Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1899-02-24

cigars; they MADE you very Si'hi ""'
vou persevercd until cigars have become
to you a luxury. Now, if you can afford
to struggle on to get bad habit, Is IT
not worth while to struggle on to get
good habit like that Of readingr l am
amazed to find how many merchants
and commercial travellers preserve their
ignorance from year to year notwith-
standing all their opportunities. 1t was
well illustrated by one who had been
largely successful and who wanted the
show Of q library at home, and he wrote
to a book merchant in London, saying,
Send me six feet of theology and about
as much metaphysics and near yard
Of civil law in old folio" There is no
excuse for a man lacking information
if he have the rare opportunities Of
commercial traveller. Improve vour
mind. Remember the Learned Black
smith" who, while blowing the bel
lows, set his book mp against the brick
work and became acquainted with 90
languages. Remember the scholarly
Clifford. who. while an apprentice,
wrought ont the arithmetical problem
with his awl on piece Of leather. Re
member Abercrombie, who snatched
here and there a fragmentary five min
utes from an exhausting profession and
wrote immortal treatises on ethics.
study Lnws of Commerce.
Be ashamed to sell foreign fabrics or
fruits unless you know something about
the looms that wove them or the vine
yards that grew them. Understand all
about the laws that control commercial
life. about banking, about tariffs, about
markets. about navigation, about for
eign people-their characteristics and
their political revolutions as they affect
ours: about the harvests Of Russia, the
vineyards Of Italy, the teahelds Of
China. Learn about the great CONNER
cial centers Of Carthage and Assyria
and Phpnicia. Read all about the Medici
Of Florence, mighty in trade, mightier
in philanthropies. Ycu belong TO the
royal family Of merchants. Be worthy
Of that royal family. Oh, take my ad-
vice and turn the years Of weariness
into years Of luxury. Take those hours
you spend at the depot waiting for the
DELAYED train and make them Pisgah
heights from which You can view the
promised land. When you are waiting
for the train hour after hour in the
depot, do not spend your time reading
the sewing machine advertisements and
looking up the time tables Of routes you
will never take going the twentieth
time to the door to see whether the
train Is coming. bothering the ticket
agent and telegraph operator with ques-
tions which you ask merely because you
want to pass away the time. Butrather
summon up the great essayists and
philosophers and story tellers and think
ers of the ages and have them entertain
you.
But You have come now near the end
of your railroad travel | can tell by
the motion Of the car that they are
pulling the patent brakes down. The
engineer rings the bell at the crossing
The train stops. "All out" cries the
conductor You dismcunt from the
train. You reach the hotel The land
lord is glad to see you-very glad. He
stretches out his hand across the regis
try book with all the disinterested
warmth of a brother. You are assigned
an arartment. In that uninviting apart
ment you stay only long enough to
make yourself presentable. You descend
then into the reading room, and there
YOU find the commercial travellers sit
ting around a long table, with great
elevation in the center covered with ad-
yertisements, while there are in&stands
sunken in the bed Of the table and
scattered all around rusty steel pens
and patches Of blotting paper OF
course ycu will not stay there. You
saunter out among the merchants. You
present your letters Of introduction and
authority. You begin business. Now,
let me say, there are two or three
things vou ought to remember. First,
that ali the trade you get by the prac-
tice of treating" will not stick. II you
cannot get custom except by tipping q
wineglass with somebody, you had bet
ter not get his custom. An old CONNER
cial traveller gives as his experience
that trade got by treating always
damages the house that gets it in one
way or the other.
Besides that you cannot afford to IN
iure yourself for the purpose Of heneht
ing your employers Your common
sense tells you that you cannot get int
the habit Of taking strong drink t(
please others without getting that habit
fastened on you. lido not know whether
TO tell il or not. l think I will a clos'
carriage came to the door of my churcf
in Brooklyn one night at the close Of
religious service. Some one said, "a
gentleman in that carriage wants TO SEE
YOU" looked into the carriage, anC
there sat as fine salesman and as ele
CANT a gentleman as New York evel
Iaw. but that night he was intoxicated
We said he wanted 10 rut himself undel
nv care. He said he had left home, an
he never meant TO go back again. go
into the carriage with him and rode viii
him until after midnight. trying 4
persuade him to go home. have beei
scores of times TO Greenwood. following
the dead. but that was the most dolefu
ride ever took. After midnight per
maded him to go home. We alighte'
at his door. We walked through hi
beautiful hall, his wife and daughte
standing back affrighted at his appear
ance. took him to his room. un
dressed him. put him to bed. Wher
I. that home nowI All broken mp
Where are the wife and the daughter
Gone into the desolations of widowhoo
and orphanage. Where is the man him
selfH Dead by the violence Of his ow
hand.
Do Not Ruin Your Soul.
o commercial traveller, though you
firm may give you the largest salary
any man in your line, though the
might give you 10 per cent Of all 20
sell. or 30 per cent or 90 per cent or
per cent, they cannot pay enough
make it worth your while to ruin yor
soul Besides that, commercial hou'
| ....,.. .,,,,,,,ouootoa a man who has bee