Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-08-03

| iiiSt ""ACo iOuucI. Dul IUey SIT LDL
all night at the wine cup. They must
| see the sights. They stagger forth
with flushed cheeks and eyes blood
| shot. The outer gates of hell open to
| let in the victims. The wings of lost
souls Hit among the lights, and the
| steps of the carousers sound with the
rumbling thunders of the lost. Fare
well to the sanctities of home! Could
mother, sister, father, slumbering in
the inland home, in some vision of that
night catch glimpse of the ruin
wrought, they would rend out their
halr by the roots and bite the tongue
till the blood spurted, shrieking out:
God save him."
What suppose you, will come upon
such business establishments? and
there are hundreds OF them in the
cities. They may boast of fabulous
sales, and they may have an unpre-
cedented run of buyers, and the name
or the house may be a terror to all ri
walls, and from this thrifty root there
may spring up branch houses in other
cities, and all the partners of the firm
may move into their mansions and
drive their full-blooded span, and the
families may sweep the street with the
most elegant apparel that human art
ever wove, or earthly magnificence
ever achieved. But a curse is gather
ing surely for those men, and if it does
not seize hold of the pillars and in one
wild ruin bring down the temple OF
commercial glory, it will break up
their peace, ard they will tremble with
sickness and bloat with designations,
and, pushed to the precipice of this
life, they will try to hold back and cry
for help, but no help will come; and
! they will clutch their gold to take it
along with them. but it will be snatch
ed from their grasp, and a voice will
sound through their soul, mot a far
thing, thou beggared spirit" And
the Judgment will come and they will
stand aghast before it, and all the bus
mess iniquities of lifetime will gath
er around them, saying, DO you re-
member this?' and do you remember
that?" And clerks that they COM
PEELED to dishonesty and runners and
draymen and bookkeepers who saw
behind the scenes, will bear testimony
to their nefarious deeds, and some
Virtuous soul that once stood aghast at
the splendor and power of these bust
ness men will say, Alas, this is all
that is left of that great firm that oc-
cupied block with their merchandise
and overshadowed the city with their
influence, and made righteousness and
truth and purity fall under the CALLING
fire of avarice and crime"
While we admire and approve of all
acuteness and tact in the sale of goods,
we must condemn any process by
which a fabric or product is repre-
scented as possessing a value which it
really does not have. Nothing but
sheer falsehoOd can represent as per-
lection boots that rip, silks that spec
Oily lose their lustre, calicOes that i'm
mediately wash out, stoves that crack
under the first hot fire, books insecure
ly bound, carpets that unravcl, old
furniture rejuvenated with putty and
glue, and sold as having been recently
manufactured, gold watches made out
of brass, barrels Of fruit, the biggest
apples on the top. wine adulterated
with strychnine, hosiery poorly woven.
cloths of domestic manufacture
shining with foreign labels, imported
goods represented as rare and hard
to get, because foreign exchange is so
high, rolled out on the counter with
matchless display. Imported indeed,
but from the factory in the next street.
a pattern already questionable and
unstable palmed off as a new print
upon some country merchant who has
come to town to make his first pur-
chase of drygoods and going home
with a large stock of goods warranted
to keep.
Again business men are often tempt
ed to let their calling interfere with
the interests of the soul God sends
men into the business world to get ed
ucated just as boys are sent to school
and college. Purchase and sale, loss
and gain, disappointment, prosperity,
the dishonesty of others, panic, and
blank suspension, are but different les
sons in the school, The more bust
ness the more means of grace. Many
have gone through widest panics I'M
hurt. Are you not afraid you will
break?" said some one to a merchant
in time of great commercial excite
ment. He replied, Aye, shall break
when the fiftieth psalm breaks, in the
fifteenth verse, call upon me in the
day of trouble and I will deliver
thee The store and the counting
house have developed some of the most
stalwart characters. Perhaps original
ly they had but little sprightliness and
force but two or three hard business
thumps woke them up from their
lethargy, and there came a thorough
development in their hearts of all that
was good and holy and energetic and
tremendous, and they have become the
front men in Christ's army, as we'll
as lighthouses in the great world of
traffic. But business has been perpetual
depletion to many a man. 1t first pull
ed out of him all benevolence, next all
anna bility, next all religious aspira-
tons, next all conscience, and though
he entered his vocation with large
heart and noble character, he goes out
of it a skeleton enough to scare
ghost.
Men appreciate the Importance of
having good business stand, store
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