day, hour by hour,
utter what they _know_ to be wrong. You say that you are selling at
less than cost. If so, then it is right to say it. But did that thing
cost you less than what you ask for it? If not, then you have lied.
You say that article cost you twenty-five dollars. Did it? If so,
then all right. If it did not, then you have lied. Suppose you are
a purchaser. You are "beating down" the goods. You say that that
article, for which five dollars is charged, is not worth more than
four. Is it worth no more than four dollars? Then all right. If it be
worth more, and, for the sake of getting it for less than its value,
you wilfully depreciate it, you have lied. _You_ may call it a sharp
trade. The recording angel writes it down on the ponderous tomes
of eternity--"Mr. So and So, merchant on Water street, or in Eighth
street, or in State street; or Mrs. So and So, keeping house on Beacon
street, or on Madison avenue, or Rittenhouse square, told one
lie." You may consider it insignificant, because relating to an
insignificant purchase. You would despise the man who would falsify
in regard to some great matter, in which the city or the whole country
was concerned; but this is only a box of buttons, or a row of pins,
or a case of needles. Be not deceived. The article purchased may be so
small you can put it in your vest pocket, but the sin was bigger than
the Pyramids, and the echo of the dishonor will reverberate through
all the mountains of eternity.

You throw out on your counter some specimens of handkerchiefs. Your
customer asks, "Is that all silk? no cotton in it?" You answer, "It
is all silk." Was it all silk? If so, all right. But was it partly
cotton? Then you have lied. Moreover, you lost by the falsehood. The
customer, though he may live at Lynn, or Doylestown, or Poughkeepsie,
will find out that you defrauded him, and next spring, when he again
comes shopping, he will look at your sign and say: "I will not try
there. That is the place where I got that handkerchief." So that, by
that one dishonest bargain, you picked your own pocket and insulted
the Almighty.

Would you dare to make an estimate of how many falsehoods in trade
were yesterday told by hardware men, and clothiers, and fruit-dealers,
and dry-goods establishments, and importers, and jewellers, and
lumbermen, and coal-merchants, and stationers, and tobacconists? Lies
about saddles, about buckles, about ribbons, about carpets, about
gloves, about c