Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-12-21

without any intention Of purchase, over
turning great stocks Of goods and insisting
that you break the dozen More bad debts
on the ledger More counterfeit bills In
the drawer More debts to pay for other
people. More meannesses on the part OF
partners in business. Annoyance after
annoyance, veXation after vexation and
loss after loss.
All that process will either break you
down or brighten You up. 1t is school OF
patience. You have known men under
the process to become petulant and chol-
eric and angry and pugnacious and cross
and sour and queer, aud they lost their
customers, aud their name became de-
testation. Other men have been bright
ened up under the process. They were
toughened by the exposure. They were
like rocks, all the more valuable for being
blasted. At first they had to choke down
their wrath, at first they had to bite their
lip, Mt first they thought Of some stinging
retort they would like to make, but they
conquered their Impotence. They have
kind words now for sarcastic filings. They
have gentle behavior now for unmannerly
customers. They are patient now with un-
fortunate DEBTORS. They have Christian
reflections now for sudden reverses. Where
did they get that patience? BY hearing a
minister preach concerning it on Sabbath 2
Oh, no. They got it just where you will
get tiff you ever get it at all-selling
hats, discounting notes, turning banisters,
blowing corn, timing roofs, pleading
causes. Oh, that amid the turmoil and
anxiety and evaporation of everyday life
you might hear the voice of God saying:
"In patience possess your soul Let pa
thence have her perfect work"
BUSINESS A SCHOOL OF LIFE.
remark again that business life is a
school of useful knowledge. Merchants do
not read many books and do not study
lexicons. They do not dive into profounds
of learning, and yet nearly all through
their occupations come to understand ques
tions of finance and politics and geogra-
ply and jurisprudence and ethics. Busi.
ness is a severe schoolmistress If pupils
will not learn she strikes them over the
head and the heart with severe losses. You
put $1,000 into an enterprise. 1t is all gone
You say, THAT is dead loss" oh, no.
You are paying the schooling. That was
only tuition, very large tuition-I told you
it was q severe schoolmistress-but it was
worth it. You learned things under that
process you would not have learned in any
other way.
Traders in grain come to know some
thing about foreign harvests; traders in
fruit come to know something about the
prospects of tropical production; manufac-
tureTs of American goods come to under
stand the tariff on imported articles; pub
fishers of books must come to understand
the new law of copyrights; owners of ships
must come to know winds and shoals and
navigation; and every bale of cotton, and
every raisin Cask, and every tea box, and
every cluster of bananas is so much ltera-
ture for business man. Now, my brother,
what are you going to do with the intelli-
genceP Do you suppose God put you in
this school of information merely that you
might be sharper in a trade, that you
might be more successful as n worldlingP
Oh, no; it was that you might take that
useful information and use 1t for Jesus
Christ.
Can it be that you have been dealing
with foreign lands and never had the mis-
sionary spirit, wishing the salvation of
foreign people? Can it be that you have
become acquainted with all the outragcs
inflicted in business life, and that you have
never tried to bring to bear that Gospel
which is to eXtirpate all evil and correct
all wrongs and illumine all darkness and
lift up all wretchedness and save men for
this world and the world to come? Can it
be that understanding all the intricacies
of business you know nothing about those
things which will last long after all bills
of exchange and consignments and invoiC 8
and rent rolls shall have crumpled up and
been consumed in the fires of the last great
day? Can it be that Il man will be wise for
time and fool for eternityP
A SCHOOL FOR INTEGRITY.
| remark, also, that business life is d
school for integrity. No man knows what
he will do when he is tempted. There are
thousands Of men who have kept their in.
tegrity merely because they never have
been tested. A man was elected treasurer
Of the state of Maine some years ago. He
was distinguished for his honesty useful
ness and uprightness, but before one year
had passed he had taken of the public
funds for his own private use, and was
hurled out f Office in disgrace. Distin-
guished for 'irtue before Distinguished
for crime Il rer. You can call over the
names of men just like that, in whose hon
esty you had complete confidence, but
placed in certain crises of temptation they
went overheard.
Never so many temptations to scoundrel-
ism IA now. Not a law on the statute book
but has some back door through which
miscreant can escape. Ali how many de
ceptions in the fabric of goods; so much
in commercial life, that if a man
talk about living n life of complete com
mercial accuracy there are those who as
cribe it to greenness and lack of tact More
need of honesty now than ever bafore-tried
honesty complete honesty, more than in
those times when business was plain af
fair, and woolens were woolens and silks
were silks and men were men.
How many men do you suppose there are
In commerc u life who could say truth
fully, In al the sales have ever made
have never rerstated the value Of goods;
in all the sp'es | have ever made have
never covered up an imperfection in the
fabric; Of all the thousands Of dollars
have ever made have not taken one dis
honest farthing?" There are men, how
ever, who can say it-hundreds who can
say it, thousands who can say it, They
are more honest than when they sold Their
first tierce of rice, or their first frkin Of
butter, beca Sc their honesty and integ
rity have been tested, tried and carried out
But they remember n time
when they could have robbed a partner,
have absconded with the funds of bank,
pr sprung a snap Judgment, or made n
false assignment or borrowed illimitablv
without any effort at payment, or got a
man into a sharp corner and fleeced him.
But they never took one step on that
pathway of hell fire. They can say their
prayers without hearing the chink of dis
honest dollars. They can read their Bible
without thinking of the time when, with
q lie on their soul, in the custom house