. You will find how much depends on
the wages you nay or Withhold. ON Satur-
DAY morning, when you come into your
VIII BRING the money for the wages or
the salarles You will have thrill of satisfac-
tlon IN knowing tt Is not only the money you
give TO the young man, but the relief to the
dire necessities which stand back of him,
moreover 1t Is your duty as employer as
Tar as possible, to mould the welfare Of the
employe. You ought to advise him about
Investments, about life insurance, about saw
ings banks. lou ought to give him the bene-
ht of your experience. There are hundreds
and thousands OF employers in this country
and England, am glad to say, who are set
tlng In the very best possible way the destiny
Leeds; Lister, of Bradford; Akroyd, of Hall
fax; and meE 80 near AT home it might offend
their modesty If l mentioned their names.
These men have built reading rooms, libra
ries, cOnoert-halls, afforded crOquet lawns,
cricket grounds, gymnasiums, choral societies
for their employees, and they have not merely
paid the wages on saturday night, but through
the contentment and the thrift and the good
morals OF their employees, they are paying
wages from generation TO generation forever.
Again counsel all employers to look well
after the physical health OF their subordi
mates. You are expected to understand better
than they all these questions of ventilation
and sunshine, and all the laws OF hygiene.
There are stores and banking houses and
factories and newspaper establishments where
the atmosphere is death. Your employees NAV
always appreciate your WORK, as that style Of
kindness was not appreciated in the instance
mentioned by Charles Reade, where IN great
factory fan was provided for the blowing
away Of the dust of metal and stone, the dust
arising from the machinery, and some OF the
workmen refused to put this great fan in mo-
ton. They seemed to prefer to inhale the
filings, the poisonous filings, into their lungs.
But IN the vast n ajority of cases your en-
plOyes will appreciate every kindness in that
direction
Do not put on them any unnecessary IA
ugue. l never could understand why the
drivers on our citv cars must stand all day
when they might just as we'll sit down and
drive. lt seems To me most unrighteOus that
80 many Of tine female clerks in our stores
should be compelled TO stand all day, and
through those hours when there are but few
or no customers. These people have aches
and annOyances and weariness enough with
out putting upon them additional fatigue. I'm
less those female clerks must go up and down
on the business of the store, lei them sit down.
At the emu of the year You will find that they
have sold as many goods, and made as fine
bargains-yea better; for one clerk with a
clear brain and rested body and radiance will
sell more goods than two clerks with health
Dedraggled.
Then would have you carry out this sani-
tary idea, aud put into as few hours as possi-
BILE the work of the day. Some time ago
whether it has been changed | know not
there were one thousand grocer clerks in
Brooklyn who went to business at O'Clock
in the morning and continued until 10 O'Clock,
at night Now, that IS inhuman.
IL seems TO me all the merchants in all de-
partments ought. by simultaneous movement,
TO come out in behalf of the early closing
theory. These young men ought 10 have an
opportunity Of going to the Mercantile Lib
rary, to the reading-rooms, 10 the concert
hall, to the gymnasium, TO the church. They
have nerves, they have brains. they have in
tellectual aspirations, they have immortal
spirits. IL they can do good round days
work IN the ten or eleven hours, you have no
right to keep them harnessed for seventeen.
do not think any intelligent employer can
afford TO be reckless Of the physical and men
tai health of his subordinates.
But above all, charge you, o, employers!
welfare Of your employees. First, know where
they spend their evenings. That decides
everything. You do not want around your
money drawer young man who went last
night TO see Jack sheppard. man that
comes into the store in the morning ghastly
with midnight revelry, is not the man for
your store. The young man who spends his
evenings in the society of refined women, or
IN musical or artistic circles, or IN literary
Improvement, s the young man for your
store. without any disgusting inquistive-
ness, without any impertnance, you ought to
have your young men ndsrstand that you
are interested 80 much In their welfare that
you want to know where they spend their
leisure hours, ana they Will frankly and
gladly tell you.
Do not say Of the e young men; ''If they do
their work n the business hours, that is all
have 10 ask" God has made you that mans
guardian. / want you 70 understand that
many Of these young men are orphans, or
wOrse than orphans, flung out into society to
struggle for themselves. A young man is
pitched into the middle Of the Atlantic Ocean,
and plank ~ pitched after him, and then he
Ia told to take that and swim ashore. Treat
that Young man as you would like TO have
your son treated IL you were dead. Be father
TO that clerk. There Is nothing more beauti-
ful than 10 hear an aged merchant address
ing his clerks and saying, My tonw
That young man Ia pour employ
drunkard. His first remembrance OF his
father was the father coming home late at
night intoxicated and the children hiding un-
der the bed frightened. And that young man
has stool mGny time between father
and mother, keeping her from the
brutal blow. lie Is prematurely old in
trying to provide for the hOu8e rent and cloth
ing for his younger brothers aud sisters. lie
may seem 20 you Ike all other young men. but
Cod and his mother know he Is hero. At
% years Ol age he has suffered as much as many
nave su ilered atG0. DO not tread on him. DO not
swear at him. Do not send him on useless
errand Say good morning" and "sood
night" and good Dye.v You are deciding
that mans destiny for two worlds.
One Of my earliest rememDrauces Is Of old
Arthur TapDan. There were many differ
ences OF opinion about his politics. but no one
who ever knew Arthur Tappan, and knew
him well, doubted his being an earnest
Christian. In his store In New York
ne had "A room where every morning he called
his employees together aud ne prayed with
them, read tue Scriptures 20 them, sang with
them, and then they entered on the duties Of
the day. On Monday morning the exercises
differed, ami he gathered the young men to-
gether and asked them where they had at
tended church, what had been their Sab
bath experiences and what mad been the SER
mon.
Samuel Budget had the largest business IN
the West Of England. lie had In room Of
his warehouse a place pleassntly furnished
with comfortable seats and "Fictcht RS Family
DevOtiOns" and Wesleyan hymn books, and
he gathered his employees together every
morning. and, having sung, they knelt down
and prayed side by side-the employer and
the employees.
DO you wonder at that mans success, and
that though thirty years before he had been
partner 10 a small retail shop in a small
village. at his death he bcqueathcd many
millions. Go can trust such a man as that
Sir Titus SAT- had wealth which was be-
yOnd computation, and at Saltaire, Eng, he