The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-07-23

drill that people get to understand
pilotage and navigation. and l want
you to understand that it takes I'd
more skill to conduct a vessel out of
the harbor and across the sea, than to
steer a commercial establishment clear
OF the rocks. You see every day the
folly of people going into a business
they know nothing about. A man
makes fortune in one business; thinks
there is another occupation more COM
Portable; goes into it and sinks all.
Many of the commercial establish
ments 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 will tell you they thank God for
this severe discipline of their early
clerkship. 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 say: 'Will the womanly
clerks in our stores have promotions"
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 a
woman will be allowed to do anything
she can do we'll 1t is only a 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 on until the woman who
at one counter in store sells 1000
worth of goods in a year, will get as
high a salary as the man who at the
other counter of the same store sells
S., 900 worth of goods. All honor to
Lydia, the Christian saleswoman.
The second counsel / have to give to
clerks is that you seek out what are
the lawful regulations of your estab-
lisnment, and then submit to them.
Every well-ordered house has its
usages In military life, on ships
deck, in commercial life, there must be
order and discipline. Those people
who do not learn how to obey will
never learn how to command. / 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 ii be two
seconds before, instead of two seconds
after. Do not think anything too in
| significant to do well. Do not say:
Its only just once" From the most
| important transaction in commerce
down to the particular style in which
you tie string around 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 content
ed spirit to your work. When the
bugle sounds, the good soldier asks no
questions, but shoulders his knapsack,
! fills his canteen and listens for the
command of March,
7 -
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 ones 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. You go to the head
man of your store, and say: "Sir,
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 sin against God, and
l 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, because 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, or change an invoice, or
say goods cost so much when they
cost less, or impose upon the verdancy
of customer, or misrepresent 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 ey-
| ervwhere else but pruff and dictate