The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-23

cheap and sell dear" Oh, lay not aside
your urbdniiy when you go into a store.
Treat the clerks like gentlemen and la
dies, proving yourself TO be a gentle
man or a lady. Remember that IL the
prices are high and your purse is lean
that is no fault OF the clerks. And if
you have a son or a daughter amid
those preplex5ies OF commercial life,
and such a one home all worn
out. be lenisrt, and know that The
martyr at the stake no more certainly
needs the OF God tran our young
people amid the seven times heated <
ASPIRATIONS of a clerks life.
INCONSIDERATE EMPLOYERS.
Then there are all the trials which
come TO clerks from the treatment of
incOnsiderate employers. There are pro-
fessed Christian men who have no more
regard for heir clerks than they have
for scales on which the sugars are
weighed. A clerk is no more than 50
much store furniture. No consideration
for their rights or interest. Not one
word of encouragement from sunrise TO
sunset. Tor from January to December.
But when anything goes wrong-a
streak Of dust on the counter Or a box
with the cover of-rhunder showers of
scolding. Men imperious. capricious.
cranky towards their clerks-their
NulOlc diIIfc dS UluSIl as " SOY, All
the interest I have in you is ito see what
1 ear 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 service
he ought TO be thankful, but l mean in
proserOus times. Some of you remem-
her when the war broke out and all
merchandise went up, and merchants
were made millionairs in six months by
4fJoo o.r1 y1a rico in rho yoGro nf oOh1S
Did the clerks get advantage of that
rise? Sometimes. not always. I saw
estates gathered in those times over
which the curse of God has hung ever
since. The cry of unpaid men and wo-
men in those stores reached the Lord
of Sabaoth, and the indignation of
God has been around those establish
ments ever since, flashing in the chan
deliers. glowing from the crimson up
holstery, rumbling in the long roll of
the tenpin alley. Such men may build
up palaces Of merchandise heaven high
but after awhile a disaster will come
along and will put one hand or this pill
lar and another hand On that pillar
and throw itself forward until down
will come the whole structure, crushing
the wOrshipers as grapes are mashed
in the winepress.
Then there are boys ruined by lack
of compensation. In how nan pros
porous stores it has been for the last
twenty years that boys were given
just enough money to teach them how
to steal! Some were seized upon by
the police. The vast majority Of in
stances were 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 farth-
ing 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, building marble palaces, their
owners dying worth millions and mill
lions and millions, who made a vast
amount Of their estate out of the blood
and muscle and nerve of half paid
clerks. Such men as-well. 1 will not
mention any name. But I mean men
who have gathered up vast estates at
the expense of the people who We're
ground under their heel. oh" say
such merchants, IF you don't like it
here, then go and get a better place!'
As much as to say: 1--we got you in
my grip, and I mean to hold you. You
can't get any other place."
TRUE SYMPATHY.
Oh, what a contrast between those
men and Christian merchants who to-
day are sympathetic with their clerks
when they pay the salary, acting in
this way: This salary thai I give you
is not all my interest in you. You are
an immortal man; you are an immor-
tai woman. I am interested in your
! present and your everlasting welfare.
1 want you to understand that if I am
! a little higher up in this store I am be-
side you in Christian sympathy" Go
back 40 or so years to Arthur Tappen's
store in New York, a man whose worst
enemies never questioned his honesty.
! Every morning he brought all the
clerks and the accountants and the
weigherS into a 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 SER
mons were about. 1t must have sound
ed strangely, that voice Of praise along
the streets where the devotees of Man,
mon were counting their golden beads.
You say, Arthur Tappen failed. Yes,
| he was unfortunate, like a great many
| good men, but I understand he met all
| his obligations before he left this world,
and I know that he died in the peace of
the gospel and that he is before the
! throne of God today-forever blessed.
| If that be failing, I wish you might all
fail.
There are a great many young men
| and young women who want a word Of
| encOuragement-Christian encourage
ment. One smile Of good cheer would
| be worth more to them tomorrow morn
| ing in their places of business than a
present of SIS, 900 ten years hence. Oh,
I remember the apprehension n the
tremor of entering a profession. I re-
member very we'll the man who greeted
me in the ecclesiastical u with the
tip ends of the long fingers of the felt
hand, and I remember the other man
who took my hand in both Of his and
laid God bless you, my brother. You
have entered a glorious profession. Be
faithful to God, and he will see you
through Why, I feel this minute the
thrill Of that handshaking, though the
man who gave me the Christian grip
has been in eaven 20 years. There are
| old men here today who can look ack