The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-05-01

and glue and sold as having been recently
manufactured gold watches made out OF
brass, barrels of fruit the biggest apples on
the top, wine adulte"atei with st"ychnine,
hosiery poorly woven. clotnS OF aone?s.c
manufacture shining with foreign labels, I'M
ported goods represented as rare aud hard 70
GET because foreign exchange * SO high,
rolled out on the counter with matchlesS dls
play. Imported, indeed! but from the FAC
tory in tho next street. A pattern already
questionable and unstable palnlet OF as
new print upon some country merchant who
has come to town to make his first purchase
of dry goods and going homo with large
stock of goods warranted TO keep.
Again, business men are often tempted 10
make the habits and customs OF other trad
ers their law Of rectitudc. There are con-
mercial usaces which will not stand the test
of the last day. Yet men i'll business are apt
to do as their neighbor5 do. If the majority
Of the traders in any locality are lax in prln-
cipie, the commercial code in TINT commit
nifty will be spurious and dishonest. It's 4
hard thing to stand close By the law Of riSht
when your next door neighbor by his loose
ness of dealing is enabled to sell goods at
cheaper rate and decoy your customers, VI
course you who promptly meet all your
business engagements, paying when yoa
promise to pay, will find it hard - compete
to the importer for the goods purchasai' ana
to the landlord whose stcre he occlples, ana
to the clerks who serve him.
There are 4 hundred practices prevalent i'll
the world of traffic which ought never 70 pe-
come the rule for honest mel. Their wrong
does not make your right. Sin never De
comes virtue by being multiplied ana aaulit'
ted at brokers' board, or merchants en-
change. Because others smuSsle few
,Es others
take usury when men are in tight places, be-
cause others deal in fancy stocks, because
others palm OF worthless Endorsements, be-
cause others do nothing bit blow bubbles.
10 not therefore, be overcome OF temptation;
Hollow pretenson aud fictitious credit anu
commercial gambling may awhile prosper,
but the day of reckoning comHth ana IN al.
iitior to the horror AMI condealnat!oo OF
outraged communities tho curse OF God Will
come, blow after blow. Gods will forever
and forever is the only standard OF rlSnt ana
wrong, and not commercial ethics.
Young business man. avoid the first busi-
ness dishonor, and you will avoid all the rest.
The Captain of vessel was walking near the
mouth of river when the tide was low, AMI
there was a loug, stout anchor chain, into one
of the great links of whic his FOO slippei,
and it began to swell aui b, ou!d not vita
draw it. The tide began to ris,. The chaih
could not BE- loosenei no. filoi of in TIM,
and surgeon was callol II anpatatc the
limb, but before the work could be done the
tide rolled over the victim and his life was
gone.
And have to tell you, young man, that
lust one wrong into which you slip may De
link of a lorg chain of circumstances from
which YOU cannot be eZtricata1 By any in
renuity of your own or any help from Others,
~ a thnv
over many. When Pompsy, the warrior,
wanted to take possession of city, and tney
would not open the gates, he persuaded them
to admit sick soldier. But the sick soldier
after a while got well and strong, and he
threw open the gates and iet the devastat-
ing army come in. One wrong admitted
into the soul may gain in strength until
after awhile it filings open all the avenues OF
the immoral nature, and the surrender is
complete.
Again, business men are sometimes
tempted to throw off persoual responsibility
upon the rnoneyei institution to waich they
belong. Directors in banks and railroad AMI
insurance companies sometimes shirS per
sonal responsibility underneath the action OF
the corporation. And how often, when som3
banking house or financial institution ex-
piodes through fraud, respectable na1 in the
board OF directors say: why, th2l3ntal
was going Oh in an honest way, aul am ut
te-sy confouniel with this mis1emsanorF'
The banks, AMI the fire AMI life anil marine
insurance companies an1 tho railroad co.,
paries, will not stan1 up for judgnent i'll the
last day, bat those WHO in than actel rigat-
eously will receive, each for himself, re-
ward, and those who acted ths part OF ne
glect or trickery will, each for himself, re-
ceive condemnation.
Unlawful dividends are not clean before
God because there are those associated with
you who grab just as big a pile as you do.
He who countenances the dishonesty OF the
firm, or of the corporation, or OF toe assocla.
ton, takes upon bimself all of the moral
liabilities. II the financial institution steals,
he steals. II they go into wild specalationS,
he himself is a gambler. IT they neeilessly
embarrass creditor, he himself is guilty OF
cruelty. If they swiudle the uniuitiated, he
himself is defaulter. No financial lnstltu-
tion ever. had money vault strong enough or
credit stanch enough, or dividends large
enough, or policy acute enough to hide the
individual sin of its members. The old
adage, that corporations have no souls, is
misleading. Every corporation has as mary
souls. as it has members
Again, many business men have been
tempted to postpone their enjoyments and
u
What a sedative the Christian religion would
be to all our business men if, instead of post
poning its uses to old age or death, they
would take it into the store or factory or
worldly engagements now! 1t is folly to go
amid the uncertainties of business life with
no God to help.
A merchant in a New England village was
standing by horse, and the horse lifted his
foot to stamp it in a pool OF water; and the
merchant, to escape the splash, stepped into
the door of an insurance agent, anil the agent
said: II suppose you have come to renew
YOUR fire insurance" "Oh,". said the iner-
chant, "Ihad forgotten that" The insur-
ance was renewed. and the next day tho
house that had been insured was burned.
Was it all accidental that the merchant, to
escape splash from a horses foot, stepped
into the insurance office? No, it was provi.
dential And what mighty solace for bust
ness man to feel that things are providential!
What peace and equilibrium in such con-
sideration, and what grand thing If all busi-
ness men could realize it.
Many, although now comparatively strait
ened in worldly circumstances, have goodly
establishment in the future planned out
They have in imagination built about twenty
wears ahead house in the country rot diff
cult of access from the great town, for they
will often have business or old accounts to
settle, and investments to look after. The
house is large enough to accommodate all
their friends. The halls are wide, and hung
with pictures of hunting scenes and branch
of antlers, and are comfortable with chairs
that can be rolled out on the veranda when
the weather is inviting, or set out under
some of the oaks tnat stand sentinel about
the house, and rustling in the cool breeze,
and songful with the robins.
There is just land enough to Keep them in
terested, and its crops of almost fabulous
richness springing up under application OF
the best theories to be found in the agricul-
tural journals. The farm is we'll stocked with
cattle and horses. and sheep that know the
voice and have kindly blent when one goes
forth to look at them. In this blissful abode