The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-03-03

tom exceut oy tipping a wine gIass WxAA
somebody, you had better not get his
An old commercial traveller gives
his experience that trade got by
treating" always damages the house
gets it in one way or the other.
Besides that you cannot afford 10 in
jure yourself for the purpose OF benefit
ing your employees Your common sense
tells you that you cannot get into the
others without getting that habit fasten-
ed on you. I do not know whether 10
tell it or not. i think / will II close
carriage came to the door of my church
in Brooklyn one night at the close OF 4
religious service. Some one said: "A gen.
tleman in that carriage wants TO see
you" / looked into the carriage, and
there sat as fine a salesman and as ele-
saw, but that night he was intoxicated
He said he wanted to put himself under
my care. He said he had left home. and
he never meant TO go back again. I got
into the carriage with him and rode with
him until after midnight, trying TO per-
suade him TO go home. I have been
scores of times to Greer wood, following
the dead, but that was the most doleful
ride I ever took. After midnight 1 per-
suaded him to go home. We alighted
at his door. We walked through his
beautiful hall, his wife and daughter
standing back affrignted at mis- appear
ance. / took him to his room. / un-
dressed him. / put him TO bed. Where
is that home now? All broken up. Where
are the wife and the daughter. Gone into
the desolations Of widowhood and or
phanage. Where is the man himself?
Dead by the violence of his own hand.
DO NOT RUIN YOUR OWN SOUL.
0 commercial traveller, though your
firm may give you the largest salary OF
any man in your line, though they
might give you 10 per cent. of all you sell,
or 20 per cent. or 80 per cent. of SO per
cent, they cannot pay enough to make
IL worth your while to ruin your SOUL.
Besides that, a commercial house never
compensates a man who has been moral
ly ruined in their employ. A young man
in Philadelphia was turned out from his
employ because of inebriation got in the
service of the merchant who employed
him, and here is the letter he wrote to
his employer:
"Sir:-I came into your service I'M
corrupt in principles and in morals, but
the rules of your house required me TO
spend my evenings at places of public
entertainment and amusement in search
of customers. To accomplish my work
in your service [ was obliged to drink
with them and join them in their pur-
suits of pleasure. 1t was not my choice,
but the rules of the house. I went with
them to the theatre and the billiard ia
BILE, but 1t was not my choice. / did not
wish to go; l went in your service. 1t
was not my pleasure so to do, but l was
the conductor and companion Of the SIM
pie ones, void alike of understanding
and of principle, in their sinful pleasures
LII uCCdS vi dCCpCl udI hlltSS, lhdl l.
might retain them as your customers.
Your interest required it. I have added
thousands of dollars to the profits Of
your trade, but at what expense you
become wealthy, but I am poor indeed,
and now this cruel dismissal from your
employ is the recOmpense IAreceive for
a character ruined and prospects blasted
in helping to make you a rich man."
Alas for the man who gets such a letter
as that.
Again, I charge you, tell the whole
truth about anything you sell. Lying
commercial travellers will precede you.
Lying commercial travellers will come
right after you into the same store. Do
not let their unfair competition tempt
you from the straight line. 1t is an aw-
full bargain that a man makes when he
sells his goods and his soul at the same
time. a young man in one of the stores
of New York was selling some silks. He
was binding them up when he said to
show you that there is a fracture in that
silk" She looked at it n rejected the
goods. The head Of the firm, hearing of
it, wrote to the father Of the young man
in the country, saying: Come and take
your son away. He will never make a
merchant The father came in agitation,
wondering h his boy had been doing,
and the head men of the firm said: why
your son stood here at this counter and
pointed out a fracture in the silk, and of
course the lady wouldn't a it. We are
not responsible for the ignorance of Gus
toners. Customers must look out for
themselves, and we look out fir ourselves.
Your son will never make a merchant
rs that all?' said the father. "Ah! !
am prOuder of my boy than | ever was.
| John, get your hat and come home"
But it is almost night, and you go back
to the hotel. Now comes the mighty tug
for the commercial traveller. Tell me
where he spends his evenings, and / will
tell you where he will spend eternity,
and 1 will tell you what will be his
worldly prospects. There is an album
dance of choice. There is your room
with the books. There are the Young
Mems Christian Association rooms. There
| are the weak night services at the Chris
tan churches. There is the gambling
! saloon. There is the theater. There is the
O God, which? Well you say, 81
| guess 1 will guess I will go to the lat
ter" Do you think the trying in thai
prove your bodily health, or your finan:
cial prospects, Or your eternal fortune:
No man ever found the path to useful
ness, or honor, or happiness. or CONNER
American theatre. WELL" you say %
guess, then, I will go to- guess 1 will
go to the gambling saloon" You will
first go to look. Then YOU will go tt
| play. You will make 800, you will make
$500, you will make $1,000, you will make
81, 800. Then you will lose all. Then you
will borrow some money so as to star
anew. You will make $50, you will make
500, you will make $500. Then you viii
lose all. These wretches of the gam
bling saloon know how to tempt you
But mark this: All gamblers die poor
| They may make fortuneS-great fortune:
but they lose them.
WELL you say, 'if I can't go to thu
theatre, n if I can't 90 to the gam
bling saloon, then I guess-I guess I will
go to the house of infamy." Commercial
travellers have told me that in the letter
box at the hotel, within one hour aftel
the arrival, they have had letters of evi
solicitation in hat direction. 1t is IA
away from home. Nobody will know it
Commercial travellers have some time:
gone in that evil path. Why not you
Halt! There are other gates OF ruiz
through which a man may go and we
come out, but that gate has a spring loci
which snaps him in forever. He who goe.
there is damned already. He may seen
to be comparatively free for a little while
but he is only on the limits, and tn
satanic police have their eyes upon hin
to bring him il at any moment. tn
hot curse of God is on that crime, an
because of it there are men whose heav
en- was blotted out ten years ago. Their
is no danger that they be lost: they ar