The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1895-07-19

III an VI tHiiSS.
We are at the opening door of re-
burning national prosperity. The COM
ing crops, the re-establishment of pub
liz confidence, and, above all. the bless
ang of God, will turn in upon all sections
Of America the widest. greatest prosper
'aty. this country has even seen. But
that door of successes is not yet fully
open. and thousands Of business men
are yet suffering from the distressing
times through which we have been
passing.
Some Of the best men in the land have
lfaitered; men whose hearts are en-
listed in every good work, and whose
hands have blessed every great char
isty. The Church Of God can afford to
extend to them her sympathies. and
plead before heaven with al~l-availing
prayer. The schools such men have es-
f~ablished, the churches they hav built,
the asylums and beneficent institutions
they have fostered, will be their eulo-
gy long after their banking institutions
are forgotten. Such men can never
fall. They have their treasures in n
that never break, and will be Million
aires forever. But L thought it would
be appropriate, to-day, and useful, for
me to talk about the trials and tempta-
lions of our business men, and try to
offer some curative prescriptions.
In the first place, 1 LAY 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. 1t is everywhere
understood that it takes now three or
-four times as much to do business well
las once 1t did. Once, a few hundred
dollars were turned into g~oods-the
merchant would be his own store
sweeper. his own salesman, his own
~bookkeeper; he would manage all the
Affairs himself, and everything would
be net profit. Wonderful changes have
come; costly apparatus. extensive ad-
Tertis.ng. eXorbitant store rents, heavy
taxation, expensive agencies are only
parts of the demand made upon u
COMMERCIAL men; and when they have
found themselves in such circum-
ietances with small capital. they have
sometimes beer tempted to run against
the rocks Of moral and financial de-
struction. This temptation Of limited
capital has ruined men in two ways.
Sometimes they have shrunk dow I'M
der the temptation. They have yielded
the battle before the first shot was
fired. At the first hard dun they sur
rendered. Their knees knocked to-
gether at the fall of the auctioneer's
hammer. They blanched at the finan-
cial peril. They did not understand
fhat there is such a thing as heroism
in merchandise, and that there are
Waterloos of the counter, and that a
man can fight no Drawer battle with
the swo-1 than he can with the yard
stick. rheir souls melted in them be-
cause sugars were up when they
wanted to buy, and down when they
wanted to sell, and unsaleable goods
were on the shelf, and bad debts in
their ledger. The gloom of their coun-
tenances overshadowed even their dry
goods and groceries. Dependency,
coming from limited capital. blasted
them. others have felt it in a differ
ent way. They have said: Here I have
been trudging along. 1 ave been try
ing to be honest all these years. I
find it is of no use. Now it is make or
break" The small craft that could
have stood the stream, is put out be-
yond the lighthouse, on the great sea
of speculation. He borrowS a few thou
sand dollars from friends, who dare
not refuse him, and he goes bartering
on a large scale. He reasons in this
way: Perhaps. 1 may succeed, and if
I don't 1 will be no worse off than I
am now, for a hundred thousand dol
lars taken from nothing. nothing re-
mains" Stocks are the dice with which
he CANDLES. He b@"ght for a few dol
lars 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 es-
tate, for lots in a western city with
large avenues. and costly palaces. and
lake steamers smoking at the wharves.
and rail-trainS coming down with
lightning speed from every direction.
There it is all on paper! The city has
never been built, nor the railroads con-
structed, but everything points that
way, and the thing will be done as sure
as YOU live. Will, the man goes on,
stopping at no fraud of outrage. In
his splendid equipage he dashes past,
while the honest laborer looks up, and
wines tie sweat from his brow, and
saws. 81 wonder where that man got
all his money" After awhile the bub-
b]e bursts, Creditors rush in. The law
clutches but finds nothing in its grasp.
The me ! who were Swindled say: Il
don't know how 1 could have ever
been deceived by that man" and the
pictorials, in handsome wood-cuts, set
forth the hero who in ten years had
genius enough to fail for $50, 900!
And hat is the process by which
MANY have been tempted through limi-
tation of capital. to rush into laby-
rinths from which they could not be ex-
tricated. 1 would not want TO block
ND any Of the avenues for honest accu-
mutation tina open before young men.
On the contrary. 1 would like to cheer
them on, and rejoice when they reach
the goal; but when there are such null
titudes of men going to ruin for this
life and the life hat is to come, through
wrong notions of what are awful
spheres OF enterprise, it is the duty of
h Church Of God. and the ministers
of religion, and the friends of all
young men. to utter a plain, emphatic,
unmistakable protest. These are the
influences that drown men in destruc-
ton and perdition.
Again: a great many OF u business
men are tempted to over-anxiety and
care. You know that nearly all COM
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