Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-07-28

SlITtt TO your WORK WneI Int buglt
sounds, the good soldier asks no questions
hut shoulders his knapsack, fills his canteen
and listens for the command of .'Marchl'
DO not get the idea that your interests
and those of your employer are antagonis-
tie. His success will be your honor. His
embarrassment will be your dismay. Ex-
pose mono Of the frailties of the firm. Tell
no store secrets. Do not blab. Rebuff those
persons who come to find out from clerks
what ought never to be known outside the
store. Do not he among those young men
who take on a mysterious air when some
thing Is said against the firm that employs
them. as much as to say, II could tell you
something if would, but won't" Do not
he among those who imagine they can build
themselves up by pulling somebody else
down. Be not ashamed to be u subaltern
Again, ] counsel all clerks to conquer the
trials of their particular position. One
great trial for clerks is the reconsideration
Of customers. There are people who are
entirely polite everywhere else, but gruff
and dictatoriai and contemplate when they
come into store to buy anything. There
are thousands of men and women who go
from store to store to price things, without
any idea of purchase. They are not salts
fed until every roll of goods is brought
iown and they have pointed out all the real
Or imaginary defects. They try on all kinds
of kid gloves and stretch them out of shape,
and they put on all styles of
ttohk anu Wath W tht 10 see
now thev look. and then they sail out
If the store. saying, Il will not take it to-
lay which means, Il don't want it at all,
eavinS the clerk amid a wreck of ribbons
md laees and cloths to smooth out a
thousand dollars worth of goods-not a
cent of which did that man or woman buy
Or expect to buy. Now | call that n dis
honesty on the part of the customer. II
boy runs into store and takes a roll OF
cloth of the counter and sneaks out into
the street, you all join in the cry pell-mell
"Stop thiefl' When see you go into a
store, not expecting to buy anything, but
to price things, stealing the time of the
clerk and stealing the time of his employer.
say, too, "Stop theft
II I were asked which class of persons
nOst needed the grace of God amid their
,nnoyances, l would say, DRY goods
.lerks.'' All the Indignation of customers
about the high prices comes on the clerk.
For instance: great war comes on. The
manufactures are closed. The people go
ofY to battle. The price of goods runs up.
customer comes into store. Goods have
yoneup. ''How much is that worth?" "A dol
ar.""A dollar! Outrageousl A dOllarl'' Why
who is to blame for the fact that it has got
20 be "A dollar? Does the Indignation go
)ut to the manufacturers on the banks of
:he Merrimac because they have closed up?
10. Does the Indignation go out toward
he employer, who is at his country seat
10. 1t comes on the clerk. He got up the
var. He levied the taxes. He puts up the
'ents. OF course, the clerk.
Then there are all the trials which come
o clerks from the treatment of incOnsider-
tie employers. There are professed Chris
ian men who have no more regard for their
Jerks than they have for the scales on
which the sugars are weighed. A clerk is
10 more than so much store furniture. No
consideration for their rights or interests.
lot one word of encouragement from sun
ise to sunset nor from January to Decem-
YER. But when anything goes wrong-a
treak of dust on the counter or box with
he cover oT-thunder showers of scolding.
len imperious. capricious, cranky toward
heir clerks-their whole manner as much
$ to say, ''All the interest have in you is to
ee what can get out of you Then there
re all the trials Of Incompetent wages. not
n such times AS these, when if a man gets
ialf salary for his services he ought
o be thankful, but l mean in prosper
rus times. Some of you remember when
he war broke out and all merchandise
GENT up. and merchants We're made mil
ionaires in six months by the simple rise
n the value OF goods. Did the clerks get
advantage of that rise? Sometimes, not
tlways. / saw estates gathered in those
lines over which the curse of God has hung
,ver since. The cry of unpaid men and
women in those stores reached the Lord of
NatiaDCn, ana the lnulSH4Iipn pl trOl HIS
)eeH around those establishments ever since,
iashing in the chandeliers, glowing from
he crimson upholstery, rumbling in the
ong roll OF the tenpin alley. Such men
nay build up palaces of merchandise
heaven high, but after awhile "A disaster
will come along and will put one hand on
his pillar and another hand on that pillar
md throw itself forward until down will
come the whole structure, crushing the
yorshipers as grapes are mashed in the
yinepresS.
Then there are boys ruined by lack of
compensation. In how many prosperous
torres it has been for the last twenty years
hat boys were given just enough money
TO teach them how to steal Some were
seized upon by the police. The vast
majority of instances We're not known.
The head of the firm asked, Where is
George now?" 'Oh. he isn't here any
more" A lad might better starve to death
on a blasted heath than take one farthing
from his employer. Woe be to that employer
who unnecessarily puts temptation in a
boys way. There have been Great establish
L,snts in these cities, building marble pa
i.lces their owners dying worth millions and
millions and Millions who made a vast
amount of their estate out of the blood and
muscle and nerve of half paid clerks. such
m an as-well, | will not mention any name.
But l mean men who have gathered up vast
estates at the expense of the people who
were ground under their heel. "Oh," say
such merchants, ''if you don't like it here,
tn. II go and get better placer As much
As say: I've got you in my grip, and
mean to hold you. You can't get any other
place.
Oh what a contrast between those mel
and Christian merchants who to-day are
sympathetic with their clerks-when they
pay the salary, acting in this way: This
salary d at | give You is not all my interest
rtul
m immortal woman. l am Interested in
your present and your everlasting welfare
| want you to understand that IL am a
little higher mp in this store i am beside
you in Christian sympathy" Go back for.
ty or fifty years to Arthur Tappen's
enemies never questioned his honesty
Every morning he brought all the
| clerks and the accountants and tn,
weighers into IA room for devotion
They sang, they prayed. they exhorted.
On Monday morning the clerks were asked
where they had attended church on the
previous day and what the sermons were
about 1t must have sounded strangely
that voice of praise along the streets where
the devOtees of Mammon were counting
their golden beads. You say, Arthur Tap
pen failed. Yes, he was unfortunate, like a
great many good men, but l understand he
met all his obligations before he left this
| world, and know that he died in the peace
| OF the gospel and that he il before the
throne Of God to-day-fOrever blessed. Il
| that be failing, wish you might all fail.
There are great many young men and
| Young women who want a word of encour-
| agement-Christian encouragement. One
smile of good cheer would be worth mor'
! to them o-morrow morning in their place.
| Of business than u present of SIS, 900 ter
| years hence. Oh remember the appre
| hensiOn and the tremor of entering IA pro
] fession. / remember very well the ma
| who greeted me in the ecclesiastical cour
with the tip ends of the long fingers of tn
left hand. and remember the other ma
who took my hand in both OF nis and SAT-
God bless you, my brother. You have el
tered n glorious profession. Be faithful
God, and He will see you through
| Why. | feel this minute the thri
Of that handshaking, though the ma
who gave me the Christian gr
has been in heaven twenty years. The
I are old men here to-day who can look bao
to forty years ago, when some one said
kind word to them. Now, old men, p;