Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-07-27

sci out Of the harbor and across the
sea than to steer a commercial estab-
lishpent clear of the rocks. You see
every day the folly of people going
into business they know nothing
about A man makes a fortune in one
business; thinks there is another oc-
cupation more comfortable; goes into
it and sinks all. Many Of the COM
mercial establishments of our cities are
giving their clerks mercantile educa-
ton as thorough as Yale, or Harvard,
or Princeton are giving scientific at
tainment 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 clerk
ship. You cln 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: "Will 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 WELL 1t is
only little while ago when women
knew nothing of biography. and they
were kept out Of great many CONNER
cial circles where they are now well
come: and the time will go on until
the woman who at one counter in a
store sells $4,000 worth of goods in
year, viii 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 ! have to give
! to clerks is that you seek out what
are the lawful regulations of your es-
tablishment, and then submit to them.
Every well-orde-ed house has its
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. | will
tell you what you" : 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 NE, | am my own master: will
rot submit to the regulations of this
| house" Between an establishment in
which all the employees are under thor
| cugh discipline and the establishment
| in which the employees do about as
| they choose, is the difference between
| success and failure-between rapid ac-
| emulation 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 well. Do not say, Its only just
once From the most important
transaction in commerce down to the
particular style in which you tie a
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 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 of
March,
Do not get the idea that your in
fhnco 81
antagonistic. His success will be your
honor. His embarrassment will be
your dismay. Expose none of the f.ail-
ties OF the firm. Tell no store secrets.
Do not blab. Rebuff those persons
who come to find out from clerks what
ought never II be known outside the
store. Do not be among those young
men who take on mysterious air
when something is said against the
firm that employs them, as much as
to say: Il could tell you something if
would, but l won't" De- -ot he
among those who imagine they can
build themselves up by pulling some
body else down. Be not ashamed to
be subaltern.
Then there are all the trials which
come to clerks from the treatment of
inconsiderate employers. There are
professed 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 January
to December. But when anything
goes wrong streak of dust on the
counter, or box with the cover Off
thunder-showers of scolding. Men inn
perious, capricious, cranky toward their
clerks-their whole manner as much
as to say: "All the interest / 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 man gets half
salary for his SERVES he ought to
be thankful; but l 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