St. Landry democrat., 1893-04-01
Business.


Webster attaches only six meanings
to business, but it has at least five hun
dred.
1t is the generic term for all the null
hilarious employments of mankind, and
1t is inextricably mixed up not only
with the coarser affairs of life, but also
with its romance. Poetry, Love, and
| even Religion, are compelled to avail
! themselves of its matter of fact fellow
! ship; and whoever would scale the
height where "Fame's proud temple
shines AFFAIR." must depend upon it as the
mountain climbing Swiss u pom his al
penstock. Write .-l epic or a novel,
and when Imagination has finished the
Work, the next business is its publca-
ton. lou may look upon it with your
"e.Ee in fine frenzy rolling; but the en-
inent firm of Mc1ype s. Co. won't see
it in that light at all. They will scan
| 1T with a single eye to the main chance,
camille value. Business, they will tell
you, is dull, if they think your produc-
ton will not "take." II you have al
ready made name in literature, either
10y the force of inherent merit or through
tlie interest of the Mutual Admiration
Society, they will, and very properly
too, pay you a round sum for that, be-
cause fame is a business staple, while
uncertiiied thoughts that breathe and
words that burn !" are worth but little in
a business point of view"
When Milton was " inglorious Mil
ton,' the great publishers pooh -pooheh
his manuscript; nor have tho trade"
altered much since his time. During
the later years of his life, Tennyson
could sell line of his manuscript for
more money than he could have obtain
ed for ream of it when he was but
beginntr, and could boast no insignia
of the tickle goddess. Nor can it be
ems were possessed of superior merit;
as a brief examination of his works will
prove.
The publishers are not to be blamed,
however, for not throwing away money
on the efforts of unknown genns.
" Business is business" and it is their
business to make safe bargains. When
an author has gained celebrity, it is his
business to make it pay See? The
lover is apt to be interrupted in the
midst of his ecstatics and beautiful
dreaming, by parental inquiries about
his business prospects: and it he doesn't
happen to have any, the chances are
that he will be told to 20 about his busi-
ness. Thus doth the prose of life Ger
lap its poetry. Young ladies, too, in
this slrewd age, not iufreqnently make
it their business to ascertain, before
they pair, whether the matrimonial nest
is likely to be lined with golden feath-
ers. 1t not they seldom object to sacri-
tlcC preference to prudence; sagaciously
deeming that love without lucre is de-
cidedly poor business. In fact, the
modern Temple of Love, like the an
cient Temple a Jerusalem, is much in
tested with trallicers; and marriage en-
gagements, like government contracts,
are in many instances 90 better than ve-
nal business transactions. Tins it is that,
for good or for evil, what is called "busi-
ness is interviewer with all human in
tercourse. Life itself is Il business-and
not very paying one, rs most of Us
find ont bnt since the day will come
wherein VIC shall have to redeem all
notes and settle all debts in full, it be- ,
comes our business to so fulfill all the
duties which it imposes upon US that !
our assets shall outbalance our liabil- ,
ties, and it shall prove a good business
for us in the end.
ADDIE NJ. HUMBLE.