A matter of business, and other stories

Preface

The writing of these little stories has been to the author a matter mostly of literary recreation. By the nature of them they have not been results of any research. The most that may properly be claimed for them, perhaps, is a tendency to impress some helpful lessons. The story that gives the volume its title does not profess to any technical knowledge of business as it is conducted to-day. The instances mentioned in the talks of Mr. Ray are actual however, though it may be doubted if they are the most flagrant adducible by any means.

It will probably be discerned by the reader that situations in life as it really is, do not eventuate as in the story. That is merely to say that literature is more ideal than experience. I only think such results as I have pictured in the endings of my stories are the things that ought to come about.

As the publishers have supposed that these stories are deserving the more permanent form in which they here appear, I have gained the courage to hope they may be interesting and acceptable to those who chance to read them.

Stonington, Conn., 1899. W. C. S.

FRONTISPAGE.

We want practical religion to go into all merchandise. It will supervise the labeling of goods. It will not allow a man to say that a thing was made in one factory when it was made in another. It will not allow the merchant to say that watch was manufactured in Geneva, Switzerland, when it was manufactured in Massachusetts. Practical religion will walk along by the store’s shelves and tear off all the tags that make misrepresentation. It will not allow the merchant to say that is pure coffee, when dandelionroot and chicory and other ingredients go into it. It will not allow him to say that is pure sugar when there are in it sand and ground glass.

When practical religion gets its full swing in the world, it will go down the street; and it will come to that shoestore, and rip off the fictitious soles of many a fine-looking pair of shoes, and show that it is pasteboard sandwiched between the sound leather. And this practical religion will go right into a grocery store; and it will pull out the plug of all the adulterated syrups, ar.d it will dump into the ash-barrel in front of the store the cassia-bark that is sold for cinnamon and the brick-dust that is sold for cayenne pepper. And it will shake out the Prussian blue from the tea-leaves, and it will sift from the flour the plaster of Paris and bone-dust and soap-stone; and it will by chemical analysis separate the one-quart of water from the few honest drops of cow’s milk, and it will throw out the live animalcules from the brown sugar.— Talmage,

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Chapter I. By Lying

'HERE was a time when nobody seemed to have a doubt about the high character and standing of the Lithgow house. The business had descended from two or three generations of Lithgows, and they had all of them been members of the First Church, and men of reputation for integrity in business.

It was merely the interpolation of a different ideal of business that at last impeached this standing in Jacques City. One cannot say how those uncomfortable intrusions began. But there came a time when methods of doing business that had never been questioned in the experience of the elder Lithgows began to attract attention and invite criticism. Let us say that it is the toning up of conscience in the breath of a new Christian demand for actual righteousness.

A MATTER OF BUSINESS.

Mr. Ben Lithgow and Mr. Alcott Lithgow, brothers, and sons of Alcott Lithgow senior, who had retired, carried on the largest dry goods trade, with general branches that nearly made their place a department store, in the whole region of Grand River Valley in — never mind the state. They had associated with themselves a younger man, in fact a very young man, who had shown superior abilities in the knowledge and handling of fabrics. His name was Theodore Mack, and he also was an active member of the First Church.

The subject of Christ before Pilate happened to come in course before the Sunday-school of the First Church, and the same subject was treated in the pastor's evening address. Mr. Ben Lithgow was the sagacious and successful teacher of the largest class of young men in that large school.

“Pilate was not only a coward," said he to his class that Sunday, “but he was dreadfully short-sighted. As a mere matter of policy he could not afford to yield to the clamor of that mob. As a mere matter of policy it could not pay him to deliver Jesus up."

Mr. Markham, the young principal of the high school, suggested that he ought to have done right in the case, policy or no policy.

BY LYING.

“Very true/’ said Ben, “but it would be worth a good deal to us all if we could learn that it pays to do exactly right. It would have been worth more to the stability of Pilate’s reign if he had sent for a company of soldiers, and if he had said to that mob, ‘As this man has done nothing he shall be protected. Touch him at your peril.’ A lesson of that kind, not compliance, is what every mob needs. It was the right thing to do, and therefore it would have worked well.”

“I am afraid your principle will not be very soon applied to politics and business,” answered the principal.

And curiously enough he remembered at that very moment certain advertisements bearing the Lithgow name that he had himself tested to his cost, by the purchase of some of the offered bargains. But he did not dwell on the thought. He, with the whole community, had learned to discount advertisements.

“Pilate thought he could lay the blame on the Jews,” said one of the class.

“Yes, and that,” replied Ben, “was the most foolish and wicked part of the proceeding. And it is an attempt that has persisted. The most difficult thing in public affairs to-day is to fix responsibility. The mayor

A MATTER OF BUSINESS.

lays the wrong to the chief of police, the chief to the courts, the courts to the peculiarity of the law. Among them all, official wickedness gets its chance and escapes consequences”

Again the principal thought of the great establishment on the corner of St. George and Cedar Street. He wondered if Ben would apply his reasoning about Pilate to the store and its affairs.

But Ben Lithgow was quite sincere in his views about Pilate, and was aware of the reputation which he had to maintain in Jacques City as a man of Christian integrity. Nevertheless he was sharp enough to be a casuist, and would have found several arguments at hand, had anyone actually challenged him to apply his own reasoning to the conduct of his store.

On that same Sunday Mr. Theodore Mack taught the Pilate lesson to his class of boys. The course of the discussion with them ran to the question of lying. One of his class asked if it would ever be right to lie.

“It would never be right,” answered Mr. Mack. “But it might sometimes be excusable. As, for instance, if it were to save a man’s life. Nothing would make it right, however.”

“Doesn’t one have to lie in business sometimes?

BY LYING.

Fve heard that you can't do business without lying a little,” said another.

“I don’t do business on that principle myself/’ said Mack, with a flush in his face.

“Do you believe a man can succeed in business and always tell the exact truth?”

“If a Christian man doesn’t tell the exact truth, what shall we say of his Christianity? To lie merely to make one’s money is to act Pilate over again. He did wrong because he thought it was to his advantage.”

“Don’t most business men lie about their goods?” asked another.

“Some do. I should be sorry to think they are the majority,” answered Mack. “As for me, if I can’t get money without lying I will never get money. But I don’t believe lying ever pays in the end. It doesn’t if God rules the world.”

This Pilate lesson had a singularly earnest consideration that day among the members of the First Church. Mr. Ben Lithgow remarked to Rev. Donald Foss, the pastor, as they walked home from the evening service, that the lesson had afforded a splendid opportunity to bring out the duty of professing Christians in matters of truth and courage. Abstractly, he re-

A MATTER OF BUSINESS.

joiced in this occasion. He knew he had ability in teaching, and felt sure he had rendered good service to the cause of righteousness.

It was curious, in view of all this, that his very first experience on Monday at the store should he by way of an application of his teaching in a very practical and unexpected form.

The cold season was going by, and there was an opportunity in the trade to offer a stock of cloaks at a mark-down price. They were advertised in the taking manner that had made the announcements of Lithgow Bros. & Mack notable in the region. On this particular Monday, quite early, Mrs. Pendleton, who was a very good customer, came to the great store to get a first choice of the bargain. Young Paul Carroll happened to be the clerk that undertook to show her the cloaks. Carroll was president of the Endeavor Society of the First Church. He was known by Mr. Mack especially as a young man of promise in the store and in the community. Without any pretensions to smartness, he had a faculty of attention and of memory that, with his Christian fidelity to duty, made him a valuable clerk in the store.

"I like this one,” said Mrs. Pendleton, surveying

BY LYING.

herself in one of the cloaks. “How can you sell them at the price though? I am almost afraid to buy.”

“The cloak is quite worth the money, madam,” said Carroll without hesitation.

“It is made of whole skins, of course? I am particular about that. That is what the paper said.”

“I cannot guaranty that,” said Carroll, flushing hotly.

“But the advertisement says so. Lithgow Bros. & Mack wouldn’t say so if it weren’t so, would they?”

Carroll bit his lip and remained silent. Then recalling himself as he saw that his customer was taking off the cloak, he took another cloak from the pile and said,

“This cloak is of whole skins. I can guaranty it.”

“But it is inferior in every way. I will think about it a little longer.”

Carroll saw that she was miffed, and knew that his truth -telling, or the difference between that and the advertisement, had spoiled a trade. But he knew that he had done exactly right.

Mrs. Pendleton going out was intercepted by Ben, who greeted her with the greatest cordiality. He had seen her at the cloak stand, and so he said pleasantly,

A MATTER OF BUSINESS.

“I trust you were able to be suited. We lose money on the cloaks but it is your gain.”

Mrs. Pendleton, who was diplomatic and a well-bred woman, answered that she would think about the cloaks, and decide a little later. Ben knew, however, with the fine instinct of the trader that something had happened. He sauntered over to the cloak stand.

“I noticed Mrs. Pendleton trying on a cloak,” he said to Carroll, concealing everything but a cheerful manner as he spoke.

“She didn’t buy,” said Carroll. “Said she might call again.”

“Perhaps she didn’t find a size,” suggested Ben. He had a delicate, careful way of approach to everybody and Carroll could not tell that he was on a scent for the cause of the trouble.

“She found the right size, but she wanted a wholeskin cloak of this fur. There were none left.”

“But this is whole skin,” said Ben with confidence. Now Ben knew it wasn’t, but he was resolved not to be put in the wrong by his clerk. He surmised instantly what had happened. Mrs. Pendleton had tested the advertisement and found it false. Carroll had also found out its character. But Ben was not disposed to

BY LYING.

swerve from a business course that no one had ever questioned.

Carroll said nothing, but cast down his eyes.

“If any cloaks have gotten among the lot that are not whole skin,” went on Ben, “it may have been by some mistake. But this is whole. It has Shane’s mark, too. However — ” He said no more but went smiling away. Carroll had not the least suspicion that he was angry. Ben was an adept in concealing his emotions.

Nevertheless, the next morning Carroll was needed in the furniture department. He thought it rather queer to be transferred. He felt certain that no one else among the clerks knew so much about fur cloaks as he did.

About Wednesday Ben incidentally remarked to Carroll that the trade was so dull the firm finally felt the need of curtailing somewhere. The next day this suggestion was repeated in a varied form. There was also a hint that it would be possible to re-organize the departments so as to get along with a smaller number of employes. Then, when pay-day came on Saturday there was a polite little note, regretting that the state of the trade compelled the firm to reduce the force, and giving him notice that after another week they

A MATTER OF BUSINESS.

would be obliged to dispense with his valuable services.

And so naturally and so skillfully was all this done that Carroll could not find it in his heart to believe that the cloak incident had the least thing to do with it. Nevertheless, it was true that by some different distribution of the help, Lithgow Bros. & Mack were able to supply Carroll’s place in such a manner that none of the friends he had in the store could really tell that there had been no reduction of the force after all.

More than this: Mrs. Pendleton being also a member of the First Church, was on good terms socially with the members of the firm. Ben was wise enough to be able to remedy the blunder — as he called it — of his clerk. He was successful enough in his explanations to induce the lady to return to the store where, unknown to herself, she got a much better bargain than she had refused. Ben had the business shrewdness to sell her the kind of cloak he had advertised, at the same price he had fixed for the pieced furs, and she got the impression, without the necessity of telling any actual lies, that the clerk had been mistaken, and that all of the offered cloaks were equally valuable. It was a slight loss to the firm, but it kept a good customer.

BY LYING.

“What has become of Paul Carroll ?” asked Mr. Mack, missing at length the well-liked clerk from the store.

“Paul made a little slip and we laid him off,” said Ben.

“I don’t remember to have been consulted,” said Mack, a trifle sharply. “What did he do, anyhow?”

“Spoiled a trade, nearly lost us a good customer — Mrs. Pendleton.”

Mack inquired into the matter closely. But Ben was shrewd enough to put the best construction on his own action. He had more than once been made uncomfortable by Mack’s insistence in wishing to know all the little details of transactions in the firm.

Mack was not satisfied and went to Carroll. Carroll told him about the cloak incident, but added that he was not discharged for that matter so far as he knew.

Mr. Mack therefore went off, and on his own account went through the whole question of the cloak sale. Summing up all the things he learned, he began to be troubled and even startled. He found not less than seven distinct falsehoods in the advertisement. They were veiled, they were the common falsehoods of trade. Few of them would ever be detected. Some of them

A MATTER OF BUSINESS.

were of a kind that, being so common, deceive no one very much. But they were falsehoods. Mr. Mack went home to his young wife, whom he found rocking to sleep their first baby.

“Now Theo, what, pray, are you scowling about? Look into this cradle now and smile, you sober man!”

she said, kissing him as he came in.

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His little frown vanished as he felt the warmth of the cheery place. But it came back a little later.

“It is the business, of course, dear,” he said when she again charged him with the frown. “I have been thinking, and I think I shall do more than think.”

“The first thing though is to tell me,” said the little mother softly. “Speak it out now, and see if I don’t get the frown out of your forehead, quick.”

“I will, of course. Very well, I am thinking that I do not intend To get my money by lying. And I think that is settled.”

“Who ever charged you with that now?” said Mrs. Mack, half ready to cry.

“Oh, no one; no one! I didn’t mean to say that, either. Let me tell you.” He went on and told her the whole story.

“And Paul Carroll has been turned off, without the

BY LYING.

least doubt, because he didn’t lie about that cloak. Ben doesn’t mean to do wrong, very likely; but he does do wrong. It is in the business; and so many do it and have done it so long that he sees no wrong in it, I presume. But I am a disciple — a poor one, I know — of my Master; and I am bound I will do my business with Him in company or I won’t do business at all. I know Ben. He won’t take advice from me about moral questions. He is very skillful and brainy, but he is also very proud. If I tell him what I think of this way of advertising, he will be as pleasant about it as he always is, but he will see to it that I don’t get any opportunity to work a reform at the store. He and Alcott are agreed, and they have the capital. So, now, you see the conclusion. If I want to be honest I have to get out.”

“Out of the firm? 0 Theo!”

She did cry then. She believed — they both believed — that Mack’s one great chance for future success lay in the connection he had made with the prosperous firm of Lithgow Bros.

Chapter II. He Isn’t Honest

BOUT the time of the incident that we have related the plans of pastor Foss were completed for holding a succession of meetings by way of a late winter campaign. Owing to some disinclination of certain useful members to engage in a revival, the movement was not called by that name. Nevertheless the gentleman whom the pastor called in to assist, had a distinct desire to bring about a revival, of the sort that he plainly defined in his first address on Sunday morning. Before his coming Mr. Foss had carefully looked up his work in other places. He was reputed to be a man of great practical sagacity, and had been successful. His name was Ray — Rev. Milton Ray — and he was a smallish, thin-faced, pleasant-looking gentleman, without anything of the clerical air, and lacking entirely in any of the marks of a professional evangelist.

Mr. Ray came a week in advance of the meetings.

HE ISN'T HONEST.

He visited pastor Foss, and spent the entire week in making himself familiar with the conditions of the church.

The first man he heard about and the member he heard about most, during this preliminary survey, was Ben Lithgow. Ben had entered into the pastor’s plans from the first, and had been upon the special committee to correspond with Mr. Ray. He invited the visiting clergyman to his house, and talked over with him all the affairs of the church. He was in frequent conference with both the ministers at the pastor’s house. With his brother Alcott, who was by no means so able as Ben but who held official position also in the church, Ben used his great influence to induce the young men in the town, and especially those within easy touch with the church, to plan to attend the special meetings.

In the midst of all this planning Ben was disturbed by the announcement of the junior partner that he had decided to withdraw from the firm. Mr. Mack having prepared himself to do the thing, was ready, if he had been asked, to state his reasons. But Ben and Alcott both had known for some time that Mack was not in sympathy with some of their business methods, and though the decision of Mr. Mack to retire was unex-

A MATTER OF BUSINESS.

pected, Ben did not press him for a reason. The business relation was so definite that such a step had been provided for in the partnership contract, and Mr. Mack was able to receive his capital and current proceeds without the necessity of making an inventory.

The dissolution was announced on the very day on which Mr. Bay’s meetings were to begin. Thus far Mr. Bay had scarcely heard of Mr. Mack. But Mr. Mack, too, was in his place that evening in the great vestry of the First Church. There had been a good canvass of the members, and the meetings began with a very large attendance. After the first meeting some of the influential members of the church remained to meet Mr. Bay.

“Where is Brother Lithgow?” asked the pastor when they had come together in the study.

No one seemed to know. Perhaps he had not been informed. Perhaps he had been obliged to go home early. Mr. Foss felt that it was a distinct loss to the conference.

“His judgment is excellent in these matters,” he remarked thoughtfully. “And he is unusually interested.”

“It is but a short distance. I’ll go and see if he

HE ISN'T HONEST .

can come back,” suggested Deacon Park, about to start off.

“That will hardly be necessary,” said Mr. Ray with some decision in his manner. “I only wished to have a little talk, that any one of you can convey to Brother Lithgow if necessary.”

Pastor Foss wondered if Mr. Ray appreciated the influence and good judgment of Mr. Lithgow.

“He will be ready to co-operate in anything we wish to carry out, I am sure,” said the pastor, yielding the point. “But I wish he had stayed. I know he is ready to organize the young men of his class and others for aggressive work.”

“As to that, I suggest that we are not quite ready yet. We shall have to tarry in Jerusalem a little longer. Things almost organize themselves when the Spirit falls on men. My judgment is that we would better do our work for some days yet in the church. Perhaps the world will be coming here without much urgency, if we in the church get at this business in the right way.”

“If we do no going out at all,” said Mr. Mack, who had ventured to remain to the conference, “such preaching as we listened to this evening will do us all

A MATTER OF BUSINESS.

good. It did bear a little hard on the sins of the church, I admit, but I believe it was the truth.”

“If we don’t have too much of it,” interpolated Deacon Park.

“I think I shall be able to tell when we are ready to go out and invite the people to the meetings. Meanwhile the best revival we can experience will be in the church, I am sure,” said Mr. Ray. “I see some things in the way already, and they must be removed before we shall be able to reach sinners outside.”

Mr. Ray talked more, but he was careful not to tell what these things were that he believed to be in the way. He insisted, however, that the invitations to come to the meeting on the next evening should be limited to the membership of the church. If others came in they would be welcome, but there was to be no concerted effort as yet to bring in the unconverted masses of Jacques City.

“He may be right,” said Mr. Foss to Deacon Park as they parted that night, “But I have some idea the church would be stirred up quicker by filling up the meetings with as many sinners as we can induce to come.”

“Not if he is going to dress us all down like that

HE ISN’T HONEST.

for a week. That better be done in private/’ said the deacon with a laugh.

No one ever knew the real reason for the absence of Ben Lithgow from that conference. His first impression on hearing Mr. Ray had been a disappointment. He had hoped to hear from the ideas that he had himself advanced regarding the special meetings. He had not been able to endorse the evangelist’s plain speech about church members. But in the course of the evening the general tenor of the evangelist’s talk, more than any particular thing he had said, began to make Mr. Lithgow feel uncomfortable. It seemed evident that Mr. Ray did not mean to utilize at present the plans that Mr. Lithgow had suggested. In his deeper consciousness Ben felt some half-conscious antagonism. It might not have arisen from Mr. Ray’s failure to carry out his plans, but this probably helped. To himself he thought all the way home that the evangelist promised to prove an impracticable and overradical teacher. Radicalism in any direction did not approve itself to Ben. He held sagacious theories of expediency, and believed that he was well acquainted with the wise ways of manipulating men. And he was sure to rate Mr. Ray down if he should prove unskillful

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in working all the policies and all the machinery of the occasion.

But pastor Foss learned more about Mr. Ray and his methods the next morning, and became disturbed about the prospect. The evangelist called early and went at the matter at once.

“I recognize your office here as pastor, Brother Foss,” said Mr. Ray with a pleasant smile. “I want to work to your approval and have your co-operation. That has all been said before, you know. But I have found out some obstacles, and we must remove them if I am to go on. I had a good purpose in taking a week in Jacques City first. I have been looking around.”

“I hope there is nothing insuperable in the way, surely,” said Mr. Foss. “Tell me frankly, if you please, what is on your mind.”

“Brother Lithgow,” said Mr. Ray. “He and some others.”

“What? You don’t mean — that Brother Lithgow — is an obstacle?”

“Yes. The largest one. There are others. But he is the chief, because he has a certain kind of influence. We shall not have any revival unless he keeps out of it.”

HE ISN'T HONEST.

“Aren’t you making a mistake? He is one of the consecrated and intelligent men of the First Church. We should be lost without him.”

“I understand how you feel about Brother Lithgow. But, pardon me, he isn’t the man to lead in this work.”

Pastor Foss, red in the face, began to feel that he had made a mistake in Mr. Ray. He had jumped to conclusions and had misjudged the ablest helper in the church. Unless he could he disabused of this idea the work would be in danger.

“I think you must have been somehow wrongly informed. Who has questioned Brother Lithgow’s ability, or judgment, perhaps?”

“'No one but myself so far as I know. Nevertheless I have no doubts about the matter. I suggest if there is to be any organizing of the young men for this work he ought to leave that to me, and to those whom I will pick out. I have two in my mind already.”

“But that is Brother Lithgow’s especial gift. He has more influence among the young men of the city than almost any other man.”

“That is probably true — influence of a sort. Nevertheless, I cannot use him. He must be made to feel that, so far as active work is concerned, he is to remain

A MATTER OF BUSINESS.

quiet in this campaign. I look to you to aid in this matter. For one thing, I shall offend him and make him angry before long, if he comes to the meetings. He will not show it to anybody, but if he remains at the front he will not long work in harmony with me.”

“I am sure you misjudge Brother Lithgow. He works smoothly with everybody. He is the most peaceable man in the whole congregation. I know him well, Brother Ray. Why do you say these things?”

“It is my business to find out men. If Mr. Lithgow were a common sinner, outside the church, he is the very first man I would attempt to convert. If I succeeded I should then have a good many more. But being inside, and ready to he thrown at me, so to speak, I can’t use him. Why not? Well, first, he isn’t honest.”

“That is going too far, Brother Ray. It won’t do to say that in Jacques City. He stands among the highest in his integrity.”