Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-08-29

patent. So you will probably never be a
Morse or an Edison or a Humphrey Dayy
or an Eli Whitney. There is not much
probability that you viii be the one out of
the hundred who achieves extraordinary
success IN commercial or legal or medical
or literary spheres. What them Can YOU
have no opportunity to do exploits? / am
gong to show that there are three oppor-
tunities open that are grand, thrilling, far
reaching, stupendous aud overwhelming.
they are before you now. In one, it not all
three OF them, you may do exploits. The
three greatest things on earth to do are to
savea man, or save a woman, or save a
child.
During the course of his life almost
every man gets into an exigencv, is caught
between two fires, is ground between two
millstones, sits on the edge of some preci-
pice, or Ill some other way comes near dem
clifton. 1t may be a financial or a moral
Or domestic or a social or a political ext
gency. You sometimes see it in court
rooms young man has got into bad
company and he has offended the law, and
be is arraigned. All blushing and confused
be is IN the presence of judge and jury and
lawyers He can 30 sent right on in the
wrong direction. He is feeling dis3raced and
be is almost desperate.
Let the district attorney overhaul him as
though he were an old offender; let the
ablest attorneys at the bar refuse to say
word for him, because he cannot afford
considerable fee. let the judge give no OPP
portunlty for presenting the mitigating
circumstances, hurry up the case AMI hustle
him up to Auburn or Sing Sing. If he live
seventy years for seventy years he will be
a criminal, and each decade of his life
will be blacker than its predecessor. In the
lnterregnumS of prison life be can get no
work, and he is glad to break a window glass
or blow up safe or play the highwayman
so as to get back within the walls where he
can get something to eat and hide himself
from the gaze of the world
Why don't his father come and help him?
His father is dead Why don't his mother
come and help him? She is dead Where
are all e ameiioratng and sautary in
fUences of society? They DO not touch
him. Why did not some one long ago in
the case understand that there was an OBJ
portunity for the exploit which would be
famous IN heaven a quadrilliou of years
after the earth has become scattered ashes
in the last whirlwind? Why did not the
district attorney take that young man into
his private office and say: My son, / see
that You are the victim of cjrcumstar cas-.
This is your first crime. You are sorry. |
will bring the person you wroDged into
your presence, and you will apologize and
make all the PREPARATION you can, and ] will
give you another chauca." Or that young
man is presented in the courtroom, AMI he
has no friends present, and the judge says,
"Who is your cOunselW And he answers
81 have none And the judge says, "Who
will take this young mans caseY
And there is deal halt, and no one Offers,
and after awhile the iu lge turns to some at
torney, who never had good case in all his
life and never will, and wAose advocacy
would be enough to secure the condemn
ton of innocence itself And the profess
sional incompetent crawls up beside the
prisoner, helplessneSS to rescue despair
where there ought to be a struggle among
all the best men of the profession as to who
should have the honor Of trying to help that
unfortunate. How mucd would sucl an at
torney have received as his fee for such an
advocacy; Nothing in dollars, but much
every way in happy consciousness that
would make his own life brighter, and his
own dying pillow sweeter, and his own
heaven happer-the CONSCIOUSNESS that he
had saved man,
So there are commercial exigencies. A
very late spring oblterates the demand 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 so straight
out of winter into warm weather an We
can get along without the usual spring at
tire Or there is no autumn weather. the
heat plu1giny into the cold and the usual
]
summer anil winter is not require |. Il
makes a difference in thu sale OF millions
and millions of dollars of gods and s1pe
oversangulne young merchant is caught
with vast amount of unstable goods that
will never be salable again, except at prices
ruinously reduced.
The young merchant with a somewhat
limited capital is in a predicamsnt. What
shall the Oil merchants do as they sae 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 rs we have he
will not load his shelves in that way. Hal
Ha He viii burst up before long. He had
no business to open his store so near to ours
anyhow Sherilfs sale, Red aas in the
window: "Ilow much is bid for these out
of-fas hon spring overcoats AMI spring hats
or iali clothing out Of date? What dc
! hear in the way of a bid?' "Four dol
lars. absurd; | cannot take that bid OF
four dollars apiece. Why, these coat.
when first put upon the market were offerei
at fifteen dollars each, and now | am offered
only four dollars. Is that all? Five dollars
DO | bear2 Going at that Gone at five
dollars, and he takes the wholelot
The young merchant goes home that
night and says to his wife "WeIl Mary.
we will have TO move out of this house and
sell our piano. That old merchant that
has had an evil eve on me ever since |
started has bought out all that clothing.
and he will have it reiuvenated, and next
year put it on the market as new, while we
will do well if We keep out Of the poor
mouse The young man. broken spirited
goes to hard drinking The young wife with
her baby goes to her fathers house, and not
I only Is his store wipel out but his home his
morals AMI his prospects for two worlds
/ this and the next. AMI devils make a ban
! quet of fire and fill their cups of gall, aud
/ drink deep to the health of the old merchant
/ who swallowed up the young merchant who
/ got stuck on spring goods and went down.
| That is one way, an some of you have tried
/ it.
/ But there is another way That young
merchant who found that he had miscalcu-
lated in laying in too many goods of one
hlhl, an Deem flung OF the unusual season.
] IS stan ing behind the counter. feeling very
Due and biting his finger nails, or looking
/ over MS account books, which read darker
/ ana worse every time he looks at them. and
/ tnlnklng how his young wife will have to be
put In palmer house than she ever ex,
| pected to live in or go to third rate board
ing house, where they have tough liver aud
sour bread five mornings out OF the seven.
An old merch mt comes in and says:
Neil, Joe, this has been a harl season for
/ young merchants aud this prolonged cool
weather has put many in the doldrums, aud
l have been thinking of You a good deal of
late for just after | stared in business
| once got into thu sane scraoe. Nov. if
! there is anything 1 can do to help YOU
/ out | will gladly do it. Better Just put
those gools out of sight for the present.,
and next season we will plan 50 netting
/ about them. will help You to soma goods
that you can sell for me on commission, an
! will go down to one OF the waoies ale houses
and tell them that | know you an / will bac,6
/ 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 a
stun upper lip. and remember that you have
two friends, tod and myself. Good morn
ingr'
The old merchant goes away AMI the
young man goes behind his desS, ana the
tears roll down his cheeks. 1t is the first
time he has cried. Disaster male him mn l
at everything, and mad at man AMI mai at
/ 6od. 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
/ About three years after, this Young n,er.
chant goes into the old merchants store and
says: Well my oil friend, l was this
morning thinking over what YOU did for m
three years ago. You helped me out OF an
awful crisis in my commercial history.
/ learned wisdom, prosperity has come, and