The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-12-30

II these people scott at you as though re-
ligion and the Bible were fit only for weak
minded people, you just tell them you are
not ashamed to be in the company of Burke,
the statesman, and Raphael, the painter,
and Thorwaldsen, the sculptor, and Mozart,
the musician, and Blackstone, the lawyer,
and Bacon, the philosopher, and Harvey,
the physician, and John Milton, the poet.
Young man, hold on to your Bible. 1t is
the best book you ever owned. 1t will tell
Won how to dress, how to bargain, how to
walk. how to act. how to live, how to die.
Glorious Bible! Whether on parchment or
uaper. in octave or duodecimo, on the center
table Of the drawing room or in the counting
room of the banker. Glorious Bible! Llght
to our feet and lamp to our path. Hold on
toitl
The second class Of insidious temptations
that come upon our young men Is led on
by the dishonest employer. Every COM
mercial establishment is a school. In nine
cases out of ten the principles OF the m
ployer becomes the principles OF the
ployee. T ask the older merchants to bear
me out in'these statements. If, when you
were just starting in life-in commerclall le
YOU were told that honesty was not mar
ketable, that, though you might sell all
the goods in the shop, YOU must not sell
your conscience; that, while you were to ex-
ercIse all industry and tact, you were not to
sell your conscience: if you were taught that
gains gotten by sin were combustible, and at
the moment Of ignition would be blown on
hv the breath of God until all the splendid
estate would vanish into white ashes scat
tered in the whirlwind, then that instruction
has been to you a ~precautlon and a help ever
since.
There are hundreds Of commercial estab-
o,,r oroof cifios which ara a1Il.
eating a class Of young men. who will be the
honor of the land, and there are other estab-
lishments which are educating young men
to be nothing but sharpers. What chance Is
there for a young man who was taught IN
an establishment that it is right to lie, If it is
smart. and that a French label IS all that Is
necessary to make a thing French, and that
YOU ought always to be honest when 1t pays,
and that it is wrong to steal unless you do IL
well?
IN nfe enters a place or that / wnere
there are ten young men, all drilled in the
infamous practices of the establishment. 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. One day he pushes his
wits a little beyond what the establishment
demands Of him, and he feeces a customer
UQIu Iuo Cl6Th ID VI UuO fclR6 VI D6luR
seized by the law. What is done in the es-
enlistment? He is not arraigned. The
head of the establishment says to him, "Now,
be careful; be careful, young man, you
might be caught; but really that was splen-
didly done; you will get along in the world,
7 warrant you" Then that young man
goes up until he becomes head clerk. He
has found there is a premium on iniquity.
One morning the employer comes to the
establishment. He goes into his counting
room and throws up his hands and shouts,
the matter? Nothing, nothing; only the
clerk who has been practicing a good while
on customers is practicing q 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 1t
we'll. lam not talking an abstraction. lam
talking a terrible and crushing fact.
Now here is a young man. Look at him
to-day. Look at him five years from now,
after he has been under trial in such an
establishment. Here he stands in the shop
to-day, his cheeks ruddy with the breath Of
ter in gentlemanly style. He commends
them to the purchaser. He points out all tho
good points in the fabric. He effects the
sale. The goods are wrapped up, and he
dismisses the customer with q cheerful
stgood morning." and the country merchant
departs so impressed with the straightfor-
wardness Of the young man that he will
come again and again, every spring and
every autumn, unless interfered with.
The young man has been now in that es.
tablishment five years. he unrolls the goods
on the counter. BE says to the customer,
NOW these are the best goods we have in
our establishment" They have better on
the next shelf. He says, I'VE are selling
these goods less than cost" They are max
ing twenty per cent. He says, There is
are fifty shops that want to sell the same
thing. He says, snow. that is q durable
article; it will wash" Yes, it will wash out.
The sale is made, the goods are wrapped
up, the country merchant goes of feeling
that he has an equivalent for his money, and
the sharp clerk goes into the private room OF
the counting house, and he says: well, I
got rid of those goods at last. I really
thought we never would sell them. I told
him we were selling them less than cost, and
he thought he was getting q good bargain \;
the firm says: THAT'S well done, splendidly
donep' Meanwhile God had recorded eight
lies-four lies against the young man, four
lies against his employer, for I undertake to
say that the employer is responsible for all
the iniquities Of his clerks, and all the ini-
quities Of those who are clerks OF these
clerks, down to the tenth generation, II those
employers inculcate6 iniquitous and damn.
ing principles.
: I stand before young men this morning
who are under this pressure. l say, come
out of it. "Ohr' you say, ~ can't; I have
my widowed mother to support, and II a man
loses a situation now he can't get another
one" SAY, come out of it. 60 home to
your mother aud say to her, 'Mother I
can't stay in that shop and be upright: what
shall I dog' and if she is worthy of you she
will say, "Come out of it, my son-we will
just throw ourselves on Him who hath prom
ised to be the God of the widow and the
fatherless; he will take care Of us" And I
tell you no young man ever permanently
suffered by such a course Of conduct.
In Philadelphia, in a drug shop, a young
man said to his employer, " want to please
you, really, and l am willing to sell
medicines on Sunday, but I can't sell this
patent shoe backing on Sunday" "Well,"
said the head man, you will have to do it,
or else you will have to 60 away" The
young mar said. II can't do it.; I am willing
to sell medicines, but not shoe backing"
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 o. Sunday morning; l am willing
to wash it on Saturday afternoon. but, sir,