Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-07-19

| worth OF GOOUS-EOG COuG OI WuIGu
did that man or woman buy or expect
| to buy Now, call that a dishonesty
on the part of the customer. If hoy
runs into store and takes a roll OF
cloth off the counter and sneaks out into
the street, you all join in the cry pell-
nell, 'tStop thiefr' When [ see you go
into a store, not expecting to buy any
thing, but to price things, stealing the
time of the clerk and stealing the time
of his employer, / say, too, Stop theft!
If I were asked which class of per-
sons most need the grace of God amid
their annoyances, 7 would say, DRY
goods clerks All the indignation of
customers about the high prices comes
| Oh the clerk. For instance: A great
| war comes. The manufactures are
closed. The people go off to battle. The
price Of goods runs up. A customer
comes into a store. Goods have gone up.
GLOW much is that worth?'' "a dol
lar GA dollar! Outrageous! A dol
Iari'' Why, who is to blame for the fact
that it has got to be dollar? Does the
Indignation go out to the manufacturers
on the banks of the Merrimac because
they have closed up? No. Does the in
dignation go out toward the employer,
who is out at his country seat? No. 1t
comes on the clerk. He got up the war.
He levied the taxes. He puts up the
rents. Of course, the clerk.
Then a great trial comes to clerks in
the fact that they see the parsimonious
side Of human nature. You talk about
lies behind the counter-there are just
as many lies before the counter. Au-
% yl,0
tised that he would, on a certain occa-
sion, tell the people what was in their
hearts. A crowd assembled, and he
stepped to the front and said: 81 will
tell you what is in your hearts. To buy
cheap and sell dear Oh, lay not aside
your urbanity when you go into a store!
Treat the clerks like gentlemen and Ia
dies, proving yourself to be a gentle
man or lady. Remember that if the
prices are high and your purse is lean
that is no fault Of the clerks. And if
you have son or daughter amid those
perplexities of commercial life, and
such one comes home all worn out,
be lenient, and know that the martyr
at the stake no more certainly needs
the grace of God than our young peo
pie amid the seven times heated exas-
perations of a clerks life.
Inconsiderate Employers.
Then there are all the trials which
come to clerks from the treatment of
inconsiderate employers There are pro-
fessed Christian men who have no more
regard for their clerks than they have
for the scales on which the sugars are
weighed A clerk is no more than so
much store furniture No consideration
for their rights or interests. Not one
word of encouragement from sunrise to
sunset, nor from January to December.
But when anything goes wrong-a
streak Of dust on the counter or box
with the cover Off-thUnder showers of
scolding. Men imperious, capricious,
cranky toward their clerks-their whole
manner as much as to say, "All the in
terest have in you is to see what can
get out of you. =" Then there are all the
trials of incompetent wages, not in
such times as these, when If a man gets
half salary for his services he ought
to be thankful, but I mean in prosper
Gus times Some Of you remember when
the war broke out and all merchandise
went up, and merchants were made
milliOnaires in six months by the SIM
pie rise in the value of goods. Did the
clerks get advantage of that rise? Some
times, not always. I saw estates gath
cred in those times over which the
curse of God has hung ever since. The
cry Of unpaid men and women in those
stores reached the Lord of Sabaoth, and
the indignation of God has been around
those establishments ever since, fash
1pc in +I,o obondo1iorS oil from
the crimson upholstery, rumbling in
the long roll of the tenpin alley. Such
men may build up palaces of merchan-
disc heaven high, but after awhile a
disaster will come along and will put
one hand on this pillar and another
hand on that pillar and throw itself for
ward until down will come the whole
structure, crushing the worshipers as
grapes are mashed in the winepress.
Then there are boys ruined by lack
of compensation. In how many prosper
Gus stores it has been for the last 90 |
years that boys were given just enough |
money to teach them how to steal! |
Some were seized upon by the police.
The vast majority of instances were not
known. The head of the firm asked,
'tWhere is George now?'' ''Oh, he isn't
here any more. - A lad might better
starve to death on blasted heath than
take one farthing from his employer.
Woe be to that employer who unneces-
sarily puts a temptation in boy IS way.
There have been great establishments IN
these cities, building marble palaces,
their owners dying worth millions and
millions and millions, who made vast |
amount Of their estate out of the blood
and muscle and nerve of half paid |
Dlerks Such men as-well, will not |
mention any name. But [ mean men |