Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-08-06

and ninnOUS. The large houses under
sell the small ones because they buy in
greater quantities and at lower figures
from the producer. They can afford to
make nothing or actually lose on some
! styles CT goods, assured they can make
It up on others. So a great dry goods
house goes outside of it's regular line
and sells books at cost or less than
cost, and that swamps the bookseller,
or the dry goods house sells bric-a-brac
at lowest figures, and that SwampS
the small dealer in bric-a-brac. And
the same thing goes On in other styles
Of merchandise. and the consequence is
that all along the business streets of
all our cities there are merchants of
small capital who are in terrific strug-
gle to keep their heads above water.
The ocean liners run down the New
foundland fishing smacks. This is
nothing against the man who has the
big store, for every man has as large
a store and as great q business as he
can man*ge.
To feel right and do right under all
this pressure requires martyr grace,
requires divine support, requires ce-
| lestia1 reinforcement. Yet there are
tens of thousands of such men getting
splendidly through. They see others
going up and themselves going down,
but they keep their patience and cour-
age and their Christian consistency,
and after awhile their success will
come. There is generally retribution in
some form for greediness. The owners
of the big business will die, and their
boys will get possession Of the bust
and with a oiO0r i'm fhQfp mouths
and full to the chins with the best
liquor and behind pair Of spanking
bays they will pass everything on the
turnpike road to temporal and eternal
perdition. Then the business will break
up and the smaller dealers will have
fair opportunity, or the spirit of con-
tentment and right feeling will take
possession of the large firm, as recently
with a famous business house, and the
firm will say: I'VE have enough money
for all our needs and the needs of our
children. Now let US dissolve bust
ness and make way for other men in
the same line Instead of being star
tied at a solitary instance of mag
nani1nity it will become COM
mon thing. l know of scores of great
business houses that have had their OPP
portunity of vast accumulation and
who ought to quit. But perhaps for
all the days of this generation the
struggle of small houses to keep alive
under the overshadOwing pressure Of
great houses will continue. Therefore,
taking things as they are, you will be
wise to preserve your equilibrium and
your honesty and your faith and throw
over all the counters and shelves and
casks the measuring line of divine
right. And the Lord said unto me.
Amos, what seest thou? And | said,
A plumb line
TheOiOgies Need Rectifying.
In the same way we need TO rectify
our theologies. All sorts of religions
are putting forth their pretensions.
Some have Il spiritualistic religion,
and their chief work is-Wfth ghosts,
es,I,~-->>--.-- religion of political econo
my. proposing to put an end to human
misery by a new style of taxation. and
there is Il humanitarian religion that
looks after the bodies of men and let's
the soul look after itself, and there is a
Legislative religion that proposes to
rectify all wrongs by enactment of bet
ter laws, and there is an aesthetic re-
ligiOn that by rules of exquisite taste
would lift the heart out of it's deformi-
ties, and religions of all sorts, religions
by the peck, religions by the square
foot and religions by the ton, all of
them devices of the devil that would
take the heart away from the only re-
ligion that will ever effect anything
for the human race, and that is the
straight up and down religion written
in the book which begins with Genesis
and ends with Revelation, the religion
of the skies, the old religion, the God
given religion, the everlasting religion,
which says, Love God above all and
your neighbor as yourself" All re-
ligions but one begin at the wrong end
and in the wrong place. The Bible re-
ligion demands that we first get right
with God. 1t begins at the top and
measures down, while the other re-
ligions begin at the bottom and try to
measure up. They stand at the foot Of
the wall, up to their knees in the mud
Of human theory and speculation, and
have a plummet and a string tied fast
to it. and they throw the plummet this
way and break head here and throw
the plummet another way and break
a head there, and then they throw it
up anu II COMES uOWH upon thelr own
pate. Fools! Why stand at the foot
of the wall rectifying up when you
ought to stand at the top rectifying
down? l was in the country, thirsty
after a long walk, and came in, and |
my child was blowing soap bubbles,
and they rolled out of the cup, blue |
and gold and green and sparkling and
beautiful and obicular, and in so small !
space l never saw more splendor |
R,,t CHI too