The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-07-24

who do not learn how to obey will
never learn how TO command. l will
tell YOU what young man will make
ruin. financial and moral; it is the
young man who thrusts his thumb
into his vest and says: Nobody shall
dictate to me. | am my own master;
| will not submit TO the regulations Of
this house" Between an establish
ment in which all the employees
are under thorough discipline and the
establishment in which the employees
do about as they choose, is the differ
ence between success and failure
between rapid accumulation and bank
ruptcy. Do not come to the store ten
minutes after the time. Be there
within two seconds, and let it be two
seconds before, instead of two seconds
after. Do not think anything too in
significant to do well. Do not say:
''It's only just once" From the most
important transaction in
down to the particular style in which
you tie n string around n bundle, obey
orders. Do not get easily Disguised.
While others in the store may lounge,
or fret, or complain, You go with ready
hands, and cheerful face, n content
ed spirit to your work. When the
bugle sounds, the good soldier asks no
questions, but shoulders his k%napsack,
fills his cantecn and listens for the
command of March,
Again, 1 counsel clerks to search out
what are the unlawful and dishonest
demands of an establishment, and re-
sist them. In the 5000 years that have
passed, there has never been an occa-
sion when it was one's duty to sin
against God. 1t is never right to do
wrong. If the head men of the firm
expect of you dishonesty, disappoint
them. oh" you say, Il should lose
my place then" Better lose your place
than lose your soul. But you will not
lose your place. Christian heroism is
always honored. Eou go to the head
man of your store, and say: "Sir, l
want to serve you; | want to oblige
you; it is from no lack of industry on
my part: but this thing seems to me to
be wrong, and it is a sin against my
conscience, it is u sin against God, and
/ beg you, sir, to excuse me-" He may
flush up and swear, but he will cool
down, and he will have more admira-
ton for you than those who submit to
his evil dictation; and while they sink,
you will rise. Do not, a of
seeming temporary advantage, give up
your character, young man. Under
God, that is the only thing you have to
build on. Give up that, you give up
everything. That employer asks a
young man to hurt himself for time and
for eternity, who expects him to make a
wrong entry, OF change an invoice, or
say goods cost so much when they
cost less. OF impose upon the verdancy
of a customer, or m-isrepresent a style
of fabric. How dare he demand of you
anything so insolent?
Again, 1 counsel all clerks to con-
quer the trials of their particular posi-
ton. One great trial for clerks is the
reconsideration of customers. There
are people who are entirely polite ev-
e~rywhere else, but gruff and dictato-
rial and contemplate when they come
into a store to buy anything. There
are thousands of men and ONE who
go from store to store to price things,
without any idea of purchase. They
are not satisfied until every roll of
goods is brought down 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,
anu lHGl pun On ali obN Z VI ClOdhS
and walk to the mirror to see how
they look, and then they sail out of
the store, saying: 81 will not take it
to-day which means, 81 don't want it
atall," leaving the clerk amid a wreck
of ribbons, and laces, and cloths, to
smooth ont a thousand dollars worth
of goods-not one cent of which did
that man or woman buy or expect to
- ~. III A. 4,
the part of the customer. If a boy
into a store and takes a roll of
cloth off the counter, and snealSs ont
into the street, you all join in the cry
pen NELL: stop THEIR When 1 sea
you going into n store, not expecting
to buy anything, but to price things.
stealing the time of the clerk and
stealing the time of his employer, l
say. too: stop, THEIR
IL / were asked which class of per-
pons most need the grace of God amid
annoyanees, ! would shy dry
goods clerks" All the indignation of
customers about the high prices comes
the clerk. For instances: A great
war comes. The manufactures are
The people go off to battle.
The price of goods runs up. A Gus
comes into a store. Goods have
gone mp. Glow much is that WORTH"
dollar" "A dollar? Outrageous!
A dollar?" Why, who is to blame for
the fact that it has got to be a dollar?
Does the Indignation go out to the
manufacturers on the banks of the
Merrimac, because they have closed
up? No. Does the indignation go out
the employer, who is out at
country seat? No. 1t comes on
the clerk. He got up the warl He
the taxes! He puts up the rentsl
OF course, the clerk!
Then there ore all the trials which
come to clerks from the treatment of
inconsiderate employers. There are
professed Christian men who have no
regard for their clerks than they
have for the scales on which h sugars
are weighed. A clerk is no more tina
SO much store furniture. No consider
alton for their rights or interests. Not
one word of encouragement from sun
rise to sunset, nor from January to
December. But when anything goes
wrong-a streak of ust on the counter,
Il box with the cover off-thunder
showers of scolding. Men im%perious,
capricious, cranky toward their clerks
whole manner as much as to
"AlI the interest nave in you
is to see what ! can get out of you"
Then, there are boys ruined by lack
of compensation. In how many pros
porous stores it has been for the last
20 years that boys were given just
enough none to teach them how To
steal! Some were seized upon by the
The vast majority of instances
were not known. The head of the firm
Where is George now?" "Oh,
isn't here any more" A lad might
better starve to death on n blasted
heath than take one farthing from his
employer. Woe be to that employer who
unnecessarily puts a temptation in a
boys way. There have been great
establishments in these cities, build
ing marble palaces, their owners dy-
ing worth millions, n millions, and
millions, who made n vast amount OF
their estate out of the blood, and mus
Gle, and nerve of half-paid clerks. c
Oh, what a contrast between those
men and Christian merchants who to-
day are sympathetic with their clerks
they pay the salary, acting in
this way: ''This salary that | give you
- ,o+ ,lI u,r in+arnct in won Won Dra /