The Bossier banner., 1891-10-29


man!
SO there are commercial exigencies
A very late spring obliterates the de-
mand for spring overcoats and spring
hats and spring apparel of all sorts.
Hundreds of thousands of people say:
at seems we are going to have no
spring, and we shall go straight out of
winter into warm weather, and we can
get along without the usual spring at
tire" Or there is no autumn weather,
the heat plunging into the cold, and
usual clothing which is a compromise
between summer and winter, is not re-
quired. 1t makes a difference in the
sale of millions and millions of dollars
of goods, and some over-sanguine
young merchant is caught with a vast
amount of unstable goods that will
never be salable again, except at prices
ruinouslY reduced. The young mer-
chant with a somewhat limited capital
is in a predicament. What shall the old
merchants do as they see the young man
in this awful crisis? 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 mot load his shelves in
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 window:
''How much is bid for these out-of-
fashion spring overcoats and spring
hats or fall clothing out of date? What
do hear in'the way of bid?" "Four
dollars" s'Absurd; can not take that
bid of four dollars a piece. Why, these
coats when first put upon the market
were offered at fifteen dollars each,
and now 1 am only ioffered four
Fdollars Is that all? Five dollars, do
hear? Going at that! Gone at five
dollars" 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 oft of this house and
sell our piano. That. old merchant that
has had an evil eye on me ever since I
started has bought cut all that clothing
and he will have IT rejuvenated, and
next year put it on the market as new,
while we will do well if we keep out of
the poor house, The young man,
broken-spirited, goes to hard. drinking
The young wifeawith her baby goes to
her ,father's.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 a Banquet Of fire and FL their
cups of gall, and. drink deep to the
health of the old merchant who swal-
lowedup the-young merchant who got
stuck on spring goods and went down.
| That is one way, and some of you have
tried it.
But there is another way. That
young merchant who found that he had
miscalculated in laying in too many
goods of one kinff, and been flung of
the unusual season. is standing behind
the counter, feeling very blue, and Bit
ing his finger nails, or looking over the
account books, which read darker and
worse every time he looks at them, and
thinking how his young wife will have
to. be put in a palmer house than she
ever expected to live in, or go to a
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: "WeIl,
Joe, this has been hard season for
young merchants, and this prolonged
kcool weather has put many jim the
Fdoldrums, and have been thinking of
you a good deal of late, for just after l
started in business l once got into the
same scrape. Now, if there is
anything / can do to help
you out l will gladly do it. Better
just put those goods out of sight for
the present, and next season we will
plan something about them. 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 know you and will back
you up. and if you want a few dollars
to bridge over the present, can let you
have them. Be as economical as you
can, keep a stiff upper lip, and remem-
Der that you have two friends, God and
myself. Good morningp' The old mer-
chant 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 al
God. But this Kindness melts him, and
the tears seem torelieve his brain. and
his spirits rise from ten below to eighty
I'm 1he shade, and he comes out of the
crisis.
Is About three years after, this young
mefehaht goes into the old merchants
store and says: well, my old friend, ]
was this morniug thinking over what
you did for me threeyears ago. You
helped me out OF an awful crisis in
my commercial historysI learned wis.
DOM .spro rosperitv has come and the pal
aor has gone otaA of my wife's cheeks,
and tlie roses that we've there when !
ssourted her III her fathers house have
.bIoomed again and my business is
splendid. and thought- l ought to let
ron know what saved a 1nan!'' In a
short time after, the old merchant who
had been a good while shaky in his
/ limbs and who had poor spells, is called
to leave the world, and one morniug
after he had read the twenty-third
| psa In, a1ouf strrba T o,5 (, - H.