The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-07-24

Sorts OIL thlngS. -EzeRIel SAFl., -.
We are at the opening door of returning
National prosperity. The coming crops, the
re-estabishment of public confidence and.
above all. the blessing of God will turn in
upon all sections Of America the widest,
greatest prosperity this country has ever
seen. But that door OF success is not yet
fully open, and thousands of business men
are vet suffering from the distressing times
through which we have been passing.
Some Of the best men in the land have
faltered men whose hearts are enlisted in
every good work and whose hands have
blessed every great charity. The church OF
God can afford to extend to them her SYM
pathies and plead before heaven with all
availinG prayer. The schools such men nave
established, the churches they have built,
the asylums and beneficent institutions they
have fostered will be their eulogy long after
their banking institutions are forgotten.
Such men can never fail. They have their
treasures in banks that never break and will
be millionaires forever. But Thought IT
would be appropriate to-day and useful tor
me to talk about the trials and temptations
of our business men and try to offer some
curative prescriptions.
In the first place, have to remark that
great many of our business men feel ruinous
trials and temptations coming to thcm from
small and limited capital in business. 1t Is
everywhere understood that 1t now lakes
three or four times is much to do business
well than it once did. Once few hundred
dollars were turned int goods. The mer-
chant would be his own storekeeper. his own
salesman, his own bookkeeter He would
manage all the affairs himself, and every
thing would be net profit. Wonderful
changes have come. Costly apparatus, ex-
tensive advertising, exorbitant store rents.
heavy taxation. expensive agencies are only
parts Of the demand made upon our COM
mercial 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. Some
times they have shrunk down under the
temptation. They have yielded the battle
before the first shot was fired. At the first
hard dun they surrendered. Their knees
knocked together at the fall of the auction
GERS hammer. They blanched at the finaa-
cial peril. They did not understand that
there is such thing rs heroisn in merchan-
disc and that there are Waterloos OF the
counter aud that a man can fight no Drawer
battle with the sword than he can with the
yardstick. Their souls melted in them be-
cause sugars 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 or
their countenances overshadowed even their
dry goods and groceries. Dependency,
coming from limited capital. blasted them.
Others have felt it in different way. They
have said: Here I have been trudging
along have been trying to be honest all
these years. 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 spec
ulation. He borroWs few thousand dollars
from friends who dare not refuse him, and he
goes bartering on large scale. He reasons
in this way. :'Perhaps may succeed, and X
I don't will be 10 worse off than am now,
for 100000 taken from nothing. nothing re-
mains
Stocks are the dice with which he gam
bles. He bought for a few dollars vast tracts
of Western land. Some man at the East. liv-
ing on fat homestead, meets this gambler
OF fortune and is persuaded to trade off his
estate for lots in Western city, with large
avenues. and costly palaces, and lake steam
ers 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 rail-
roads constructed, but everything points that
way. and the thing will be done as sure as
you live. Well, the man goes on, stopping
at no fraud or outrage. In his splendid
equipage he dashes past, while the honest
laborer looks up and wipes the sweat from
his brow and says, II wonder where that
man got all his money?' After a while the
bubble bursts. Creditors rush in. The law
clutches, but finds nothing in its grasp. The
men who were swindled say, II don't know
how could have ever been deceived by that
man." and the pictorials, in handsome wood
cuts, set forth the hero who in ten years had
IL foI Co.. =
And that is the process by which many
have been tempted through Limitation Of
capital to rush into labyrinths from which
they could not be eXtricated. I would not
want to chain honest enterprise. I would
not want to block up any OF the avenues for
honest accumulation that open before young
men. On the contrary, would like to cheer
them on and rejoice when they reach the
goal. but when there are such 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 it is
the duty of the Church Of God, and the minis
tiers Of religion, anu the friends OF all young
men, to utter plain, emphatic, unmls-
taxable protest. These are the influences
that drown men in destruction and per-
dition.
Again, a great many Of our business men
are tempted to overanXlety and care. You
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 BIZ rich at all hazards.
They do not care how money comes If it
only comes. Our best merchants are thrown
into competition with men OF more means
and less conscience, and if an opportunity
OF accumulation be neglected one hour
some one else picks it up. From
January to December the struggle goes
on. Night gives no quiet to limbs toss
ing in restlessness nor to brain that
narrowed by imaginary loss and flushed
with imaginary gains. Even the Sab
bath cannot dam back the tide of anxiety
for this wave of worldliness dashes clear
over the churches and leaves its foam on
Bibles and prayer books. Men who are
living on salaries or by the cultivation of the
soil cannot understand the wear and tear Of
the body and mind to which our merchants
are subjected when they do not know but
that their livelihood and their business
honor IRE dependent upon the uncertainties
of the next hour. This excitement OF the
brain, this corroding care Of the heart. this
strain of effort that eXhauSts the spirit,
sends great many Of our best men in mid
die life into the grave, their life dashed out
against money safes. They 90 with their
store on their backs. They trudge like cam
els, sweating. from Aleppo 10 damascus
They make their life a crucifXion. Stand
ing behind desks and counters, banished
from the fresh air, weighed down by cark-
ing cares. they are so many suicides. Oh.
wish could to-day rub out some Of these
lines OF care; that could lift some OF the
burdens from the heart; that I could give
relaxation to some Of these worn muscles.
1t is time for you to begin to take it little
easier. Do your best and then trust Col
for the rest. Do not fret. God manages all
the affairs Of your life, and He manages
khnno for the hest Consider the lilies They