t. Business comes to him; he does not have to drum for it. His day is
agreeably, even if sympathetically, occupied with the troubles of other
people, and nothing is so easy to bear as the troubles of other people.
After he has had his breakfast, and read over the "Constitution," he has
nothing to do but to "govern" for a few hours, that is, to decide about
things on general principles, and with little personal application, and
perhaps about large concerns which nobody knows anything about, and which
are much easier to dispose of than the perplexing details of private
life. He has to vote several times a day; for giving a decision is really
casting a vote; but that is much easier than to scratch around in all the
anxieties of a retail business. Many men who would make very respectable
Presidents of the United States could not successfully run a retail
grocery store. The anxieties of the grocery would wear them out. For
consider the varied ability that the grocery requires-the foresight about
the markets, to take advantage of an eighth per cent. off or on here and
there; the vigilance required to keep a "full line" and not overstock, to
dispose of goods before they spoil or the popular taste changes; the
suavity and integrity and duplicity and fairness and adaptability needed
to get customers and keep them; the power to bear the daily and hourly
worry; the courage to face the ever-present spectre of "failure," which
is said to come upon ninety merchants in a hundred; the tact needed to
meet the whims and the complaints of patrons, and the difficulty of
getting the patrons who grumble most to pay in order to satisfy the
creditors. When the retail grocer wakens in the morning he feels that his
business is not going to come to him spontaneously; he thinks of his
rivals, of his perilous stock, of his debts and delinquent customers. He
has no "Constitution" to go by, nothing but his wits and energy to set
against the world that day, and every day the struggle and the anxiety
are the same. What a number of details he has to carry in his head
(consider, for instance, how many different kinds of cheese there are,
and how different people hate and love the same kind), and how keen must
be his appreciation of the popular taste. The complexities and annoyances
of his business are excessive, and he cannot afford to make many
mistakes; if he does he will lose his business, and when a man fails in
business (honestly), he loses his nerve,