The

less, are reformed entirely; and system, which before was irksome, has become to them a second nature. proprietor's desk stands at the further end of the store, raised on a platform facing the front, from which he can see all the operations in each section of the retail department. From this desk run tubes, connecting with each department of the store, from the garret to the cellar; so that if a person in any department, either porter, retail or wholesale clerk, wishes to communicate with the employer, he can do so without leaving his station. Pages are kept in each department to take the bill of parcels, together with the money paid, and return the bill receipted, and change, if any, to the customer. So that the salesman is never obliged to leave the counter; he is at all times ready, either to introduce a new article, or watch that no goods are taken from his counter excepting those accounted for.

"His peculiar method of casting the percentage of a clerk's salary on his sales, enables him at all times, coupling it with the clerk's general conduct and the style of goods he is selling, to form a just estimate of the relative value of the services of each in proportion to his salary. By the alphabetic arrangement of departments, numbering of shelves, and form of the tools, any clerk, no matter if he has not been in the store more than an hour, can arrange every article in its proper place; and at any time, if inquired of respecting them, or referred to by any clerk, the proprietor is able to speak understandingly of the capabilities and business qualities of any of his employees. He has brought up some of the best merchants at present engaged in the trade, who do honour to the profession as well as their tutor."

ANECDOTE FOR YOUNG MEN ENTERING
COMMERCIAL LIFE.

A CORRESPONDENT of the London Youth's Instructor relates an anecdote which we transfer to this book for the especial benefit of young men entering mercantile life.

"I once knew a young man,” said an eminent preacher the other day in a sermon to young men, "that was commencing life as a clerk. One day his employer said to him, 'Now, to-morrow that cargo of cotton must be got out and weighed, and we must have a regular account of it.'

This was the first

"He was a young man of energy. time he had been intrusted to superintend the execution of this work. He made his arrangements over night, spoke to the men about their carts and horses; and, resolved to begin very early in the morning, he instructed the labourers to be there at half-past four o'clock. His master comes in, and, seeing him sitting in the counting-house, looks very black, supposes that his commands had not been executed.

"I thought,' said the master, 'you were requested to get out that cargo this morning.'

“It is all done, sir,' said the young man; and here is the account of it.'

"He never looked behind him from that momentnever! His character was fixed, confidence was established. He was found to be the man to do the thing

with promptness.

He very soon came to be one who could not be spared; he was as necessary to the firm He was a religious man, and

as any of the partners. went through a life of great benevolence, and at his death was able to leave his children an ample fortune. He was not smoke to the eye, nor vinegar to the teeth, but the contrary."

IDLENESS.

LEISURE may be a very pleasant garment to look at, but it is a very bad one to wear. The ruin of millions may be traced to it. Who of our readers who is out of business and poor, or troubled in some other respect, will not agree with us? How many, with too much leisure, take too much of something else, thus making gloom deeper and misfortunes more! The truth is, that the condition of man is, at the best, but a lamentable piece of patchwork, and the less we ponder upon it the better are we. Drink will never drive the heavy thought off. If we rely on drinking solely, the sure return of mental activity brings horror back increased. Business of some kind that will employ us constantly is the better remedy. You that are sick of the rascalities of men, depressed by reverses, discouraged by lack of sympathy, though you go to employment like a child to an emetic, or a horse to a second quid of tobacco, persevere in labour, and you will soon be more

cheerful, life will be less of a trouble, its enjoyments keener, and thoughts of death will not so often crowd upon the brain. Shun leisure, that treacherous abyss whose brink is crowned with flowers. Shun all that may tend to alienate your inclinations from that industry which is, and has been, the doom and duty of all men since Cain. Shun all that tends to encrust your energies with the rust of sloth; for sorrow and sloth are the handmaids of despair. Better toil for little profit, or die, than to drag on that miserable existence which is passed in the demoralizing hours of a desponding leisure. Look to it! The rich indolent finds that the wheels of life run heavily, slowly with him; but the sluggard who is poor, has nothing to console him. The rich drone, though he lives to no purpose, keeps wealth between him and the wrongs and contempt of the world; but he who is poor and idle too, may well account himself a wretch. He hath need of the intercession of all good angels to keep him from the webs of vice, the tyranny of the heartless, and a grave of frightful associations.

COMPETITION IN TRADE.

COMPETITION in trade is considered the life of business. We do not pretend to set up our opinions in opposition to the established and acknowledged proverbs of our fathers; but we do differ in some particulars with

the spirit of the adage quoted above. It might be qualified and amended. Honourable competition is a means of creating trade, and develops the capacity of men. But that competition that seeks every means in its power to monopolize trade by reducing prices, is far from the life of business, but is, in fact, its very death. Fair, upright, honourable dealing, will always be sure to meet its reward—although the returns may not be immediate, and it is better to compete fairly and openly, than secretly and covertly. We live in excitement, and life is a constant battle.

We are of those who hold to the sentiment, "Live, and let live," and we consider it a golden rule. It is at variance with that motive which prompts a man to undersell his neighbour, for the purpose of obtaining his customers, and deserves to be practised more than it is. There is no selfishness in it; but, on the contrary, a spirit of liberality and Christianity worthy of our attention and adoption. If business men were to study their true interest, there would be less competition among us than there is at present, and there would be fewer complaints about dull times, and not so many failures as now. The spirit of competition, when carried to excess, tends to degrade men, and make them heartless, selfish, and even cruel; and, if not checked, leads to distrust, enmity, and uncharitableness. A disposition to fair dealing does much to destroy it, and makes our situation less irksome than if we engage in it with full determination to advance our own interests to the injury of others. There is a living, and more, for all of us, without endeavouring to deprive each other of the means of livelihood; and, if