pered by want of proper
place to house business. I have seen a prosperous merchant move across
a street and fail. I have seen a splendid business carried around a
corner and utterly destroyed.

If this is so with those who have choice of places, how much more must
it be so with us who must take what we can get, and what wonder is it
that we utterly fail, or that we imbibe the squalor and shiftlessness
of the miserable places we must occupy. All life is subject to the
same general physiological influences. Man and plant alike flourish in
the sunshine, and fade and weaken in the damp and dark. Our business
languishes as much from environment as from any other cause. Trade is
a sensitive thing and increases or decreases according to fixed laws,
and there must be more than goods to attract active patronage. Grant
us this freedom of location and our road to success through business
ventures would be much shortened.

I do not lay our failures to external causes alone. There are other
and as grave ones within. Certain economic exactions must be complied
with before success is ever assured. Some do not choose the pursuits
for which they are best fitted, but strike out boldly and confidently,
forgetful that adaptability is always an essential factor in success.
Some are unable to carry out their plans from lack of capital. This
has also kept many from getting the business training that is so
necessary, and we therefore have less merchants and more storekeepers.
We must know that business is progressive and demands an ideal. The
whole system of Southern commercial life has been revolutionized, but
the revolution is the product of a great evolution.

Under these conditions, have our business and professional men done
their best to attract and hold the patronage of our people, or have
they been content to drift along and catch whatever may come their
way? Have they realized that they have obligations as well as those to
whom they would sell? They have not done all of their duty, nor have
they been as progressive as they might have been. Yet when we think of
the severe handicaps they have had, we feel that they have done
remarkably well. Life is a continual comparison, to-day with
yesterday, this year with last. In the comparison we see better
merchants, better stores, and higher business ideals among us. These
appeal to us very sensibly, and we give more and more liberally of our
patronage.

We are apt to forget the terrible h