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

E4lK ~ NIzin our text Lydia,
fN&AEAk ASkAMWh the Christian sales
4nh10A'~A 1N women The other
Rev rALNA'E' ext shows you Z
man with n head. and hand, and heart,
and foot all busy toiling on up until
he gains a princely success. ''Seest
thou a man diligent in his business!
He shall stand before kings"
Great encouragement in these two
passages for men and w omen who will
be busy, but no solace for those who
are waiting for good luck to show
them, at the foot of the rainbow, 4
casket of buried gold. 1t is folly for
anybody in the world to wait for some
thing to turn up. 1t will turn down.
The law of thrift is as memorable as
the law of the tides. Fortune, the
magician, may wave her wand in that
direction until castles and palaces
come; but she will, after awhile, invert
the same wand, and all the ~splendors
will vanish into thin air.
There are certain styles of behavior
which LEAD to usefulness, honor and
permanent success, and there are GER
tain STYLES of behavior which lea to
dust. dishonor and moral default. /
would like to fire the ambition of
young people. l have no sympathy
with those who would prepare young
folks for life by whiting down their
expectations. That man or woman
will be worth nothing to church or
state who begins life cowed down.
The business of Christianity is not to
uuench but to direct human ambition.
Therefore, it is that l utter words of
encouragement to those who are occu-
pied as clerks in the stores, II shops,
and banking houses of the country.
They are not an exceptional class.
They belong to n great company of
tens of thousands who are in this
country, amid circumstances which
will either make or break them for
time and for eternity. Many of these
people have already achieved n Chris
tan manliness and a Christian woman
illness which will be their passport to
any position. I have seen their trials.
1 have watched their perpleXities.
There are evils abroad which reed to
be hunted down, and dragged out into
the MONDAY light.
In the first place, I counsel clerks to
remember that for the most part their
clerkship is only a school from which
they are to be graduated. 1t takes
about eight years to get into one of
the learned professions. 1t takes
about eight years TO get to be a mer-
chant. Some of you will be clerks all
your lives, put the vast majority of
you are only in a transient position.
After awhile, some December day,
the head men of the firm will call
you into the back Office, and they will
say to you: ''Now, you have done well
by us; we are going to 10 well by you.
We invite you to AVE an interest in
our concern You will bow to that
edict very gracefully. Getting into a
street car to go GONE, an old comrade
will meet you and say, what makes
you look so happy tonight" oh"
you will say, "nothing, nothing"
But in a few days your name will
blossom on the sign. Either in the
store or bank where You are now, or
in some other store or bank, you will
take n higher position than that which
you now occupy. So feel am now
addressing people who will yet have
their hand on the helm of the worlds
commerce, and you will turn it this
way or that; now clerks, but to be
bankers, importers, insurance COM
pany directors, shippers, contractors,
superintendents of railroads-your
voice mighty ION 'change'-standing
foremost in the great financial and re-
ligious enterprises of h day. For,
though we who are in h professions
may, on the platform, plead for the
philanthropies, after all, the mer-
chants must come forward with their
millions to sustain the movement,
Be therefore patient and diligent in
this transient position. You are now
where you can learn things you can
never learn in any other place. What
you consider your disadvantages are
your grand opportunity. You see an
~afiuent father some day come down a
prominent street with his son who
has just graduated from the uniger-
sity, and establishing him in business,
putting $50, 900 of capital in the store.
Well, you are e%nvious. You say: oh,
if | only had a chance like that Young
man-if / only had q father to put $780,
600 in a business for me, then would
have some chance in the world" Be
not envious. You have advantages
over that young man which he has not
over you. AS well might | come down
to the docks when a vessel is about to
sail for Valparaiso, and say: Let me
pilot this ship out to sea-" Why, l
would sink crew and cargo before l
got out of the harbor, simply because
/ know nothing about piiotage.
Wealthy sea captains put their
sons before the mast for tho
reason that they can learn to
be successful sailors. II is only under
drill that people get TO understand
pilotage and navigation, and want
you to understand that it takes no
more skill to conduct n vessel out of
the harbor and across the sea, than to
steer q commercial establishment clear
OF the rocks. You see every day the
folly of people going into a business
they know nothing about. 4 man
makes a fortune in n business; thinks
there is another occupation more COM
Portable; goes into it and sinks all
Many of the commercial establish
of our cities are giving their
clerks a mercantile education as
thorough as Yale, or Harvard, or
Princeton are giving scientific attain
ment to the students matriculated.
The reason there are so many men
laundering in business from year to
year, is because their early mercantile
education was neglected. Ask the
men in high commercial circles, and
they win tell you they thank God for
this severe discipline of their earlv
clerkship. You can afford to endure
the wilderness march, If it Il going to
end in the vineyards and orchards of
the promised land.
But o say: ''Will the womanly
clerks in our stores have promotion"
Yes. Time is coming when women
will be as well paid for their toll in
mercantile circles as men are now paid
for their toll Time is coming when o
woman will be allowed TO do anything
she can do we'll. 1t is only Il little
while ago when women knew nothing
of telegraphy, and they were kept out
of a great many commercial circles
where they are now welcome; and the
time will go OF until the woman who
at one counter in IA store sells So, 900
worth of goods in a year. will getas,