Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-08-21
world and the world to come? Can IL

cieS of business you know nothing
about those things which will last aft
| er all bills of exchange and consign-
| ments and invoices and rent rolls shall
| have crumpled up and been consumed
in the fires Of the last great day? Can
| it be that a man will be wise for a
time and a fool for eternity?
remark, also, that business life is
school for integrity. No man knows
what he will do until he is tempted.
| There are thousands of men who have
| kept their integrity merely because
| they never have been tested. A man
was elected treasurer of the state Of
Maine some years ago. He was distin-
guished for his honesty, usefulness and
uprightness, but before one year had
passed he had taken of the public
funds for his own private use and was
hurled out of office in disgrace Dis
tinguished for virtue before. Distin-
guished for crime after. You can call
over the names of men just like that,
in whose honesty you had complete
confidence, but placed in certain crises
of temptation they went overheard.
Never so many temptations to scoun-
drelism as now. Not a law on the
statute book but has some back door
through which miScreant can escape.
All, how many receptions in the fabric
Of goods; so much plundering in COM
mercial life that If a man talk about
living a life of complete commercial
integrity there are those who ascribe it
to greenness and lack Of tact! More
need of honesty now than ever before,
tried honesty, complete honesty, more
than in those times when business was
a plain affair, and woolens were
woolens, and silks were silks, and men
were men.
How many men do you suppose there
are in commercial life who could say
truthfully, Gin all the sales have ever
made have never overstated the value
Of goods, in all the sales I have ever
made have never covered up an i'm
perfection in the fabric, of all the thou
sands of dollars I have ever made l
have not taken one dishonest farth-
ingY There are men, however, who
can say it, hundreds who can say it,
thousands who can say it. They are
more honest than when they sold their
first tierce Of rice or their first firkin Of
butter, because their honesty and in
tegrity have been tested, tried and
come out triumphant But they re-
member time when they could have
robbed a partner, or have abscOnded
with the funds Of a bank, or sprung
snap judgment, or made false as
Segment, or borrowed illimitably with
out any efforts at payment, or got
man into a sharp corner and feeced
him. But they never took one step on
that pathway of hell fire. They can
say their prayers without hearing the
chink of dishonest dollars. They can
read their Bible without thinking of
the time when with lie on their soul
in the custom house they kissed the
book They can think Of death and
the judgment that comes after it with
out any f1inching-that day when all
charlatans and cheats and jockeys and
frauds shall be doubly damned. 1t
does not make their knees knock to-
gether, and it does not make their
teeth chatter to read "as the partridge
silteth on eggs and hatcheth them not;
so he that getteth riches and not by
right shall leave them in the midst Of
his days and at his end shall be a
fool"
Only Once.
What a school of integrity business
life is! If you have ever been tempted
to let your integrity cringe before pres
ent advantage, if you have ever wax
ened up in some embarrassment and
said: "Now, I will step a little aside
from the right path, and no one will
know it, and l will come all right
again. 1t is only once" That only
once has ruined tens of thousands OF
men for this life and blasted their
souls for eternity.
A merchant in Liverpool got a f5
Bank Of England note, and, holding it
up toward the light, he saw some in
terlineations in what seemed red ink.
He finally deciphered the letters and
found out that the writing had been
made by a slave in Algiers, saying in
substance, "WhOever gets this bank
note will please to inform my brother,
John Dean, living near Carlisle, that [
am a slave of the hey of Algiers" The
merchant sent word, employed govern
ment officers and found who this man
was spoken of in this bank note Aft
er awhile the man was rescued, who
for IL years had been slave of the
hey of Algiers. He was Immediately
emancipated, but was so worn out by
hardship and exposure he soon after
died. Oh, if some of the bank bills
that come through your hands could
tell all the scenes through which they
have passed it would be a tragedy
eclipsing any drama of Shakespeare,
mightier than King Lear or Macbeth!
AS go on in this subject I am i'm
pressed with the Importance of our
having more sympathy with business
men. Is it not a shame that we in our