Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-12-17


chants to bear me out in these statements. II
when you were just starting in life, in CONNER
cial life, you were told that honesty was no
marketable, that though you might sell al
the goods In the shop, you must no
sell your conscience that while you wer
to exercise all industry and tact yol
were not to sell your conscience-if yol
were taught that gains gotten by sil
were combustibie, and at the mo
! ment OF ingnition would be blow
on by the breath OF God until all the splendit
estate would vanish into white ashes scattere,
| In the whirlwind-then that instruction has beef
TO you precaution and help ever since. Their,
are hundreds OF commercial establishments IL
| our great cities which are educating class o
young men who will be the honor OF the land
and there are other establishments which ar,
educating young men to be nothing but sharpcrs
What chance is there for young man who was
taught In an establishing mt that IL is right Il
lie, IL 1t is smart, and that French label is al
that is necessary to make o thing French, ant
that you ought always to be honest when Il
pays and that it is wrong to steal unless yoJ
do 1t wellY Suppose now young man jus
starting in life, enters place OF that kline
where there are ten young men, all drilled IL
the infamous practices OF the establish
ment He is ready TO be taught. The young
man has no theory Of commercial ethics
Where is he to get his theory? He will get the
theory from his employers. Ole gay ne pushes
his wit little beyond what the establishment
demands OF him, and he feeces a customer un
I'll the clerk is on the verge OF being seized by
the law. What is done in the establishment!
He is not arraigned. The head of the estab
lishment says to him: Now, be careful; be
careful, young man, you might be caught; but
really that was splendidly done; you will get
along in the world, warrant you" Then that
young man goes up until he becomes head
clark He has found there lie n uranium n N
EQUITY.
One morning the employer comes 10 the es
Establishment. He goes into the counting room
and throws up his hands and shouts, "Why,
the safe has been robbed" What is the mat.
teri Nothing, nothing; only the clerk who has
been practising good while on customers is
practicing little on the employer. No new
principle introduced into that establishment
1t is a poor rule that will not work both ways.
You must never steal unless you can do it well
He did IL we'll / am not talking an abstrac.
ton: / am talking terrible and crushing
fact.
Now here Is young man Look at him to.
dav. Look at him five years from now; after
he has been under trial in such an establish
ment. Here he stands in the shop
to-day his cheeks ruddy with the breath
of the hills. He unrolls the goods
on the counter Iii genhemanly style. He COM
mends them to the purchaser. He points out
all the good points in the fabric. He effects the
sale. The goods are wrapped up, and he dis
misses the customer with o cheerful good
morning." and the country merchant departs 80
impressed with the straight-forwardness of taat
young man that he will come again and again,
every spring and every autumn unless inter
fered with. The young man has been now in
that establishment five years. He unrolls the
goods on the counter. He says to the custo-
mer, "Now those are the best goods we have in
establishments. thpy lpf
next shelf He says: We are selling these
goods less than cost" they are making twenty
per cent He says: "There is nothing like them
in all the city," there are fifty shops that want
to sell the same thing. He says: NOV,
that is n durable article, it will wash" yes II
will WASH out The sale is made, the goods are
wrapped up the country merchant goes off feel
ing that be has nm equivalent for his money,
ahd the sharp clerk goes into the private room
OF the counting house, and he says: "Weih I
got rid OF these goods at last; really thought
we would never sell them; l told him we Weye
selling them less than costs and he thought
he was getting u good bargain; got lid
of them at last" And the head of the ffu
says: "That's well done, splendidly done"
Meanwhile, God had recorded eight lies-fo,.c
lies against the young man, four lies against
his employer, for undertake to say that tho
employer is responsible for all the iniquities pi
his clerks, and all the iniquities of those VITO
are clerks of these clerks, down to the tenth
generation, If those employers inculca6d
iniquitous and damning principles.
stand before young men this morning wGo
are under this pressure. say come out of -
"Ohi' you say, ~ can't; have my widowtd
mother to support, and If q man loses sitrs-
ton now he can't get another one" / say COME
out of 1t. Go home Ia your mother and say 20
her, Mother, can't stay in that shop and &c
upright what shall dor" and if She is WORTHY
80 al. ...sI .NfF .s
we will just throw ourselves ON him who hath
promised to be the God of the widow and the
fatherlesst he will take care of u.s." And tell
you no young man ever permanently suffered
by such a course of conduct. In Philadelphia,
in drug shop, young man said TO his employ
er: II want TO please you, really, and / am
willing to sell medicines on Sunday; but / can't
sell this patent shOe-blacking on Sunday"
well, 4" said the head man, you will have to
do it, or else you will have TO go away The
young man said: ~ can't do it; 1 am willing
to sell medicines, but not shoe-blacking'
We'll, then, go Go now" The young man
went away. The Lord looked after him The
hundreds of thousands of dollars he won in this
world were the smallest part of his fortune.
God honored him. BY the course he took he
saved his soul as well as his fortunes in the
future. A man said to his employer:
II can't wash the wagon on Sun
day morning: l willing to
wash IL on Saturday afternoon; but, sir, you
will please excuse me, can't wash the wagon
on Sunday morning" His employer said:
"You must wash it; my carriage comes in every
Saturday night, and you have got TO wash it on
Sunday morning" II can't do it," the man
said. They parted. The Lord locked after
him, grandly looked after him. He is worth to-
day hundredfold more than his employer
ever was or ever will be, and he saved his soul.
Young men, it is safe to do right. There are
young men in this house to-day who, under
this storm Of temptation, are striking deeper
and deeper there roots, and spreading out
broader their branches. They are Daniels in
Babylon, they are Josephs in the Egyptian
court they are Pauls amid the wild beasts of
Ephcsus. i preach to encourage them. Lay
hold of God and be faithful.
There is mistake we make about young
men. We put them in two classes; the one
class is moral, the other is dissolute. The
moral are safe. The dissolute cannot be re-
claimed. Ideny both propositions. The moral
are not safe unless they have laid hold of God,
and the dissolute may be reclaimed. l suppose
there are selfrighteous men in this house who
feel do need Of God, and will not seek after
him, and they will go out in the world and they
will be tempted. and they will be flung down by
misfortune, and they will go down, down. down,
until some night you will see them going home
hootlng, raving, shouting blasphemy-
going home TO their mother, GO
ing home TO their sister, going home
to the young companion to whom, only little
while ago, in the presence of brilliant as
semblage, flashing lights and orange blossoms,
and censers swinging in the air. they promised
fidelity and purity and kindness perpetual. AS
that man reaches the door, she will open IL, not
with an cutlery, but she will stagger back from
the door as he comes in, and in her look there
will be the prophecy of woes that are coming:
want that Will SILVER in need Of fire, hunger
that will cry in vain for bread, cruelties that
will not leave the heart when they have crushed
II, but pinch IL again, and stab it
again, until some night she will open
the door OF the place where her companion was
ruined, and she will fling out her arm from
under her ragged shawl and say with almost
omnipotent eloquence, "Give me back my hus-
band! Give me back my protector! Give e.back
my ALI Him OF the kind heart and gentle
words, and the manly brow-give him back to
mel" And then the wretched, obese and filthy,
viii push back their matted locks, and they
will say, "Put her outl" OH self-righteous
man, without God you are in peril. Seek after
him to-day. Amid the thousand tempta-
tons OF life there is no safety for a man with
out God.
But may be addressing some who have gone
astray, and so assault that other proposition
that the desolute cannot be reclaimed. Per
haps you have only gone little agtray. While
i speak are you troubled Is there voice
within you saying, "What did you do that for?
Why did you go there? What did you mean by