The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-07-29

/ Sed Hludu TO steer d COulmeICldl eSLaD-
lishment clear of the rocks. You see
every day the folly of people going
into business they know nothing
about A man makes fortune in one
business; thinks there is another oc-
cupation more comfortable; goes into
1t and sinks all. Many of the COM
mercial establishments of our cities are
giving their clerks a mercantile educa-
ton as thorough as Yale, or Harvard,
or Princeton are giving scientific at
tainment to the students matricu1ated.
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
will tell you they thank God for this
severe discipline of their early clerk
ship. You can afford to endure the
wilderness march, if it is going to end
in the vineyards and orchards Of the
promised land
But you will say: Twill the woman
ly clerks in our stores have promo
tion?" Yes. Time is coming when
women will be as we'll paid for their
toll in mercantile circles as men are
now paid for their toll. Time is COM
ing when woman will be allowed to
do anything she can do we'll. 1t is
only little while ago when women
knew nothing of telegraphy, and they
were kept out Of great many CONNER
clal circles where they are now well
come: and the time will go on until
the woman who at one counter in
store sells $4,000 worth of goods in
year, will get as high a salary as the
man who at the other counter of the
same store sells $4,000 worth of goods.
All honor to Lydia, the Christian sales
| woman.
| The second counsel 1 have to give
| to clerks is that you. seek out what
are the lawful regulations of your es-
Enlistment, and then submit to them.
Every well-ordered house has it's
usages. In military life, on ships
deck. in commercial life, there must
| be order and discipline. Those peo-
| pie who do not learn how to obey will
never know how to command. I 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 die
tate to nee, | am my own master; will
not submit to the regulations of this
mousse Between an establishment in
which all the employees are under thor
ough discipline and the establishment
IN which the employees do about as
they choose, is the difference between
success and failure-between rapid ac-
cumulatlon and utter bankruptcy.
DO not come to the store ten minutes
after the time. Be there within two
seconds, and let it be two seconds be-
fore instead of two seconds after. Do
not think anything too insignificant to
do we'll. Do not, say, TITS only lust
once. From the most important
| transaction in commerce down to the
| particular style in which you tie
string around a 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, and contented spirit
| to your work. When the bugle sounds
| the good soldier asks no questions, but
shoulders his knapsack, fills his can
teen and listens for the command If
| March"
Do not get the idea that your in
terests and those of your employer are
antagonistic His success will be vour
honor. His embarrassment will be
your dismay. Expose none of the frail-
ties 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 be among those voung
men who take on a mysterious air
when something is said against the
firm that employs them, as much as
to say: II could tell you something if
I would, but I WON'T" Do NOT he
among those who imagine thew can
build themselves up by pulling some
body else down. Be not ashamed tn
be subaltern. *
Then there are all the trials which
come to clerks from the treatment of
inconsiderate employers. There are
protested Christian men who have M
more regard for their clerks than thew
have for the scales on which the sugars
are weighed A clerk is no more than
so much store furniture. No consid-
Grafton for their rights or interests
Not one word of encouragement from
sunrise to sunset, nor from Januarv
to December. But when anythino
goes wrong streak OF dust on the
counter, or a box with the cover Off
thunder-showers of scolding. Men i'm
perious, capricious, cranky toward their
clerks-their whole manner as much
as to say: call the interest 1 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
a salary for his SERVES he ought to
be thankful; but mean in prosperous
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
Die rise in tho values ~ rooa 80,