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Ww L PARRISH HARDWARE. MERCHANT PORT PERRY ind get the ind you pox, w fl: ors--also alt nds of summer : | him for charging so much, '[after all this abuse, they buy on credit nn These stores all haveph heir mil o- | der departments, and "out catalogues by the million to o man and woman whose address can obtain. . The result of their hd is ¥eéry. detrimental to the retail mer- scrape up money enough to pay fares| ne one of these conglomerations and have some left to buy goods, will take | trip just as often as possible; spend leave the country merchant with his {goods Tying on the shelves to go out | of style. : oa, as a general rule, he sells 'them | This, in spite of the fact better goods at less prices than - do ; these mammoth humbugs: © Even those who, cannot afford to to the departmental store, and have | buy from .the country merchant, tersally quoting the prices adver- tised by these stores, and growling at Often, and want the merchant to wait till the next generation for his pay. Why don't the merchants get to- gether to regulate these monsters, and {limit the scope of their operations when they try to hog it all? The mail order business is about as | harmful as the departmental store to the country store, in fact even more so in'remote districts so far distant as { { 1 to preclude a trip to the departmental store. The mail order man'can send his voluminous catalogues from Hali- fax to Vancouver, to every person whether living in a mansion or a dug- lout, and coax orders out of them by specious promises. There 1s probably more money made by ail order houses than by the big stores, as their expenses are lesss, buy they both make it by skimming the public, and robbing the country deal er of the trade that 15 legitimately his. Why don't the country merchants all over the land club together and | secure legislation that will confine the 'mail order business within reasona'le Sounds? No one else will do it for | The credit system is the next most poling evil that confronts the retail | country merchant. Itis simply im- possible for him to do business on a | cash basis for any length of time. He J| might start a store and sell at SEactly Gx postpones payi his debts: 'the man chant in the country: * Those who can; every cent they have with them and], | fo they are = dependable = | Nature merchant in the is comin will: 'be vemedied. Tt: : by #ugSoncers' associations. 'in his letter, and has dealt hem in his own manner. A perusal of what he has written t] will reveal the answer to his own | queries. It should not be surprising to him or to any other person who y | chants, that the man who auctions store goods does. not get a kindly re- ception. This class of auction is on- 4 'possible becanse of the failure of some merchant to be 'able to cope with the difficulties which Mr. Sydie | has. outlined. Somebody nearly al- ways has to fail before goods can be offered for sale at a rate on the dollar. Once i in a great while a man comes along who is willing to sell goods at the price he paid for them or less, but not'often. More frequently the man man who auctions store goods has boughgea bankrupt stock, and offers it to the public; knowing quite well that open competition in bidding will en- sure prices that will amply repay him for any genérous im u'ses he may have had. Indeed, the public often reward him by bidding the full retail price for the goods he offers at auc- tion. But the public know that the auc- tion method of doing businass cannot be permanent--that sooner or later it must come to an end, and they will be compelled to return to the mer- 'chant who has supplied them 'with goods in days of prosperity or in days of adversity; who has given them credit when he had to stint himself to pay the wholesaler for the goods his customers have bought on credit; and who "often sells them better goods for less money than do the departmental stores." s Because of these facts many people are loyal to the merchants with whom they do business. "Real bargains" may be dangled before their eyes, but they go on trading at the old store, knowing that dependable customers assist greatly in making dependable merchants, eis If the difficulties described by Mr. Sydie are ever to be remedied it will be when 'customers and merchants trust cach other Be Take thoroughly be- cause both classes have proved that The system is a difficult sub: ject with which to deal because Dame es very large; some- ¢ whole of busi- takes a- mean 1 st reposed in him "banks his money and who drifts into being a 'deadbeat, and These, On "A Dream of Church Union" BY ANOTHER CITIZEN. "Behold, this dreamer cometh!" said Joseph's brethren as they saw the young man in the distance. "Come," they added, "Tet us kill him." Joseph's brethren were strongly practical men and quite averse to social changes. "We have always," said *{ knows. the difficulties of retail mer-tthey, "been accustomed to the child- ren being servants to the father, so long as the father lives, and to the younger being obedient to the older. That is the custom, too, which we find among other peoples. That, there- fore, must be the will of God. But here is this youth preaching an entire- ly different social doctrine. Accord- ing to him it may sometimes be right that the younger should take preced- ence of the older, that the son, even, may at times rule over the father. Of course such a doctrine is absurd and can only lead to anarchy. As practi- cal men we must see to it"that this nonsense is stopped and the quickest way to stop it is to put an end to the one in whose brain it has originated." When we réad the old Biblical story we say, with the horror which tradition expects of us, "What wicked men 1" And yet the story of Joseph simply illustrates what has happened over and over and over again, under differ- ent names, at different times; in differ ent places, all through history. The poets have shadowed forth new ideals, the prophets have called forth essential principles from behind obsolete forms, but the practical work-a-day has pre- ferred the old ideals and has laid the emphasis on the form rather than the principle. It has starved- the poets and stoned the prophets." "Who are these that would turn the world upside down?" it has asked. : Yes, who are they? Strange to say, they have proved to be the really im- portant people in the world's life. Our progress, our civilization, have been due to them. We stand where we stand to-day through the realizia- tion of dreams. "And Joseph was governor over all the land of Egypt. . . . And Joseph's brethren came and bowed themselves to him with their faces to the earth." What a revelation to those practical brethren! They saw the impossible happen without the heavens falling. 000 columns of this paper an atticlé on "Church Union," would be, we may be sure, too modest the prophets. ever, he has the saving quality of vision. He is at least of the schools of the prophets. He has been able to conceive of a state of things differ- ent from and better than the present. He has had a dream. What shall we say of the dream? Shall we dismiss it as idle? Shall we treat it as fit only for the realm of visions? Shall we say lightly of him who has had it, "Behold, a dreamer 1" ~ {Shall we align ourselves with the "| practical brethren of Joseph? How rondeiul dre these e gractiea Whoever he is, how-; Christianity. Recently there appeared in the | . The writer of it' to have himself hailed as one among people! - So swift to exclaim: "Ime possible!" So ready to reap advan< tage for themselves when the thimy which "they have condemned is ac complished. . It is never they who blaze new. trails. It is never they who discover new continents. Your men who smile with satisfied pride to be called practical, prove often, on ex- amination, toebe men who dislike: effort, who prefer to follow the beaten: paths because there they find the lines: of least resistance. After all, those: who are truly practical, who accom- plish things worth while, who add to the world's welfare, are those who see visions. The dream that was brought before us last week has been inspired by the broad outlook of our modern seers. "A Dream of Church Union" the writer called it. But the union he had in view is not the petty concep= tion which finds its justification in a lighter burden upon the purse. His union 1s to be the outward symbol of a wider union. In the dreamer's eye Church Unity and Civic Unity are one. The conception is not a new one. It is as old as Christianity itself, The central teaching of the Gospels 1s the: foundation of the Kingdom of God,. and that in a real, not a metaphorical sense. The given to the church was to build up a society--tos include the mission world -- which should be guided by common ideals, which should work towards common society which should be: spiritually (and visibly) a unit. Is it to be believed for one moment that that mission is being carried out so long as the present divisions in the Is not the mission in. the hands of those who are striving to remove the barriers of separation. Can we, also, in any sense, be such a: society as the Founder of our religion: mtended so long as we fancy that religion is a matter of forms and cere- monies and Sabbatic observances?" Socialism comes nedrer to the mean-- ing of the Master's teaching than that. Let us welcome, then, this "Dreamy of Church Union." Let us welcome: all such dreams and visions which to- day are many. They indicate the: spread of a new leaven. They are the offspring of a new spirit. They show the growth of a better and truer understanding of the meaning of whole ends -- a church exist; Cr AW tee School Report The following is the report of S. S.. No. 8, Cartwright, for the month of. April... Names in order of merit. Sr. IV--Elton Wright, Lily Wray: Sr. [1I--Fred. Hamilton, Vera For~ der, Arvilla Alldred, absent, Sr. II--Annie Hamilton, Davidson. Jr. I1---John Hamilton. Sr." I--Clarence Ferguson, Arvilla. Bradburn, Sr. Pr.--Lloyd Alldred, George All- 'dred. Absent, 'Beatrice Wray, Grace: White, Luella Ferguson, Willie Hamil ton. Jr. Pr.--Lorne Bradburn, Hamilton bs W. M. B. Elliott, Teacher, Lance Percy Flowers in boxes and pots for ding out, for sale at the STAR C Off PALA if SP