e conduct he was in a
measure responsible, to take ardent spirits, he should be lending his
influence to continue a practice, or he should at least be conniving at
a practice, which was destroying more lives, making more mothers widows,
and children orphans, than famine, pestilence, and sword: a practice
which was destroying by thousands, and tens of thousands, not only the
bodies, but the _souls_ of men, rendering them, and their children after
them, wretched for this world, and the world to come. "No," said he, "I
will clear my hands of this enormous guilt. I will not by practice
encourage, or by silence, or having men in my employment who take ardent
spirits, connive at this deadly evil." However, he found no difficulty
in hiring men, and of the best kind. And when his neighbors saw, that by
giving one dollar a month more than others, he could hire as many men as
he pleased, they gave up that objection. But they said, it was bad
policy; for the men would not do so much work, and he would, in the
end, be a loser. But he told them that, although they might not at first
do quite so much, he presumed that they would in the end do more. But if
they should not, only let them do, said he, what they easily can, and I
shall be satisfied. My Maker does not require of me any more than I can
do without rum, (for he used no ardent spirits himself) and I shall
require no more of them. His men went to work. And his business
prospered exceedingly. His men were remarkably uniform in their temper
and deportment; still, and peaceable.

He found them every day alike, and he could always safely trust them.
What he expected to have done, he found _was_ done, in good season, and
in the best manner. His men never made so few mistakes, had so few
disputes among themselves; they never injured and destroyed so few
tools, found so little fault with their manner of living, or were, on
the whole, so pleasant to one another, and to their employer. The men
appeared, more than ever before, like brethren of the same family,
satisfied with their business, contented, and happy.

At the close of the year, one of them came to Mr. B----, and, with tears
in his eyes, said, "Sir, I thought that you were very hard, in keeping
us from drinking rum. I had always been accustomed to it, and I thought
that I could not do without it. And for the first three months," said
he, "it was hard, very hard. I had such a _caving in_ here"--putting his
hands up to his side