Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-12-18


family. and l believed all those things.
out got over it; the fact is, since came
10 town have read great deal. and
nave found that there are a great MANY
.nlngs in the Bible that are ridiculous.
Now for instance, all that about the
serpent being cursed to crawl in the
Garden OF Eden because it had tempted
our hrst parents: why, you see how
ABSURD it's; you can tell. from the very
organization of the serpent that it had to
crawl; it crawled before it was cursed
just as we'll as it crawled afterward: Won
can tell from its organization that it
crawled. Then all that story about the
whale swallowing Jonah, or Jonah swal-
lowing The whale, which was it? Itdon't
~ any dlfference, the thing is absurd;
=. - riuiculous to suppose that man
could have gone down through the laws
OF sea monster and yet kept his life;
why, his respiration would have bcen
nlndered: he would have been digested;
me gastric juice would have dissolved
1he norlne and coagulated albumen, and
conan would have been changed from
prophet into chyle. Then all that story
a a the miraculous onception-why,
IL is perfectly disgraceful. Oh, sir! I
oelleve in the light of nature. This is
the Nineteenth century. Progress, sir;
progress don't blame you, but after
you nave been in town as long as have
you will think just as do.''
thousands of young men are going
oown under that process day by day, and
there Is only here and there a young man
who can endure this artillery of scorn.
They are giving up their Bibles. The
light OF nature! They have the light of
nature in China; they have it in Hindo.
stan; they have it in Ceylon. Flowers
there stars there wavers there. winds
there, but no civilization, no homes, no
happiness. Lancets to cut and iugger-
nauts to fall under and hooks to swing
on, but no happiness.
Young man. hold on to your Bible. 1t
IS the best book you ever owned. 1t will
tell you how to dress, how to bargain,
how to walk, how to act, how to live,
how to die. Glorious Bible! Whether
on parchment or paper, in octave or
duodecimo, on the center table of the
drawing-room or in the counting room
of The banker. Glorious Bible! Light
to our feet and lamp to our path. Hold
on to it!
The second class of insidious tempta-
lions that comes upon our young men is
led on by the dishonest employer Every
commercial establishment is school. IN
nine cases out of ten the principles of
the employer become the principles of
the employee. I ask the older mer-
chants to bear me out in these state
ments. Ii, when you were just starting
in ljfe-in commercial life-you were told
that honesty was not marketable; that,
though you might sell all the goods in
the shop, you must not sell your con-
science; that, while you were to exercise
all industry and tact, you were not to
sell your conscience; if you were taught
that gains gotten.by sin were combusJi-
BILE, and at the moment of ignition would
be blown on by the breath of God until
all the splendid estate would vanish into
white ashes scattered in the whirlwind,
then that instruction has been to you a
precaution and a help ever since.
There are hundreds of commercial es-
Establishments in our great cities which
are educating a class of young men VINO
will be the honor OF the land, and there
are other establishments which are edu-
eating young men to be nothing but
sharpers. What chance is there for a
young man who was taught in an estab-
lishment 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 it pays, and that it is wrong to
steal unless you do it we'll?
Suppose, now, a young man just start
ing in life, enters place of that kind
where there are ten young men, all
drilled in the infamous practices OF the
establishment He is ready to lie
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 wit little beyond what the establish
mcnt demands of him, and he 1leeces a
customer until the clerk is on the verge
of being seized by the law What is done
in the establishment? He is not az.
raigned. The head of the establishment
says to him, ''Now, be careful; be care
full, young man, you might be caught:
but really that was splendidly done: you
will get along in the world, l warrant
YOU" Then that young man goes up un.
| til he becomes head clerk. He has found
there is premium on iniquity.
One morning the employer comes to
the establishment. He goes into his
counting room and throws up his hands
and shouts, "Why, the safe has been
robbed!' What is the matter? Moth.
ing; only the clerk who has been prac
ticing good while on customers is prac.
ticing little on the employer. No new
principle introduced into that establish.
ment. 1t is poor rule that will not
work both ways. You must never steal
unless you can do it we'll. He did it WELL
1 am not taking an abstraction; I an
taking terrible and a crushing fact
Now here is a young man. Look al
him to-day. Look at him five years
from now, after he has been under tria
in such an establishment. Here he
stands in the shop to-day, his cheeks
ruddy with the breath of the hills HI
unroIIs the goods on the counter in gen.
tlemanly style. He commends them tc
the purchaser. He points out all the
good points in the fabric. He effects the
sale. The goods are wrapped up, and
he dismisses the customer with cheer.
full ''good morning." and the country
merchant departs so impressed with the
straightforwardness of the 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