The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-30

sonous filings, into their lungs. But In the vast
| majority OF cases your employees will appreciate
| every kindness In that direction.
| Do not put on them any unnecessary fatigue
never could understand why the drivers on our
| city cars must stand all day when they might
! just as well sit down and drive 1t seems to me
most unrighteeus that so many of the 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 WEAKNESS enough
/ without putting on them additional fatigue.
| Unless those female clerks must 60 up and down
| on the business of the store, let them sit down.
| At the end of the year You will find that they
have sold as many goods and made as line par
| gans-yea, better for one clerk with clear
| brain, and rested body and radiance will sell
more goods than two clerks With health oedrag-
| gled.
| Then l would have you carry out this sanitary
| idea. and put into as few hours as possible the
work of the day. Some time ago-whether it
| mas been changed I know not-there were one
| thousand grocery clerks in Broolyn who wentto
business at o'clock in the morning and contin-
| ued until 10 o'clock at night Now. that is In
| human
1t seems TO me all the merchants in all depart
ments ought, by simultaneous movement, to
come cut in behalf OF the early-closing theory
These young men ought to have an opportunity
| of going to the Mercantile Library, to the read
| ing rooms, to the concert hall, to the gymna-
| SUM, to the church. They have nerves, they
/
they have immortal spirits. If they can do
good, round days work in the ten or eleven
hours you have no right to keep them harnessed
| seventeen. do not think that any intelligent
| employer can afford to be reckless OF the physi-
cal and mental health Of his subordinates.
| But above all, charge you, 0 employers!
| that you look after the moral and spiritual well
fare 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" A man that comes into the store in
| the morning CHASTITY with midnight revery Is
not the man for your store. Inc young man
who spends his evenings in the society of refined
women or in musical or artistic circles or In lit
| erary improvement, is the young man for your
| store. Without any disgusting inquisitiveness
without any impertinence, you ought to have
| your young men understand that you are inter
esred SO much in their welfare that you want to
know where they spend their leisure hours and
they will gladly and frankly tell you.
Do not say of these young men, IF they do
their work in the business hours, chat IS all
have to ask" God has made you that mans
guardian. l want you to understand that many
of these young men are orphans flung out into
society to struggle for themselves young
| man is pitched into the middle Of the Atlantic
ocean and plank is pitched after him. and then
he is told to take that and swim ashore. Treat
that young man as you would like to have your
son treated if you were dead. Be a father to
that clerk There is nothing more beautiful
than to hear an aged merchant addressing
his clerks and saying "My sonl" That young
man in your employ has history. His
father was drunkard. His first remem-
| brance of his father was the father
coming home late at night intoxicated and the
children hiding under the bed frightened. And
that young man has stood many time between
| father and mother. keeping her from the brutal
blow. He is prematurey old in trying to pro-
vide for the house rent and clothing for his
younger brothers and sisters. He may seem TO
ko all otb MI hu
mother know he is a hero. At twenty years OF
age he has suffered as much as many have suf
fered at sixty. Do not tread on him. Do not
swear at him Do not send him on useless er,
rand. Say "Good morning" and 'Good night
and Goodbye" You are deciding that mans
destiny for two worlds.
But you are not only to be kind to those who
are under you-Chrstanly kind-but You are
also to see that your boss workman, and your
head clerks. and your agents. and your overseers
in the stores are kind to those under them.
Sometimes a man will get little brief authority
in store. or in factary, and while they are very
courteous to you, the capitalist, or to you the
head man OF the firm, they most brutal in
their treatment of those under them. God only
knows what some of the lads suffer in the cellars
and in the lofts of some of our great eatab lsh-
ments. They have no one to appeal to. The
time will come when their arm will be strong,
and they can defend themselves. But now. alas
for some of the cash boys, and the messenger
boys, and the boys that sweep the store. Alas!
some
the head man of the firm, must look, supervise,
see those all around you, investigate all beneath
you.
And then charge you not to put unneces-
sary temptation in the way OF your young men.
Do not keep large sums of money lying around
unguarded Know how much money is in the
till. Do not have the account books loosely kept.
There are temptations inevitable to young men
and enough of them, without your putting any
unnecessary temptations in their way. Men in
Val I'M
for honesty, have dropped into Sing Sing and
perdition, and you must be careful how you try
lad of fifteen. And if he do wrong, do not
pounce on him like hyena. If ne prove him
self unworthy of your confidence do not call in
the police, but take him home. tell why you dis
missed him to those who will give him another
chance. Many young man has done wrong
once, who will never do wrong again.
All my friends! hink we can afford to give
every body another chance, when God knows we
should all have been in perdition it He had not
given US ten thousand chances
Then, it in moving around your factory, or
young men, God will remember it. Some day
the wheel of fortune will turn, and you will be a
pauper and your daughter will 60 to the work
house, and your SON will die on the scaffold If,
in moving among your young men, you see one
with an omlnous pallor of check, or you hear
him coughing behind the counter, say to him:
''Stay home day OF two and rest, or 60 out and
breathe the breath of the hills" If his mother
die, do not demand that on the day after the
funeral he be in the store Give him at least
week to get over that which he will never get
over
Employers, urge upon your employees above
all, positive religious life. You do it.
You are In position not to be laughed at, or
scoffed at, or ieered at You hold the keys of
the establishment and by your position you de-
mand reverence. Now urge all those employees
into religious life. So far from that, how is it,
young men2 Instead of being cheered on the
road to heaven, some of you are caricatured
and 1t is hard thing for you to keep your Chris
tian integrity in that store factory where there
many hostile to religion Ziethen, a
brave general under Frederick the Great, was
Christian. Frederick the Great was an infidel
One day Ziethen, the venerable, white |
haired general, asked to be excused
from military duty that ha mieht |