The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-01-06

do not dive into proroundS OF learning, anu
yet nearly all through their occupatoh come
TO understand questions OF nance - poI,
tics and geography and JURISPRUDENCE ana
ethics. Business is severe schooitt1 Mistress.
II pupils will not learn, she strikes me over
the head and the heart with ssYer9I losses.
You put $4,000 into an enterprise. ! Is all
gone. You say, THAT is a dead Ess Oh,
no. You are paying the schoolingE That
was only tuition, very large tuitaohE-l told
YOU it was a severe schoolmistrsssE-b but it
was worth it. You learned things un&ler that
process you would not have learned in any
other way.
Traders in grain come to know sPmething
about foreign harvests; traders ID ifuit come
70 know something about the Prospects OF
tropical production; manufactt fers Of
American goods come to under land the
tariff on imported articles; pu fishers Of
books must come to understand Tn new law
of copyright; owners Of ships MT come to
know winds and shoals and navigation; and
every bale Of cotton, and every 4aisln cask,
and every tea box, and everyhcluster OF
bananas IS so much literature fo1 business
man. Now, my brother, what de you go
ing to do with the intelligense! 20 you sup
pose God put you in this school pr informa-
ton merely that you might be sharper in
trade, that you might be more successful as
a wording? Oh, no; it was thtt you might
take that useful information y use it for
'e can i It be that you have beenFdealing with
foreign lands and never had the missionary
spirit wishing the salvation OF foreign pso-
ple9 Can it be that you have become &C.
auainted with all the oatrag.s inflicted in
business life, and that YOU haze never tried
to bring to bear that Gospel which is to ex-
tripate all evil and correct all wrongs aud
illumine all darkness and lift up all wretch
edness and a v men for this world and the
world to come? Can it be that understand.
ing all the intricacies OK business you know
nothing about those things which will last
long after all bills Of exchange and: consign-
ments and invoices and rent rolls shall have
crumpled up and been CONSUMED in the fires
of the last great day? Can It be that = man
will be wise for time and a tol for eternity?
/ remark, also, that business life is a
school for integrity. No nan knows what
he will do when he Is tempted. There are
thousands of men who heve kept their in
tegrity merely because the never have been
tested. A man was e~lecte{ treasurer Of the
State of Maine some yearsago. He was dis.
tiuguished for his honest. usefulness and
uprightness, but before one year had passed
he had taken of the public funds for his own
private use, and was hurl,d out of ofics in
disgrace. Distinguished for virtue before.
Distinguished for crime ater., You can call
over the names of men Just like that, in
whose honesty you had c,mplete confidence,
but placed in certain C rses OF temptation
they went overheard.
ism as now. Not a law d the statute book
but has some back dooi through which a
miscreant can escape. ikhl how many de-
ceptions in the fabric if goods; so much
plundering in commercia life, that il a mar
talk about living a lift OF complete com
mercial accuracy thee are those who
ascriDe it to greenress and lack Of
tact. More need, Of hoiesty now than ever
before-tried honesty, complete honesty,
more than in those TINS when business was
a plain affair, and Wbolens were woolens
and silks were silks anq men were men.
How many men do ybu suppose there are
in commercial Life WhoIcould say truthfully,
'!ln all the sales I hav} ever MADE I have
never overstated the falue of goods; in all
the sales I have ever made Image never
covered up an imperfeStion in the fabric; Of
all the thousands OF dollars I have ever
made I have not takkn one dishonest far.
thing" Thereare men, however, who can
say lt-hundreds Wh0t can say it thousands
who can say it Th1t are more honest than
when they sold tnelF first tiercs Of rice, or
their first |frklp of butter, because
their honesty anu integrity have been
tested, tried ana carried out triumph
ant. But THEY. re1ember a time when
they could hay' robbed a part
nsr; or aIso0ndt WITH the funds
Of a oal+k, sprung a. snap
judgment, or lade a false as.
signment, OF proved illimitably
without any Sfort payment, or got a man
into a shar corn. and heeced him. But
they never Eook ae step on that pathway
OF heli.hre. Theycan say their prayers
without he9ring to clink Of dishonest dol
lars. Theyt can cad their Bible without
thinking Of ithe tire when with Lie N their
soul in the cus1n house they kissed the
Book. They carthink Of death and the
Judgment That cpes after 1t without any
hinching1that dy when all charlatans and
cheats anil jocbys and frauds shall be
doubly dYmnedl It does not make their
knees kncfk togfher and it does not make
their teetA chatta to read 'tas the partridge
stitch ont eggs ind hatcheth them not, so
he that &ertethriches, and not by right,
shall leave them in the midst of his days
and at his end sail be a fool"
Oh. what a soool Of integrity business life
IS! II yPu have ever been tempted to let
your integrity ringe before present advan-
tage: fIyou hare ever Weakened up in some
embarrassment and said: "Now I'll step a
little aside frol the right path and nc one
will know it, ad ru come all right again.
1t is only once Oh, that only once has
ruined items of:housands of men for this life
and blasted thir souls for eternity. It is a
tremendous saool. business life-a school Of
integrity. Anerchant in Liverpool got a
five pound Bek of England note, and hold
ing it fup towrd the light he saw some inter-
lineatfons in that seemed red ink.
DE finally eciphered the letters, and found
out that tn writing had been made by q
slave IN Algtrs, saying in substance, Who
ever gets thi oank note will please to inform
my brother, John Dean, living near Carlisle,
that l am a slave of the hey of Algiers."
Inc nerchait sent word, employed Govern
spoken Of h this bank bill. After awhile
the man wa rescued, who for eleven years
had been a lave Of the hey Of Algiers. he
was Immediately emancipated, but was so
worn out tg hardship and exposure he soon
after died Oh, if some of the bank bills
thai comethrough your hands could tell all
the scenesthrough which they AVE passed,
1t you'd h a tragedy eclipsing any drama
OF SHAKESPEARE, mightier than King Lear or
AS lgoon in this subject, / am impressed
with the Importance Of our having more
sympathy with business men. Is it not a
shame tElt we in our pulpits do not oftener
preach about their struggles. their trials and
their temptations! Men who toll with the
hhnd arenot apt to be very sympathetic with
those wfo toll with the brain. The farmers
Who raia the corn, and the oats, and the
wheat Sometimes are tempted to think that
grain Merchants have an easy time, and
yet thei' profits without giving any equiva-
pent. ,Hato and Aristotle were so opposed
70 merchandise that they declared commerce
to be II > curse of the nations, and they adj
vlSed that cities be built at least ten miles
from tie seacoast.
But you and I know that there are no