The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-10-12

to help the unfortunate. How mucl
would such an attorney have received al
his fee Tor such an Advocacy Nothing
In dollars, but much every way in happy
consciousness that would make his owr
life brighter and his own dying pillow
sweeter and his own heaven happier
the consciousness that he had saved q
lnan!
So there are commercial exigencies.
very late spring obliterates the demand
for spring overcoats and spring hats and
spring apparel of all sorts. Hundreds Of
thousands Of people say: "It seems we
are going to have no spring and we shall
20 straight out of winter into warm
weather, and we can get along without
the usual spring attire" Or there is nc
autumn weather. the heat plunging into
the cold, and the usual clothing which
is compromise between summer and
winter is not required. 1t makes diff
ference in the sale of millions and mil.
lions Of dollars Of goods, and some over
sanguine young merchant ia caught with a
vast amount Of unstable goods that
never will be salable again except at
prices ruinously reduced. That young
merchant with somewhat limited capt.
tai is in predicament. What shall the
old merchants do as they see that young
man in this awful crisis9 Rub their
hands and laugh and say: GOOD for
him. He might have known better.
When he has been in business as long as
we have, he will not load his shelves il.
that way. Ha! Ha! He will burst up
before long. He had no business to open
his store so near to ours anyhow ,
Sheriff's sale! Red flag in the win
dow: GLOW much is bid for these
out of the fashion spring overcoats
and spring hats or fall clothing out of
datep What do hear in the way of a
bid?" "Four dollars" Absurd, I can
not take that bid of four dollars apiece.
Why, these coats when first put upon
the market were offered at fifteen dol
lars each, and now I am offered only four
dollars. Is that all? Five dollars do I
hear9 Going at that! Gone at five dol
lars" and he takes the whole lot. The
young merchant goes home that night
and says to his wife: ''Well, Mary, we
will have to move out of this house and
sell our piano. That old merchant that
has had an evil eye on me ever since
I started has bought out all that
clothing, and he will have it re-
juvenated. and next year put it on
the market as new, while we will do we'll
if we keep out of the poorhouse. The
young man, broken spirited, goes to hard
drinking. The young wife with her
baby goes to her fathers house, and not
only is his store wiped out but his home,
his morals, and his prospects for two
worlds, this and the next. And devils
make banquet of fire and fill their cups
of gall and drink deep to the health of
the old merchant who swallowed up the
young merchant who got stuck on spring
goods and went down. This is one way,
and some of you have tried it.
But there is another way. That young
merchant who found that he had mis-
calculated in laying in too many goods
of one kind and been flung of the I'M
usual season, is standing behind the
counter feeling very blue and biting his
finger nails or looking over his account
books, which read darker and worse
every time he looks at them, and thinks
how his young wife will have to be put
in a palmer house than she ever expected
to live in or go to third rate boarding
house where they have tough liver and
sour bread five mornings out Of the
seven. An old merchant comes in and
says: "Well, Joe, this has been hard
season for young merchants, and this
prolonged cool weather has put many
in the doldrums, and I have
been thinking of you good
deal Of late, for just after I started
in business l once got into the same
scrape. Now if there is anything can
do to help you out will gladly do it.
Better just put those goods out of sight
for the present, and next season we will
plan something about them. I will help
you to some goods that you can sell for
me on commission, and will go down
to one of the wholesale houses and tell
them that I know you and will back you
up, and if you want few dollars to
bridge over the present can let you
have them. Be as economical as you
can, keep stiff upper lip and remember
that you have two friends, God and my
self. Good morningn' The old merchant
goes away and the young man goes behind
his desk and the tears roll down his
cheeks. 1t is the first time he has cried.
Disaster made him mad at everything,
and mad at man and mad at God. But
this kindness melts him, and the tears
seem to relieve his brain, and his spirits
rise from ten below zero to eighty in the
shade, and he comes out of the crisis.
And about three years after, this young
merchant goes into the old merchants
store and says: "Well, my old friend, 1
was this morning thinking over what
you did for me three years ago. You
helped me out Of an awful crisis in my
commercial history. I learned wisdom
and prosperity has come, and the pallor
has gone out of my wife's cheeks, and
the roses that were there when l courted
her in her fathers house have bloomed
again, and my business is splendid, and
thought ought to let you know that
you saved a mani" In q short time
after, the old merchant who had been a
good while shaky in his limbs and had
poor spells, is called to leave the world,
and one morning after he had read the
twenty-third Psalm, about ''The Lord is
my shepherd" he closes his eyes on this
world. and an angel who had been for