The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1895-07-18

\ subject Of universal interest, viz
sI3usiness Troubles" the text se-
locted being Ezekiel xvii, "a
THESE were thy merchants in all
sorts Of things. F"
We afe' at the opening door OF
returning national prosperity. The
comning crops, the re-establish-
ment of public confidence, and,
above oil, TIE blessing of God, will
turn ia upon all sections of Ameri-
ca the widest, greatest prosperity
this country has ever seen. But
that door of success is not yet full
IN open, and thousands of business
men are yet suffering from the dis
tressing times through which ne
have been passing.
Some of the best men iii the
land have faltered men whose
hearts are enlisted in every good
work, and whose hands have bless
cd every great charity. The
Church Of God can afford to- ex-
tend to them her sympathies, and
plead before heaven with all-avail-
ing prayer. The schools such
men have established, the churches
they have built, tic asylums and
beneficeut institutions they have
fostered will be their eulogy long
after their banking Institutions are
forgotten. Such men can never
fail. They have their treasures ia
banks that never break, and will
be millionaires forever. But !
thought it would 30 appropriate,
today, and useful for me To talk
about the trials and temptations
of our business men, and try to
offer some curative prescriptions.
In the first place, I have to re-
mark that d great many Of our
business men feel ruinous trials
and temptations coming to them
from small and limited capital ia
business. Itsis everywhere under
stood that it takes now three or
four times as much to do business
we'll as once it did. Once, d few
hundred dollars were turned into
goods the merchant would be his
own store-sweeper, his own sales
man, his own book-keeper, he
would manage Ill the affairs him
self, and everything would be net
profit Wonderful changes have
come; costly apparatus, extensive
advertising, eXorbitant store rents,
heavy taxation, expensive agen-
cies are only parts Of the demand
made upon our commercial men !;
and when they have found them
selves in such circumstances with
small capital, they have sometimes
been 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 down under temptation.
They have Yielded to the battle
before the first shot was fired. AT
the first hard dun they surrender
ed. Their knees knocked together
at the fall Of the auctioneer's
hamer. They blanched at the fi-
nancial peril. They did not un-
derstand that there issuch a thing
as heroism in merchandise, and
that there are Waterloos Of tho
connter, and that man can fight
no Drawer battle with the sword
than he can fight with the yard
stick Their souls melted in them
because sugars were up when they
wanted to buy aud down when they
wanted to sell, and unstable
goods were on tee shelf, and bad
debts in their ledger. The gloom of
their countenances overshadowed
even their dry goods sndgroceries.
Dependency, coming from limit
ed capital, blasted them. Others
have felt tin a different way. They
have said: Here | have been
trudging along. have been try
ing TO be honest all these years. /
find it is no use. Now it is make
or break" The small craft that
coald have stood the stream, is
put out beyond the light house, on
the great sea of speculation. Ho
borrows few thousand dollars
from friends who dare not refuse
him, and he goes bartering on
large scale. He reasons in this way