Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-08-02


What an awful six weeks In commercial
circles! The crashing of banks from San
francisco to New York and from oce,n -
ocean. The complete uncertainty that has
halted all styles Of business for three montbs
and the pressure of the money market for the
last year have put all bargain makers at
their wits end. Some of the best men T.;
the land have faltered-men whose bea,ts
are enlisted in every good work and
whose hands have blessed every great
charity. The church OF God can AFFORD 10
extend TO them her sympathies and plead be-
fore heaven with all availing prayer. The
schools such men have established. tho
churches they have built, the asylums and
benehcent institutions they have fostered
will be their eulOgy long after their bankfn,
institutions are forgotten.
Such men can never fail They have tbef,
treasures IN banks that never break and will
be mLlOnaires forever. The strinyency OF
the money market, l am glad to say. begin,
10 relax. May the wisdom OF Almighty God
come down upon our National Legislature M
their eOnyenlng next month in Washington
and such results be reached as shall restore
confidence and revive trade and multipIv
prOsperities Yet not only now in the tim.
Of financial disaster, but all through life onr
active business people have a struggle. and |
think 1t Will be appropriate and useful for
me 70 talk about their trials and try to ofYe,
some curative prescriptions.
In the first place, / have to remark that a
great many OF our business men feel ruinous
trials and temptations coming to them from
small and limited capital in business II is
everywhere understood that il takes now
three or four times as much to do business
well "a once It did. Once a few hundred dol
lars were turned into goods-the merchant
would be his own store sweeper his own
salesman, his own bookkeeper. He would
manage all the affairs himself, and every.
thing would be net profit WonderfuI
changes have come. Costly apparatus, ex
tensIve advertising, exorbitant store rents
heavy Taxation, expensive agencies, are
only parts OF the demand made upon our
commercial men, and when they have found
themselves in such circumstances with small
capital they have sometimes been tempted TO
run against the rocks of moral and financial
destruction.
This temptation of limited capital has
ruined men in two ways. Sometimes they
have shrunk down under the temptation
They have yielded the battle before the frs
shot was fired. At the first hard gun the,
surrendered. Their knees knocked togethe'
at the fall Of the auctioneers hammer The,
olsnched at the financial peril. They di,,
not understand that there Is such a thing a
heroism in merchandise, and that there are
Waterloos of the counter, and that a man
can fight no Drawer battle with the sword than
he can with the Yardstick.
Their souls melted in them because sugar,
were up when they wanted to buy and down
when they wanted to sell and unstable
goods were on the shelf and bad debts in
their ledger. The gloom of their counte-
nances OvershadOwed even their dry goods
and groceries. Dependency, coming from
limited capital. blasted them. Others have
felt il in different way. They have said
"Hers have been trudging along. l have
been trying to be honest all these years. l
find 1t Is OF no use. Now 1t Is make or
break"
The small craft that could have stood the
stream is put out beyond the lighthouse on
the great sea of speculation. Stocks are the
dice With which he CANDLES. He bought for
few dollars vast tracts of western land.
Some man at the east living on a fat home
stead meets this gambler of fortune and is
persuaded to trade Off his estate here for lots
In western city with large avenues and
costly palaces and lake steamers smoking at
the wharves ana rail trains coming down
with lightning speed from every direction.
There il is all on paper! The city has never
been built nor the railroads constructed, but
everything points that way, and the thing
will be done as sure as you live. And that
is the process by which many have been
tempted through limitation of capital into
labyrinths from which they could not be ex-
tdcated
l would not want to chain honest enter
prise. would not want to block up any of
the avenues for honest accumulation that
open DtlOEt young men. On the l.
would like to cheer them on and rejoice
when they reach the goal, but when there are
snch multitudes of men going to ruin for
this life and the life that is to come through
wrong notions OF what are lawful spheres OF
enterprise il Is the duty of ministers of re-
hgion and the friends Of all young men to
utter a plain, emphatic, unmistakable pro-
test. These are the influences that drown
men in destruction and perdition.
Again, great many of our business mer
,taI 20 rfatrr
know that nearly all commercial businesses
are overdOne in this day. Smitten with the
love of quick gain, our cities are crowded
with men resolved to be rich at ell hazards.
They do not care how money comes. Our
best merchants are thrown into competition
with men of moro means and less conscience,
and IL an opportunity Ofaccumulation be ne
elected one hour some one else picks il up.
From January to December the struggle goes
ON. Night gives no quiet to limbs tossing in
Testlessness, nor to a brain that will not stop
thinking. The dreams are narrowed by
imaginary loss and flashed with imaginary
gains. Even the Sabbath cannot dam back
the tide of anxiety, for this wave of worldli-
hess dashes clear over the churches and
caves its foam on Bibles and prayer books.
Men who are living on salaries or by the
culture of the soil cannot understand the
wear and tear of body and mind to which
our merchants are subjected when they do
not know but that their livelihood and their
business honor are dependent upon the un-
certainties Of the next hour. This excite
ment Of the brain, this corroding care Of the
heart, this strain of effort that exhausts the
spirit, sends a great many Of our best men in
midlife to the grave. They find
that Wall street does not end at the East
River 1t ends at Greenwood Their life
dashed ont against money safes. They go
with their store on their back. They trudge
like camels, sweating from Aleppo to Damas-
Gus They make their life a cruciflXion-
Standing behind desks and counters, ban
ished from the fresh air, weighed down py
sarking cares, they are so many suicides.
Oh, wish could to-day rub out some o.
these lines of care that could lift some OF
the burdens from the heart that L could
give relaxation to some OF these worn
muscles It is time for you to begin to take
II a little easier. Do your best, and then
trust God for the rest Do not fret Goo
manages all the affairs of your life, and He
manages them for the best. Consider the
lilies-they always have robes. Behold the
fowls OF the air-they always have nests.
Take a long breath. Bethtnk betimes that
God did not make you pack horse Dig
yourselves out from among the hogsheads
and the shelves, and in the light OF the hqlY
Sabbath day resolve that you will give to the
winds your fears, and your fretfulness, and
your distresses. You brought nothing into
the world, and 1t Is very certain you can
carry nothing out. Having food ana
The merchant came home from the store
There had been great disaster there. He
opened the front door and said in the midst
OF his family circle: T am ruined: Ev-
erything Is gone. 1 am all ruinedE HIS
wife said, 'I am left" and the little child
threw up its hands and said, "Papa, am
here" The aged grandmother seated in the
room said, "Then you have all the promises
Of God beside, John" And he burst into
tears and said "Ged forgive me that have
been so ungrateful 1 find I have great
many things left. God forgive me"
Again, remark that many OF our business
men are tempted to neglect their home duties.
How often 1t Is that the store and the nome
seem to clash, but there ought not to be any
collision. It is often the case that the father
is the nero treasurer of the family, a sort OF
agent to see that they have dry goods and
groceries. The work OF family government
he does not touch, Once or twice In a year
he calls the children up on Sabbath aiter.
noon when he has half hour he does not